Project Investment Manager

pladis; Manchester; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global biscuits and confectionery company in Manchester is looking for a Project Investment Manager to oversee delivery of capital projects across various sites. The ideal candidate will have strong project management skills, an engineering background, and preferably experience in the FMCG or Bakery sectors. This role requires collaboration with multiple teams to ensure timely and efficient project execution, emphasizing the delivery of high standards in engineering and project outcomes.

Qualifications

• Active experience at professional level in engineering and project management.
• Proven capability within a Blue-Chip organization.
• FMCG or Bakery experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage end-to-end engineering project management responsibility.
• Deliver projects to high engineering and technical standards.
• Oversee and be responsible for delivery of capital projects.

Skills

Project management skills

Engineering thinking

Strong communication

Problem-solving

Education

BSc or degree in Engineering

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Project Management certification

Tools

AutoCAD

Job description

Overview

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you.

As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive to succeed here because we expect pace and agility, we insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact.

Click “Apply” to get started.

Covering the Southern sites in the UK&I - Manchester, Harlesden, Wigston, High Wycombe, Chiswick Park

Why join our team?

pladis, our recently established global biscuit and confectionery company, has operations in 120 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. It combines three centuries of baking and confectionery expertise by bringing together our iconic Godiva, McVitie’s and Ulker brands. Through pladis, we have created a global network which understands local needs well and operates through different geographies, giving to the communities where we currently reside. We will continue to strengthen our family around the world while supporting equal opportunities and providing a diverse and inclusive environment following a shared culture. Our dedication to innovation and quality is our commitment to our consumers!

Achieving the pladis' ambition requires us to have the agility and responsiveness to service local market needs, make the best use of our capability and capacity to give us the best possible cost base. The Supply Chain team is responsible for ensuring we act as “one” to meet demand, drive the opportunities to maximise our harmonies, prioritising how we spend capital for the good of the business and enabling effective and efficient local operational management of supply and service.

Role purpose

What will this role achieve?

The role of the Project Investment Manager is a key role within the Central Project Investment Team for the UK & Ireland. The role will be responsible for ensuring successful evaluation and delivery of capital projects led by the Capital Investment team. This will include the full lifecycle project engineering best practice sharing and benchmarking.

To deliver our pladis vision of being a premier confectionary business requires its Supply Chain to consistently deliver unbeatable service and cost. It is imperative that we handle investment with rigor, ensuring that cost, time to deliver, engineering quality and risk are all effectively controlled. We require significant standardisation and optimisation of our project processes, systems, resources, and outputs to reduce complexity and maximise the return of our investment, and this role is fundamental in delivering this through flawless implementation of capital projects.

This is an excellent opportunity for an enthusiastic and dynamic Senior Project Engineering professional to drive standards of excellence across the UK Supply Chain. This is a high-profile central position and will require interaction and collaboration with colleagues across the business to deliver capital projects, with key partners being Factory General Managers and Site Engineering Managers. This requires a solid track record of Engineering experience and Procurement competence.

Key deliverables

• Covering the Southern sites in the UK&I - Manchester, Harlesden, Wigston, High Wycombe, Chiswick Park
• End to end engineering project management responsibility
• Cash CAPEX control, prioritisation & delivery (not accepting of project drift), robust delivery of projects to support the UK business units
• Responsible for the deployment of business tools - CAPEX, SAP
• Biscuit Industry Specific Skills i.e. experience in designing, procurement, installation and commissioning of production lines, factory & office buildings, automations systems, build in the innovation coming in – proposing ideas
• Work closely with several factory teams to deliver investment plans
• Strong project management skills
• Manage the process of project feasibility studies through a number of project engineers
• Evaluate feasibility studies and be responsible for the detailed output and recommendations, including budget, time plan and technical solution
• Review, update key project delivery tools and templates, including integration into pladis electronic project management system
• Build understanding of UK manufacturing capability
• Sound judgement and complex decision making where precedents may be limited
• Ability to understand complex issues, challenge assumptions, and work under tight timelines and stressed conditions
• Ability to propose conceptual and high-level designs or challenge/alter such design proposals

Key accountabilities & deliverables

• Reports to the UK’s Projects and Investments Director with links to Global Investments and Implementation Office
• Oversee and be responsible for delivery of various capital projects throughout the UK, ensuring complexity, cost and time constraints are understood and managed
• Continually monitor progress to meet deadlines
• Ensure correct delivery of all stages of projects from development through post-implementation reviews, including URS creation, tendering, supplier selection, resource, time and cost management, contractor control with CDM, contract management, FAT, SAT and formal hand back and project closure
• Ensure projects are delivered to high engineering and technical standards and drive world-class specification and standard use throughout the Investment team
• Flawless management of changes to scope and schedule
• Provide a risk management strategy and tools to identify, monitor and manage project risks
• Lead project update meetings and document status and issues
• Escalate and communicate project status/issues to senior managers and business partners
• Possess robust knowledge of technical and business resources to deliver key projects
• Provide necessary supporting documentation for prioritisation and cost-effectiveness evaluation

Bring your experience

• Active experience at professional level in engineering and engineering project management
• Proven capability within a Blue-Chip organisation including ability to engage at senior level
• Strong project management skills
• Strong engineering thinking
• Hands-on experience with AutoCAD
• FMCG or Bakery experience (Preferred)
• This is not a home-based role – Manchester base
• BSc or degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Electronics, Process or similar)
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Project Management certification (e.g., Prince2) preferred

Personal attributes

• Strategic problem solver with the ability to balance short- and long-term goals and take prudent business risks
• Strong engineering leadership with a focus on sustainable results
• Excellent verbal and written communication; ability to engage and influence
• Natural networker with strong interpersonal skills
• Resilience in changeful environments
• Ability to lead and develop Project Engineers
• Ability to develop and implement new ways of working
• Willingness to travel within region (70-100%)

Our purpose and values

Our Purpose

Bring happiness with every bite

It’s a purpose that every one of our colleagues, all around the world believes in. And while we’re all unique, we also share the same values. Our values guide who we are and how we work.

Our Values

Purpose led – We’re energised and guided by our purpose to bring happiness with every bite

Agile – We never stand still, always improving for our customers and consumers

Positive – We’re motivated, optimistic, courageous, and we inspire each other

Resilient – We’re persistent in the face of setbacks, quick to adapt, learn and move forward

Collaborative – We work as one pladis, winning and succeeding together

Diversity and inclusion

pladis is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to hiring a diverse workforce. We provide reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process and to perform key job functions. We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List (PSL) for recruitment; only candidates from providers on the PSL will be considered. We will not accept CVs from sources outside the PSL.