Job Description:

Maintenance Engineer – Shift Lead

Location: Wiltshire
Salary: Up to £57,000
Shift Pattern: 4 on, 4 off | Permanent Days

We’re partnering with an established and rapidly growing food manufacturer that continues to invest heavily in its people, production capability, automation and engineering infrastructure.

Combining a proud manufacturing heritage with a forward-thinking approach to innovation and operational excellence, the business is entering another exciting stage of growth.

As part of this continued development, they’re now looking to appoint a Maintenance Engineer – Shift Lead to take responsibility for engineering performance across their permanent day shift.

Reporting to the Engineering Manager, you’ll lead a team of four Maintenance Engineers, coordinate engineering activity across the shift and act as the first point of escalation for complex technical issues.

The Opportunity

You’ll take responsibility for engineering delivery throughout the shift, ensuring planned and reactive maintenance activities are completed safely, efficiently and to a consistently high standard.

This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll remain closely involved with the machinery, supporting your engineers during complex breakdowns while providing the structure, communication and direction needed to deliver strong shift performance.

Working closely with Production and the wider Engineering team, you’ll help reduce downtime, improve equipment reliability and identify opportunities to strengthen engineering processes across the site.

What You’ll Be Responsible For

• Leading, motivating and supporting a team of four Shift Maintenance Engineers.
• Acting as the primary escalation point for complex breakdowns and technical issues.
• Providing hands-on electrical and mechanical fault-finding support.
• Ensuring planned engineering and preventative maintenance activities are completed on time and in full.
• Monitoring engineering performance and identifying opportunities to reduce downtime.
• Communicating shift performance, challenges and improvement opportunities to Production and Engineering Management.
• Maintaining accurate engineering documentation and delivering clear shift handovers.
• Supporting the installation, testing and commissioning of new production equipment.
• Driving compliance with Health & Safety, food safety, HACCP and GMP standards.
• Encouraging knowledge sharing and raising technical standards across the team.

We’re Looking For

We’re interested in experienced multi-skilled engineers who have progressed into a leadership, supervisory or senior engineering position within a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Relevant industry backgrounds could include:

• Food Manufacturing
• Drink Manufacturing
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
• FMCG

Most importantly, you’ll understand the demands of maintaining production machinery within a fast-moving manufacturing operation.

You’ll likely have experience as a:

• Engineering Maintenance Team Leader
• Shift Engineering Lead
• Engineering Supervisor
• Senior Maintenance Engineer
• Multi-Skilled Engineer ready to progress into leadership

What You’ll Bring

• A City & Guilds, NVQ Level 3 or equivalent qualification in electrical and mechanical engineering.
• Strong electrical and mechanical engineering capabilities.
• Previous experience leading, supervising or supporting a multi-skilled maintenance team.
• Strong experience maintaining and fault-finding on production machinery within a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• Experience working with process, production, packing or filling equipment.
• Knowledge of PLC systems, automation and electrical control circuits.
• The ability to organise shift resources, delegate effectively and manage competing priorities.
• A proactive approach to reliability, continuous improvement and downtime reduction.
• A genuine interest in coaching engineers and developing the technical capability of a team.

Experience working with pasteurisers or steam boilers would be advantageous, although it is not essential.

Why This Opportunity?

You’ll be joining an environment where engineering is genuinely valued and where continued investment in automation, production equipment and manufacturing capability is creating meaningful opportunities to improve performance.

Rather than simply responding to breakdowns, you’ll have genuine ownership of your shift and the opportunity to influence how the engineering team operates.

If you enjoy leading from the front, solving complex engineering problems and developing a high-performing maintenance team, we’d love to hear from you.