Senior Inspection Engineer

Essar Oil Limited; Ellesmere Port; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension 10-15%

Holiday 25 days

Private medical insurance

Flex benefits

Employee discounts

On-site parking

Job summary

Essar Oil Limited is seeking an experienced Senior Inspection Engineer to lead a team of Plant Inspectors at the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex, Ellesmere Port. You will ensure the inspection programme supports refinery mechanical integrity through safe, compliant, and risk-based practices.

You will bring substantial refinery experience and recognised inspection qualifications, with strong leadership and stakeholder management to drive continuous improvement and robust risk mitigation.

Qualifications

• Qualified in Mechanical/Materials/Metallurgy with recognised inspection qualifications (API 510/570/653, ASME Plant Inspector) or equivalent.
• Strong understanding of Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSR) and refinery asset integrity management.

Responsibilities

• Lead, supervise and develop a team of Plant Inspectors to deliver safe, efficient inspections to required standards.
• Manage inspection workloads across routine ops, turnarounds, statutory inspections and emergent issues.
• Review and optimise inspection plans ensuring compliance with WSEs and regulatory requirements.
• Drive inspection strategies aligned with asset integrity, risk and business objectives.
• Provide technical guidance on inspection findings, data interpretation and reporting.

Skills

Leadership

Inspection planning

Risk-based inspection

Stakeholder management

Education

Mechanical/Materials/Metallurgy degree

Job description

Location: Stanlow Manufacturing Complex, Ellesmere Port

• 10% Company Contribution Pension rising to 15% with service
• 25 days Holiday, increasing with service
• Private Medical Insurance
• Additional Flex Benefits- including Holiday Purchase
• Access to Employee Assistance Programme with Exclusive access to a range of Discounts
• Free Secure On-Site Car Parking

About the Company

EET (Essar Energy Transition) vision is to be the leading producer of low carbon fuels and establish a blueprint energy transition hub in the North West. EET plays a major role in supplying the Northwest and the wider UK with essential fuels. We produce over 16% of the UK's road transport fuels, supply key feedstocks to the petrochemical industry, and are investing heavily in low-carbon energy solutions.

We work with major retail fuel brands, supermarkets, Manchester Airport, leading airlines, and regional transport operators. We are also a key partner in the HyNet project, helping to deliver the region's low-carbon future.

With over 900 skilled colleagues, we offer a strong safety culture, technically challenging work, and some of the best training in the energy sector.

We currently have an exciting opportunity for and experienced Senior Inspection Engineer to lead and manage a team of Plant Inspectors, ensuring the effective delivery of the inspection programme and supporting the refinery's mechanical integrity objectives through safe, compliant and risk-based inspection practices.

Primary Accountabilities:

• Lead, supervise and develop a team of Plant Inspectors, ensuring inspection activities are delivered safely, efficiently and to the required technical standards.
• Manage inspection workloads across routine operations, turnarounds, statutory inspections and emergent integrity issues.
• Review, approve and optimise inspection plans, ensuring compliance with company procedures, Written Schemes of Examination (WSEs) and legislative requirements.
• Drive delivery of inspection strategies aligned with asset integrity, business and risk management objectives.
• Provide technical guidance on inspection findings, data interpretation and reporting to ensure consistent, high-quality outputs.
• Collaborate with Integrity Engineers to prioritise equipment integrity risks, define repair scopes, inspection intervals and mitigation strategies.
• Ensure inspection findings are translated into corrective actions and progressed to completion within agreed timescales.
• Oversee the Integrity Management System (IMS), ensuring accurate inspection records, condition monitoring data and integrity reporting.
• Monitor inspection performance, backlogs and overdue actions, maintaining compliance and managing associated risks.
• Coordinate specialist inspection activities and external service providers to deliver safe, compliant and cost-effective inspection services.
• Provide inspection leadership during turnaround planning, execution and post-event reviews.
• Support pressure testing, relief valve testing and other inspection-related verification activities.
• Contribute to integrity investigations, including equipment failures, Loss of Primary Containment (LOPC) events, near misses and Root Cause Analyses (RCA).
• Ensure inspection documentation, reports and records meet company and regulatory standards.
• Support budgeting and forecasting by identifying inspection, turnaround and specialist service requirements.
• Develop team capability through mentoring, competency development and performance management.
• Act as the technical focal point for inspection strategy, inspection technologies and risk-based inspection decisions within the assigned area.

About You

You will be qualified in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Metallurgy or a related engineering discipline and hold recognised inspection qualifications such as API 510, API 570, API 653, ASME Plant Inspector or equivalent. A strong understanding of Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSR) and refinery asset integrity management is essential.

You will bring substantial experience within a refinery, petrochemical, oil and gas, chemical or similar heavy process environment, with expertise in fixed equipment inspection, inspection planning, turnaround support, equipment integrity assessment and contractor management. Experience leading, mentoring and developing inspection personnel is highly desirable.

The successful candidate will possess strong technical knowledge of pressure vessels, piping systems, storage tanks, corrosion management, condition monitoring and risk-based inspection principles. You will be comfortable interpreting engineering drawings, reviewing inspection data, assessing equipment condition and applying industry standards and codes to support safe and reliable operations.

We are looking for a proactive leader with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, capable of making sound risk-based decisions, influencing operational and engineering teams, and driving a culture of safety, compliance and continuous improvement. Professional registration, additional inspection certifications and experience with RBI methodologies would be advantageous.

Please Note, we work with a carefully selected set of recruitment agencies, and we are not looking to add to the current preferred suppliers list. We are unable to accept representations from agencies that are not on that preferred supplier list.