Regional Refrigeration Manager (South)

OCS; West Midlands; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Award-Winning employer

Digital Learning

Retail perks via Hapi app

Flexible pay via Wagestream

Job summary

OCS UK & Ireland is seeking a Regional Refrigeration Manager to govern third-party maintenance across a multi-site estate. The role ensures safe, compliant and commercially effective service delivery, driving asset reliability, supplier accountability and risk reduction.

You will work from home with on-site presence up to 3 days a week, and travel across sites as required. A strong background in refrigeration, F-Gas compliance and supplier governance is essential.

Qualifications

• Significant refrigeration experience in retail, logistics or FM environments.
• Experience auditing maintenance quality, compliance and technical standards.
• Full UK driving licence and strong stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead on supplier performance reviews and governance meetings.
• Monitor KPIs, SLAs, response times and asset uptime.
• Challenge underperformance and implement improvement plans.
• Review resource models, engineering coverage and business continuity.
• Support supplier mobilisation, onboarding and service enhancements.
• Conduct planned assurance audits across stores and sites.
• Validate reactive and planned maintenance quality and outcomes.
• Review recurring failures, root causes and mitigations.
• Provide guidance on refrigeration plant, controls and leak detection.
• Support asset condition assessments and risk reviews.
• Audit refrigerant records and F-Gas compliance.

Skills

Commercial refrigeration

Supplier performance management

F-Gas compliance

Maintenance audits

Stakeholder management

Data analysis

Full UK driving licence

Education

Engineering apprenticeship / HNC / HND or equivalent

F-Gas certification (desirable)

Job description

About The Role

Working Hours: Monday to Friday 08:00 - 16:30 (overtime available)

Home based, with expectation of being on site up to 3 days per week.

Region: South (South East / West up to Midlands area)

Regular travel across a large multi-site retail and distribution estate is required. Flexibility is expected to support summer resilience activity, winter preparedness, major incidents, asset replacement programmes, mobilisations and strategic projects. Overtime may be available where additional support is required.

Job Purpose

The Regional Refrigeration Manager is responsible for the governance, assurance, compliance oversight and performance management of refrigeration services delivered by third-party suppliers across a designated geographical region. Acting as the senior refrigeration representative within the region, the role ensures safe, compliant and commercially effective delivery of maintenance services whilst driving asset reliability, supplier accountability, risk reduction and continuous improvement. This is a strategic, assurance-led position and does not involve direct management of engineers or responsibility for engineering scheduling.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential

• Significant commercial refrigeration experience within retail, logistics, distribution or FM environments.
• Experience managing supplier and contractor performance across multi-site estates.
• Strong knowledge of refrigeration compliance, environmental obligations and F-Gas requirements.
• Experience auditing maintenance quality, compliance and technical standards.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to analyse operational and performance data to identify trends and risks.
• Full UK driving licence.

Desirable

• Retail food refrigeration experience.
• Exposure to various F-Gas systems & CO2 refrigeration systems.
• Engineering apprenticeship, HNC, HND or equivalent qualification.
• F-Gas certification or advanced regulatory knowledge.
• IOSH Managing Safely or NEBOSH qualification.
• Experience using CAFM and CMMS platforms.

Responsibilities

Supplier Performance & Contract Management

• Lead on technical aspects of supplier performance reviews and governance meetings.
• Monitor contractual KPIs, SLAs, response times, attendance, first time fix and asset uptime performance.
• Challenge underperformance and deliver structured improvement plans.
• Review resource models, engineering coverage and business continuity arrangements.
• Support supplier mobilisation, onboarding and service enhancements.

Technical Assurance & Asset Governance

• Conduct planned assurance audits across stores and other operational sites.
• Validate the quality of reactive and planned maintenance activities.
• Review recurring failures, technical trends and root cause investigations.
• Provide guidance on refrigeration plant, controls, monitoring systems and leak detection technologies.
• Support investment planning through asset condition assessments and risk reviews.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Audit refrigerant records, leak management activity and F-Gas compliance.
• Verify statutory maintenance completion and evidence.
• Review risk assessments, permits and safe systems of work.
• Support internal and external compliance audits.
• Identify operational, regulatory and environmental risks and ensure mitigation plans are implemented.

Stakeholder Management

• Act as primary escalation point for regional refrigeration matters.
• Develop strong working relationships with site leaders, operational teams and support functions.
• Support governance meetings and business reviews.
• Provide technical insight and recommendations to senior stakeholders.

Commercial & Financial Oversight

• Review quotations, technical recommendations and scope proposals.
• Challenge unnecessary expenditure and identify cost avoidance opportunities.
• Support budget forecasting and lifecycle replacement planning.
• Ensure suppliers deliver value for money while maintaining compliance and performance standards.

Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve asset reliability and maintenance effectiveness.
• Drive refrigerant leak reduction initiatives and sustainability objectives.
• Support adoption of innovative technologies and data-led maintenance practices.

Success Measures

• Regional asset uptime and operational availability.
• Supplier KPI and SLA achievement.
• F-Gas and statutory compliance performance.
• Audit scores and assurance outcomes.
• Reduction in repeat failures and refrigerant losses.
• Cost avoidance and value optimisation initiatives.
• Stakeholder satisfaction and relationship health.
• Delivery of improvement plans and corrective actions.

About The Company

OCS UK & Ireland is a leading facilities management company with 50,000+ colleagues and a turnover in excess of £2bn. We deliver innovative, award-winning services within facilities management, hard services, cleaning, security and catering.

Our mission is to make people and places the best they can be for our colleagues, customers and the communities we serve. Our commitment to doing business the right way is rooted in our TRUE values - Trust, Respect, Unity, and Empowerment.

Why Work for OCS?

• Award-Winning Employer: Ranked 36th on Glassdoor’s Best Companies to Work For 2025 — we value and motivate our people.
• Digital Learning: The OCS Academy offers digital courses and resources to help you build skills and grow your career.
• Retail Perks: With our Hapi app, you can gain access to exclusive discounts, rewards and wellbeing resources.
• Professional Growth: 600+ live learners across UK&I — Empowering colleagues with further development and qualifications!
• Flexible Pay: Access a portion of earned wages before payday with our Wagestream App! (Contract Specific)

We are an equal opportunities employer and rely on a diverse workforce with a broad range of knowledge, skills, and backgrounds to deliver our goals. We offer an inclusive and welcoming environment and actively encourage applications from all individuals regardless of race, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or age.