Engineering Shift Manager - Desford

Forterra Building Products; Coalville; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Forterra Building Products is seeking an Engineering Shift Manager for the Desford Team to own safe, reliable maintenance delivery on shift, lead the engineering team, and drive production continuity. You will champion continuous improvement and uphold Forterra's safety standards.

The role requires hands-on leadership, prioritising and coordinating complex technical issues while steering a four-strong shift engineering team and coordinating external contractors where needed.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading a technical or maintenance team in automated manufacturing.
• Recognised electrical or mechanical engineering qualification with fault diagnosis capability.

Responsibilities

• Take shift-level ownership of breakdown response and production continuity.
• Lead, organise, and allocate the daily workload of the shift engineering team.
• Provide first-line leadership, attendance and return-to-work management, performance reviews and conduct issues.
• Lead execution of planned, preventive and TPM maintenance to reduce reactive maintenance and improve reliability.
• Report on shift maintenance activities to the Engineering Manager.
• Ensure health & safety standards meet legislative requirements and company standards.
• Take ownership of CMMS data quality and work orders on shift.
• Ensure effective shift handovers and communicate faults and priorities to incoming teams.
• Use CMMS and data to identify repeat failures and drive corrective actions.
• Lead the shift to meet engineering KPIs such as plant availability and maintenance backlog.
• Collaborate with Production Shift Managers to balance output with safe maintenance priorities.
• Develop shift engineers through coaching and training plans.
• Support Engineering Manager in embedding change and improved maintenance planning.

Skills

Leadership

Maintenance management

CMMS

Safety compliance

Root cause analysis

Preventive maintenance

TPM

Team development

Coaching

Education

Electrical or mechanical engineering qualification

HNC / HND or degree in engineering

Leadership qualification (e.g., ILM Level 3)

Health and safety training

Tools

None

Job description

We are looking for a proactive Engineering Shift Manager to join our Desford Team.

About the role

The Engineering Shift Manager takes ownership of safe, reliable and effective engineering maintenance delivery on shift, leading and developing the engineering team to support production continuity, plant availability and continuous improvement. This is a first-line management position replacing the previous Team Leader role, with clear responsibility for workload allocation, safety, team capability, performance, conduct and consistent engineering standards. The role requires a visible, hands-on leader who can support complex technical issues while prioritising, coordinating and improving the work of the shift team, in line with Forterra's safety procedures and engineering transformation objectives.

Key Responsibilities

• Take shift-level ownership of breakdown response, safety, and continuity of production across the shift
• Lead, organize, and allocate the daily workload of the shift engineering team
• Provide first-line leadership of the shift team, including coaching, attendance and return-to-work management, performance reviews, capability and conduct issues, and disciplinary processes within delegated authority and Forterra HR procedures
• Lead execution and improvement of planned, preventive and TPM maintenance activities on shift, reducing reactive maintenance and improving equipment reliability and availability
• Report out on shift maintenance team activities to the Engineering Manager
• Ensure team works to high standards of health & safety to meet or exceed legislative requirements & company standards
• Take ownership of CMMS compliance and data quality on shift, ensuring accurate work orders, breakdown records, failure codes, corrective actions and maintenance completion reporting
• Ensure shift team are filling out Major Breakdown Reports as required
• Ensure effective engineering shift handovers, communicating outstanding faults, equipment condition, safety risks, maintenance priorities and follow-up actions to incoming teams and production stakeholders
• Use CMMS and operational data to identify repeat failures, support root cause analysis and implement sustainable corrective actions
• Lead the shift contribution to agreed engineering KPIs, including plant availability, downtime, planned-maintenance compliance, work-order completion and maintenance backlog; monitor MTTR and MTBF where measured
• Work closely with Production Shift Managers to balance immediate output requirements with safe, sustainable maintenance priorities
• Develop shift engineers through regular coaching, skills assessment, training plans and consistent standards of technical and behavioural performance
• Support the Engineering Manager in embedding change, standard work and improved maintenance planning and scheduling across shifts
• Monitor engineering and production performance, identify recurring equipment losses and elevate emerging reliability or safety risks promptly
• Ensure correct spare parts are identified and fitted to operate safely
• Lead and coordinate safe fault diagnosis and breakdown recovery, providing hands-on technical support for complex issues and escalating where appropriate
• Ensure that the team always follow the site PPE policy
• Ensure high standards of housekeeping on shift
• Report all irregularities/health & safety issues to plant management team
• Adherence to site LOTOTO procedure; take a lead role where complex isolation is required
• Deputise for the Engineering Manager when authorised, within agreed decision-making and escalation limits
• Lead a team of four shift engineers, spanning New Starter, Level 1 and Level 2 grades, with a proposed Leading Hand role on shift (scope and reporting responsibilities to be confirmed)
• Coordinate maintenance activities on shift, including delegated responsibility for external contractors on site during the shift
• Support production output, quality and yield targets through safe, timely and reliable engineering maintenance, without compromising engineering or safety standards
• Lead and sustain continuous improvement activities on shift, with documented ownership, actions and measurable outcomes

About you

We are looking for someone who has:

Essential

• Demonstrable experience leading a technical or maintenance team in an automated manufacturing environment, including workload planning, performance management, coaching and appropriate people processes.
• Recognised electrical or mechanical engineering qualification, with practical multidisciplinary maintenance knowledge and the ability to lead safe fault diagnosis and maintenance activities.

Desirable qualifications and development

• HNC, HND or degree in a relevant engineering discipline
• Recognised leadership or supervisory qualification (for example ILM Level 3 or equivalent)
• IOSH Managing Safely or equivalent health and safety qualification

Additional Experience and Capabilities

• Experience of CMMS work-order discipline, preventive maintenance, reliability improvement, root cause analysis, shift handovers and cross-functional working is highly desirable. The successful candidate must combine technical credibility with visible first-line leadership, a commitment to safe working and the ability to establish consistent standards and support change.

We don’t expect you to tick every box. If you bring the mindset, curiosity and drive to make an impact, we’d love to hear from you.