Negotiable depending on experience
About the role:
We are looking for an experienced Group Maintenance & Reliability Manager to join our team, this post will require travel across the UK
About us:
We are a leading UK bakery manufacturer with a strong reputation for quality, innovation, and operational excellence. With production facilities across the UK, we are committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety, compliance, and employee wellbeing across all our sites. Beginning in 2008, David Wood already had 20 years’ experience running a successful food business and wanted a new challenge. Now with seven sites throughout the UK, we have never looked back. We pride ourselves on staying ahead of trends in the food industry, our chefs love experimenting with new and exciting flavours.
Job Purpose
The Group Maintenance & Reliability Manager is responsible for developing and leading the maintenance and reliability strategy across all manufacturing sites. The role ensures assets are maintained safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively to maximise equipment availability, improve reliability, reduce downtime, and support operational performance.
The Group Maintenance & Reliability Manager will drive a proactive maintenance culture, standardise maintenance systems and processes, develop reliability-centred maintenance programmes, and ensure engineering teams utilise data-driven decision-making to improve asset performance.
Key Responsibilities
Reliability Strategy
- Develop and implement a group-wide reliability and asset management strategy.
- Establish reliability standards across all manufacturing sites.
- Drive improvements in equipment uptime and asset performance.
- Lead reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) initiatives.
- Implement predictive and condition-based maintenance technologies.
- Develop asset criticality assessments and risk-based maintenance plans.
- Standardise failure analysis and reliability methodologies across the business.
Maintenance Excellence
- Standardise preventative maintenance programmes across all sites.
- Ensure maintenance tasks are optimised for effectiveness and efficiency.
- Improve planned maintenance compliance and schedule adherence.
- Reduce reactive maintenance activity through proactive interventions.
- Develop maintenance planning and scheduling standards.
- Ensure all sites operate using best-practice maintenance principles.
- Monitor and improve maintenance productivity.
Asset Management
- Lead the development of long-term asset management plans.
- Establish lifecycle replacement strategies for critical equipment.
- Maintain a group asset register and critical spares strategy.
- Support capital investment decisions through asset condition assessments.
- Develop equipment health monitoring programmes.
- Identify opportunities for asset modernisation and automation.
Reliability Engineering
- Lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) investigations for major breakdowns.
- Implement Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) methodologies.
- Develop reliability improvement projects.
- Analyse equipment failure trends and identify corrective actions.
- Utilise reliability data to drive continuous improvement.
- Develop standard reliability reporting across all sites.
Maintenance Systems (CMMS)
- Own and develop the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS).
- Ensure maintenance data accuracy and integrity.
- Standardise maintenance reporting and KPI dashboards.
- Improve work order management processes.
- Develop maintenance planning and scheduling functionality.
- Ensure effective use of maintenance systems across all sites.
Continuous Improvement
- Promote Lean Maintenance principles.
- Drive engineering efficiency improvements.
- Implement predictive maintenance technologies such as:
- Vibration analysis
- Thermography
- Oil analysis
- Ultrasound inspection
- Benchmark site maintenance performance.
- Share best practices across the engineering community.
Safety & Compliance
- Ensure maintenance activities comply with:
- Health & Safety legislation
- PUWER
- LOLER
- Electricity at Work Regulations
- Pressure Systems Regulations
- Environmental legislation
- Food Safety Standards
- Ensure safe systems of work are followed.
- Support machinery safety improvement programmes.
- Audit engineering compliance across all sites.
Budget & Cost Management
- Manage maintenance budgets and expenditure.
- Reduce maintenance costs through reliability improvements.
- Optimise spare parts inventory and stock holding.
- Control contractor expenditure.
- Deliver annual cost-saving initiatives.
- Support engineering budget planning and forecasting.
Team Development
- Develop maintenance and reliability capability across the business.
- Coach Site Engineering Managers and Engineering Supervisors.
- Establish reliability engineering competencies.
- Develop training plans and succession strategies.
- Promote a culture of ownership and accountability.
Responsibilities Specific to Multi-Site Food Manufacturing
- Standardise maintenance practices across all bakeries and production facilities.
- Develop critical equipment reliability standards for:
- Mixers
- Dividers
- Moulders
- Provers
- Ovens
- Conveyors
- Packaging equipment
- Refrigeration systems
- Reduce production losses caused by equipment failures.
- Improve engineering response times.
- Support energy efficiency and sustainability programmes.
- Ensure consistency in engineering standards across all sites.
Qualifications
Essential
- Degree, HND or HNC in Mechanical, Electrical or Manufacturing Engineering.
- Extensive maintenance and reliability management experience.
- Experience operating CMMS systems.
- Strong understanding of asset management principles.
Desirable
- Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP).
- ISO 55001 Asset Management knowledge.
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt.
- NEBOSH General Certificate.
- IOSH Managing Safely.
- Reliability Engineering qualification.
- Project Management qualification.
Experience Required
- Minimum 8–10 years engineering leadership experience.
- Multi-site manufacturing or FMCG experience.
- Proven track record of delivering reliability improvements.
- Experience managing maintenance budgets.
- Experience implementing predictive maintenance technologies.
- Experience developing maintenance planning and scheduling systems.
- Strong understanding of food manufacturing environments.
Competencies
Leadership
- Strategic planning
- Coaching and mentoring
- Change management
- Influencing skills
Technical
- Reliability engineering
- Asset management
- Maintenance planning
- Predictive maintenance technologies
Commercial
- Budget control
- Cost reduction
- Asset lifecycle planning
- Contractor management
Personal
- Analytical thinking
- Problem solving
- Communication skills
- Results focused
Pay: £70,000.00-£80,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company car
- Discounted or free food
- Free parking
Work Location: On the road
