Engineering Lead - Food Plant in Chirk

Engineering Lead

Location:

Chirk, Clwyd, LL14 5LT

Rate: £53.22ph - £66.61ph Umbrella (Depending on Experience)

Contract:

Initial 6-Month Contract

Hours:

36 Hours per Week, Monday to Friday

CS Technical Recruitment are recruiting for an experienced Engineering Lead to join a key manufacturing facility based in Chirk, Clwyd.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a senior engineering professional to take ownership of engineering operations within a complex and challenging heavy process environment. The successful candidate will lead the site's engineering strategy, drive a preventative maintenance culture, implement Lean principles, and help shape future investment plans for a facility that plays a critical role within the company's wider manufacturing network.

This role would suit an established Engineering Manager, Engineering Lead or Senior Maintenance Manager with experience in food, chemical, packaging, FMCG, automotive or other heavy process manufacturing environments.

The Chirk facility is a unique manufacturing operation, acting as one of the first stages of the chocolate manufacturing process.

The site receives and processes cocoa beans, converting them into semi-finished products which are supplied to other manufacturing facilities, as well as producing cocoa powder products for customer distribution.

Operations are split across both process and packaging, with approximately two-thirds of the site focused on processing activities and one-third dedicated to packaging operations.

The manufacturing process includes:

• Cocoa bean handling and storage in silos
• Pasteurisation processes
• Large-scale roasting operations
• Milling, pressing and blending systems
• Automated packing and distribution facilities

The site presents a fascinating engineering challenge, combining modern manufacturing practices with legacy equipment. Some of the original roasting assets date back to the site's opening in 1968, creating a diverse asset base requiring strong engineering leadership, reliability planning and investment strategy.

As Engineering Lead, you will be responsible for the overall engineering performance of the facility, leading multidisciplinary engineering teams across mechanical, electrical and instrumentation disciplines.

You will drive the site's maintenance transformation programme, moving engineering activities from a reactive approach to a proactive preventative and predictive maintenance culture, whilst championing Lean Manufacturing principles throughout the plant.

You will also play a key role in developing long-term asset management strategies, capital investment roadmaps and business cases to secure future investment across the site.

• Lead, coach and develop engineering, maintenance and technical teams
• Manage engineering resource planning and capability development
• Provide technical leadership across complex engineering challenges
• Drive a culture of accountability, engagement and continuous improvement
• Collaborate with Production, Quality, Supply Chain and HSE teams

• Champion Lean Manufacturing methodologies across the site
• Implement and sustain:
  • TPM
  • 5S
  • Kaizen
  • SMED
  • Value Stream Mapping
  • Root Cause Analysis
• Eliminate waste and improve operational efficiency
• Monitor and improve key metrics including:
  • OEE / Global Efficiency
  • MTBF
  • MTTR

Continue the transition from reactive to preventative and predictive maintenance

Develop structured maintenance strategies for critical assets

Utilise SAP CMMS to optimise maintenance planning and execution

Introduce and develop condition-based monitoring techniques

Improve…