Engineering Maintenance Manager

SF Partners; Huddersfield; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

SF Partners is seeking an Engineering Maintenance Manager for a busy West Yorkshire manufacturing site. You will lead a small engineering team, stay hands-on with maintenance and fault-finding, and drive reliability improvements across mechanical and electrical systems.

Successful candidates will have a strong maintenance background in manufacturing, proven fault-finding skills, and a track record of implementing proactive maintenance.

Qualifications

• Strong background in industrial maintenance engineering within manufacturing.
• Excellent electrical and mechanical fault-finding abilities.
• Recognised electrical qualifications with practical mechanical experience.
• Hands-on with machinery including fabrication and welding.
• Experience with older machinery and proactive maintenance concepts.
• Knowledge of planned preventative maintenance and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Taking ownership of day-to-day engineering and maintenance activities, leading a small team while remaining actively involved in hands-on maintenance and fault-finding.
• Diagnosing and resolving electrical and mechanical breakdowns across a range of manufacturing machinery.
• Improving machine reliability, reducing recurring breakdowns, and ensuring repairs provide sustainable, long-term solutions.
• Developing and implementing effective planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedules, moving the department towards a more proactive approach.
• Assessing ageing machinery, identifying engineering risks, and prioritising repairs, improvements, and replacement requirements.
• Supporting mechanical repairs, fabrication, welding, and machinery modifications where required.
• Driving improved health and safety standards, ensuring safe working practices, machinery guarding and compliance with relevant legislation, including PUWER.
• Leading by example, developing the engineering team, challenging ineffective working practices, and building a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Working closely with Production and Operations to minimise downtime and improve manufacturing efficiency.
• Supporting engineering improvement projects, machinery modifications, and the introduction of new manufacturing processes.
• Managing external engineering contractors and specialist suppliers when additional technical support is required.

Skills

Maintenance engineering

Team leadership

Fault-finding

Electrical engineering

Mechanical engineering

Education

Electrical engineering qualifications

Job description

Engineering Maintenance Manager £50-60,000 | West Yorkshire | Monday-Friday, Days

Are you a technically strong Maintenance Engineer, Engineering Team Leader or Supervisor looking for an opportunity to take ownership, lead from the front and make a genuine difference?

SF Recruitment is working exclusively with an established manufacturing business in West Yorkshire to recruit an Engineering Maintenance Manager. This is not your typical management position. We're looking for someone who is first and foremost a hands‑on, technically capable engineer, with the confidence, drive, and attitude to lead a small engineering team and improve the reliability and performance of a busy manufacturing operation. This could be an excellent opportunity for an experienced Senior Maintenance Engineer, Engineering Supervisor or Team Leader who is ready to take the next step.

The Opportunity

This is a genuinely exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys solving engineering problems, improving machinery and taking pride in the environment they work in. The business operates a manufacturing facility with a varied range of established manufacturing equipment. Much of the machinery is well‑established and presents a variety of mechanical and electrical engineering challenges. There is significant opportunity to improve equipment reliability, reduce downtime and introduce a more structured, preventative approach to maintenance.

This won't be an easy role, and we're not looking to pretend otherwise. There are technical challenges to overcome, processes to improve and an engineering culture to develop. However, for the right individual, this is an opportunity to take real ownership, see the results of your work and play an important part in the future of the operation. You'll have the support of an experienced operational leadership team who recognise the improvements needed and are committed to making them happen.

What You'll Be Doing

• Taking ownership of day‑to‑day engineering and maintenance activities, leading a small team whilst remaining actively involved in hands‑on maintenance and fault‑finding.
• Diagnosing and resolving electrical and mechanical breakdowns across a range of manufacturing machinery, across mechanical and electrical production machinery.
• Improving machine reliability, reducing recurring breakdowns, and ensuring repairs provide sustainable, long‑term solutions.
• Developing and implementing effective planned preventative maintenance (PPM) schedules, moving the department towards a more proactive approach.
• Assessing ageing machinery, identifying engineering risks, and prioritising repairs, improvements, and replacement requirements.
• Supporting mechanical repairs, fabrication, welding, and machinery modifications where required.
• Driving improved health and safety standards, ensuring safe working practices, machinery guarding and compliance with relevant legislation, including PUWER.
• Leading by example, developing the engineering team, challenging ineffective working practices, and building a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Working closely with Production and Operations to minimise downtime and improve manufacturing efficiency.
• Supporting engineering improvement projects, machinery modifications, and the introduction of new manufacturing processes.
• Managing external engineering contractors and specialist suppliers when additional technical support is required.

What We're Looking For

Above all, we're looking for someone with strong engineering knowledge, the right attitude, and the confidence to take responsibility.

Ideally, you’ll bring:

• A strong background in industrial maintenance engineering within a manufacturing or production environment.
• Excellent electrical and mechanical fault‑finding capabilities, ideally electrically biased or genuinely multiskilled.
• Recognised electrical engineering qualifications, alongside practical mechanical engineering experience.
• The ability to work hands‑on with machinery, including mechanical repairs, fabrication and ideally welding.
• Experience working with older machinery, where problem‑solving and practical engineering knowledge are essential.
• An understanding of planned preventative maintenance, machine reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Some experience supervising, mentoring, or leading other engineers, although extensive management experience is not essential.
• A strong appreciation of machinery safety, risk assessments, safe systems of work and engineering compliance.
• The confidence to challenge existing practices, make decisions and take ownership of engineering issues.
• A genuine desire to improve equipment performance rather than simply respond to breakdowns.

Experience within industrial manufacturing, ideally involving complex production machinery would be advantageous, although we are open to candidates from other manufacturing backgrounds. IOSH or additional health and safety qualifications would be beneficial but are not essential.

The Person

Technical ability is essential, but personality and attitude will be just as important. We're looking for someone who takes genuine pride in engineering, enjoys getting stuck into problems and isn't afraid to challenge the way things have always been done. You'll be practical, resilient, and solutions‑focused, with the ability to balance immediate breakdown priorities against longer‑term improvements. You'll understand that successful engineering isn't simply about getting a machine running again. It's about keeping it running reliably, improving production capacity, reducing costs, and contributing to the wider success of the business. You won't need to have all the answers from day one, but you will need the initiative to find them, the confidence to make recommendations and the determination to follow improvements through.

If you're a strong Maintenance Engineer, Engineering Team Leader or Supervisor who feels ready to take ownership of an engineering function, we'd be keen to hear from you. Equally, if you're already managing a small engineering team but miss being hands‑on and want a role where you can genuinely influence the direction of a manufacturing operation, this could be an excellent fit.