Head of Engineering

Morgan McKinley; Ireland; On-site; EUR 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Morgan McKinley is partnering with a well-established manufacturing business to recruit a Head of Engineering for a site in the Irish Midlands. The role will lead all engineering and maintenance activities across the site, ensuring equipment reliability, operational efficiency, and strict compliance with safety and quality standards.

You will manage a team, develop capabilities, and partner with production to maximise output while delivering capital projects and site improvement initiatives.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading engineering or maintenance teams within manufacturing.
• Strong understanding of maintenance systems and asset reliability.
• Experience managing engineering operations in fast-paced production.
• Excellent people leadership and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience in food manufacturing desirable but not required.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering and maintenance function across a busy manufacturing site.
• Manage preventative and reactive maintenance to minimise downtime.
• Drive engineering performance, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with production to improve plant efficiency and output.
• Manage engineering KPIs, maintenance schedules and compliance standards.
• Support capital projects, equipment upgrades and site improvements.
• Lead, develop and mentor the engineering team.
• Ensure all engineering activities meet Health & Safety, food safety and quality standards.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Maintenance management

Asset reliability

Problem solving

Job description

Morgan McKinley is partnering with a well-established and growing manufacturing business to recruit a Head of Engineering for a key production site in the Irish Midlands.

The successful candidate will lead all engineering and maintenance activities across the site, ensuring equipment reliability, operational efficiency, compliance, and continuous improvement across production operations.

The Role

• Leading the engineering and maintenance function across a busy manufacturing site
• Managing preventative and reactive maintenance activities to minimise downtime
• Driving engineering performance, reliability, and continuous improvement initiatives
• Working closely with production and operations teams to improve plant efficiency and output
• Managing engineering KPIs, maintenance schedules, and compliance standards
• Supporting capital projects, equipment upgrades, and site improvement initiatives
• Leading, developing, and mentoring the engineering team
• Ensuring all engineering activities meet Health & Safety, food safety, and quality standards

The Candidate

• Proven experience leading engineering or maintenance teams within a manufacturing environment
• Strong understanding of maintenance systems, asset reliability, and continuous improvement
• Experience managing engineering operations within fast-paced production settings
• Excellent people leadership and stakeholder management skills
• Strong problem-solving and root cause analysis capability
• Experience within food manufacturing is highly desirable, though candidates from other regulated or high-volume manufacturing environments will also be considered