Engineering Manager

The Sterling Choice; Shoreham-by-Sea; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

The Sterling Choice is recruiting a senior Engineering Leader for a major food manufacturing site. You will direct engineering across the plant, buildings and capital projects, reporting to the Operations Director and sitting with senior leadership across the Manufacturing Excellence team.

You’ll shape maintenance, capital planning for 3–5 years, audit readiness, and a safety culture while leading a structured team, managing budgets, driving energy efficiency and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• A degree, HND, or equivalent in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering.
• NEBOSH or IOSH (essential).
• A formal management qualification (essential).
• Experience leading engineering teams in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• CDM training, a project management qualification, or Six Sigma Green Belt — desirable.

Responsibilities

• Leading and developing the Engineering team — coaching, succession planning, the works.
• Building and delivering planned maintenance and asset-care strategy across the site.
• Owning the 3–5 year capital plan, and delivering the projects within it.
• Keeping the site audit-ready and compliant, always — not just when someone's watching.
• Managing contractors, budgets, and site services.
• Driving energy, water, and efficiency improvements that actually move the needle.
• Championing a safety‑first culture that people believe in, not just follow.

Skills

Leadership experience

Engineering management

Education

Mechanical or Electrical Engineering degree / HND

NEBOSH or IOSH

Formal management qualification

CDM training / PM qualification / Six Sigma Green Belt

Job description

Can you keep 500 tonnes of product, keep 8 engineers motivated, and a multi-million pound capital plan on track — all before your first coffee's gone cold?

If the answer's yes, keep reading. If the answer's "well, I've never had to do all three at once"... keep reading anyway. Because this is the bit where most job ads would bury you under a wall of bullet points about "statutory compliance" and "asset care strategy" — and lose you before you got anywhere near the good part.

So let's do this differently.

The job, in plain English

You'll be running Engineering for our entire food manufacturing site — plant, buildings, capital projects, the lot. Two Engineering Team Leaders, a Lead Engineer, and eight Multi-Skilled Engineers will look to you for direction. You'll report to the Operations Director, and you'll have a seat at the table with the site's senior leadership — plus visibility across our Manufacturing Excellence team and colleagues.

Some days you'll be knee-deep in a planned maintenance schedule. Other days you'll be scoping a 3-5 year capital plan, managing contractors, or standing in an audit room proving your systems are as tight as you say they are. The common thread? Nothing here is small-scale, and nothing here is dull.

Why this one's worth your time

Because it's a proper leadership role, not a glorified maintenance rota. You'll shape how Engineering works across the whole site — building the plans, setting the standards, and deciding how the team develops. If you've got ideas about doing things better, this is a business that wants to hear them: Continuous Improvement isn't a tick-box here, it's how we operate.

Because you'll have real influence over real money. Budgets, capital investment, energy efficiency, cost control — you're not just managing a maintenance log, you're managing a function that materially affects how the site performs.

Because you won't be doing it alone. You'll have a structured team beneath you and a senior team around you, all pulling in the same direction.

And because food manufacturing engineering is a different kind of challenge. Hygiene, food safety, and machinery all have to work together, and getting that balance right takes a particular kind of engineer. If that's the puzzle you enjoy solving, you'll enjoy it here.

What you’ll actually be doing

• Leading and developing the Engineering team — coaching, succession planning, the works
• Building and delivering planned maintenance and asset-care strategy across the site
• Owning the 3–5 year capital plan, and delivering the projects within it
• Keeping the site audit‑ready and compliant, always — not just when someone's watching
• Managing contractors, budgets, and site services
• Driving energy, water, and efficiency improvements that actually move the needle
• Championing a safety‑first culture that people believe in, not just follow

What you’ll need to bring

• A degree, HND, or equivalent in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering
• NEBOSH or IOSH (essential)
• A formal management qualification (essential)
• Experience leading engineering teams in a fast‑paced manufacturing environment
• CDM training, a project management qualification, or Six Sigma Green Belt — all desirable, none essential, but all welcome

The honest bit

This isn't a role for someone who wants a quiet life. There's genuine complexity here — people, plant, projects, and pressure, often all in the same afternoon. But if you're the kind of engineer who wants ownership of something significant, and a team that'll back you to deliver it, you'll find that complexity is exactly what makes this worth doing.