AD Site Lead Operator

AB Agri Ltd; Leeds; On-site; GBP 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading agri-food company in Leeds is seeking a proactive Site Lead to oversee operations in their Anaerobic Digestion team. The role involves operating control systems, conducting inspections, and ensuring compliance with health and safety standards. Ideal candidates will have experience in engineering or operations, and a flexible approach to shift work. Competitive salary of £44,702.09 annually, along with pension contributions and benefits, is offered.

Benefits

Pension contributions matched up to 10%

Access to flexible benefits

Ongoing career development

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience in engineering, operations or a technical discipline.
• Experience with AD or lean manufacturing is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Operate control systems for plant start-up and shutdown.
• Conduct routine inspections and minor maintenance.
• Lead daily operations and support training of new staff.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety standards.

Skills

Experience in engineering

Ability to work independently

Comfortable working at height

Flexible approach to shift work

WAMITAB certification

Job description

Position Details

Job Title: Site Lead

Location: Leeds, South Yorkshire, UK

Contract & Hours: Permanent, Mon – Fri, 37.5 hours per week

Package includes Salary £44,702.09 a year, plus pension contributions matched up to 10% and access to flexible benefits that support your development, wellbeing, and everyday life.

We’re looking for a hands‑on, proactive AD Site Lead Operator to join our Anaerobic Digestion team in South Milford.

This is a dynamic role where you’ll lead operational activities, monitor plant performance, and support continuous improvement. You’ll also play a key part in maintaining site hygiene, managing feedstock deliveries, and supporting out‑of‑hours operations when needed.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Operate control systems for plant start‑up, shutdown, and testing.
• Conduct routine inspections and minor maintenance.
• Monitor equipment and log defects.
• Lead daily operations and support training of new staff.
• Ensure compliance with health, safety, and environmental standards.
• Manage feedstock acceptance and digestate loading.
• Support remote monitoring and emergency callouts.

What We’re Looking For

• Experience in engineering, operations, or a technical discipline.
• Ability to work independently and lead a team.
• Comfortable working at height and in confined spaces.
• Flexible approach to shift work, including weekends and bank holidays.
• WAMITAB/IOSH certification (or willingness to work toward).
• Experience in AD or lean manufacturing is a plus.

About The Company

Rewarding your passion: When you join us, you'll do meaningful work and be rewarded fairly for it. From annual salary reviews and incentive bonus, ongoing career development and enhanced family, financial and wellbeing benefits – these are just some of the ways we reward you - from day one.

We’re AB Agri – part of Associated British Foods (ABF plc) and we’re passionate about feeding the world responsibly and affordably by making quality animal feed, creating nutrition and technology‑based products, and offering data services for the agri‑food industry.

Application Notes

We hope you feel that AB Agri is somewhere you can thrive and so we’d love to hear from you. We get a lot of applications for our roles and sometimes need to close the process early, so register your details and upload your CV via our careers website as soon as you can – it will only take a few minutes.

When you do, we’ll ask you some equal opportunities questions just to ensure our recruitment process is inclusive – or show us areas we can improve. This information is anonymised, separate from your application and is never seen by the hiring panel. You can choose not to answer these questions and this won’t affect your application.

Apply today or contact our recruitment team for more information.

AB Agri group politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We don’t accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.