Service Manager

GEA; Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

GEA Group is seeking a Service Manager to lead and further develop a 14-strong service team within the Food & Healthcare Technologies division in the UK. You will shape service strategy, drive growth, and inspire delivery excellence across customers and projects.

Reporting to the Director of Service and Projects, you will define future service strategy, establish benchmarks, and expand the team while maintaining strong customer partnerships and product knowledge.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in service leadership, ideally within the food industry.
• Background in engineering and capital equipment.
• Experience building long-term customer relationships.
• Willing to travel across the UK, including Milton Keynes HQ visits.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.

Responsibilities

• Set service delivery standards across GEA.
• Support the service team in delivery, escalations and breakdowns.
• Maintain customer relationships with open communication and SLA adherence.
• Act as senior contact for service activities.
• Collaborate with service sales to ensure feasible technical and financial scopes.
• Log site issues and ensure timely resolutions.
• Identify incremental opportunities within existing customers.
• Oversee scheduling and resource allocation.
• Supervise field service engineers on site.
• Deliver service performance reports to management.
• Foster team morale and development.

Skills

Service leadership

People leadership

Engineering background

Travel UK

Customer relationship

Cross-functional

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

MS Office

Job description

GEA is one of the world’s leading system suppliers to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Our extensive portfolio spans machinery and complete plants, advanced process technologies, components and a full range of services. Driven by a strong sense of purpose, our more than 18,000 employees worldwide are committed to improving the sustainability and efficiency of production processes across the globe. GEA – Did you know? Every third chicken nugget produced worldwide is made using GEA equipment. One in three instant coffee production lines is installed by GEA. One quarter of all processed milk is produced using GEA systems. Nearly every second litre of beer is made with GEA technology. One third of all polymer producers rely on GEA drying technology. GEA emission control systems help prevent almost two million tonnes of pollutants each year. Half of the world’s container ships operate with GEA marine equipment. GEA industrial heating and refrigeration solutions are used across almost every industry we serve.

Your responsibilities and tasks

GEA is looking to appoint a Service Manager to lead and further develop an already successful service team of 14 within the Food & Healthcare Technologies division. The Service Manager will shape and drive the company’s service strategy, strengthen GEA’s established service ethos, and deliver sustained budget growth in 2027 and beyond.

Reporting to the Director of Service and Projects, the Service Manager will be responsible for defining GEA’s future service strategy and inspiring the team to deliver exceptional service performance alongside strong commercial growth aligned with company objectives. Passionate about service excellence at every touchpoint, the Service Manager will continue to develop and expand the team, establish clear service benchmarks, and identify opportunities to unlock incremental commercial value across both new and existing customers.

The successful candidate will be skilled in building strong, collaborative relationships with direct reports, cross‑functional colleagues, customers and suppliers. Leading by example, the Service Manager will demonstrate GEA’s commitment to long‑term customer partnerships, combining product excellence with consistently high levels of customer satisfaction.

Technical Leadership

• Set the benchmark and clear expectations for service delivery standards across GEA.
• Guide and support the service team in all aspects of service delivery, including customer escalations and breakdown management.
• Build strong, consistent relationships with customers, ensuring open communication, SLA compliance, and swift resolution of service issues.
• Act as the senior point of contact for customers for service activities or escalated matters.
• Work closely with the service sales team to ensure technical and financial scopes are feasible, accurate, and aligned with customer needs.

Operational & Service Management

• Ensure all site issues are accurately logged and documented to enable timely and effective resolution by the service team.
• Proactively identify incremental commercial opportunities within the existing customer base.
• Oversee service department work scheduling and coordination (including skill matching) to maintain consistently high customer quality standards.
• Provide on‑site supervision of field service engineers where required.
• Ensure job costs remain within budget and elevate unforeseen issues to the Service Director.
• Develop and implement tools, processes, and systems to improve resource utilisation and highlight capacity gaps.
• Ensure the service team fully understands GEA’s products, processes, and procedures and consistently represents the company professionally.
• Liaise with the QSHE team to ensure engineers receive regular updates on health and safety requirements and apply these consistently in the field.
• Proactively facilitate collaboration and problem‑solving across internal and external stakeholders.
• Maintain strong working relationships with manufacturing centres and stay informed about product developments and innovations.
• Work closely with sales, project, and service colleagues to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction throughout the service lifecycle.

Governance & Reporting

• Provide customers with timely and informative progress updates.
• Develop and maintain a tracking and reporting system to monitor service delivery performance and customer satisfaction.
• Deliver regular service performance reports and supporting narrative to senior management.
• Encourage, motivate, and support the service team, role‑modelling GEA values and behaviours.
• Identify individual development needs and create tailored progression plans and goals.
• Build strong team morale, recognising achievements and reinforcing high performance.
• Lead the annual performance review process and support continuous professional development.
• Foster a collaborative, supportive, and ideas‑driven team environment.

Your profile and qualifications

• Passionate about delivering consistent service excellence across the team.
• Commercially astute, with a strong drive to identify and unlock incremental service opportunities with customers.
• Skilled in building high‑performing service teams aligned to a clear service ethos.
• Confident and articulate when communicating with all audiences, with a strong ability to resolve challenges and drive collaboration.
• A strong and engaging people leader; effective at setting expectations, motivating team members, and inspiring high performance.
• Skilled at building multi‑level relationships with internal colleagues and customers.

Requirements

• Extensive experience and a proven track record in service leadership, ideally within the food industry.
• Background in engineering and capital equipment.
• Passionate about building long‑term customer relationships and identifying new service opportunities.
• Committed to engaging, inspiring, and developing team members to help them thrive within the GEA culture.
• Significant experience collaborating across internal departments to develop service solutions aligned with customer needs.
• Primarily field‑based with extensive travel across the UK; 1–2 days per week required at GEA HQ (Milton Keynes).
• Able and willing to travel to customer sites across the UK as business needs dictate.

About GEA

GEA is one of the largest suppliers for the food and beverage processing industry and a wide range of other process industries. Approximately 18,000 employees in more than 60 countries contribute significantly to GEA’s success – come and join them! We offer interesting and challenging tasks, a positive working environment in international teams and opportunities for personal development and growth in a global company.

GEA is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will therefore receive consideration for employment without regard to age, sex, race, color, religion, world view, national origin, genetics, disability, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other protected characteristic required by applicable law. Applicants with disabilities are welcome and will be given special consideration if they are equally qualified.

GEA is certified as a Top Employer by the Top Employers Institute in 19 countries in APAC & Europe. We have high scores for Leadership, Ethics & Integrity and Sustainability. Outside APAC & Europe we are also certified in Colombia and Mexico.

GEA’s heritage stretches back more than 140 years. Today, we operate in resilient customer industries with a dedicated workforce of more than 18,000 employees and conduct business with more than 150 countries.