Lead Maintenance Engineer | Oranmore, Co. Galway | Full Time | Monday–Friday, 8:00am–5:00pm | Competitive Salary + Benefits
Our client is a long-established Irish food manufacturing business with almost 100 years of heritage. Family-owned across three generations, the company has built an excellent reputation for quality, innovation and customer service, and continues to invest in its people, equipment and facilities.
The Role
This is a hands-on Lead Maintenance Engineer position responsible for ensuring maximum uptime across production and packaging equipment. This is not an office-based management role. The successful candidate will spend the majority of their time on the factory floor, troubleshooting faults, improving equipment reliability and supporting production operations.
Working closely with the Factory Manager and reporting directly to the Managing Director, you will take ownership of preventative maintenance, breakdown response, continuous improvement initiatives, contractor management and site maintenance activities. You will also play a key role in reducing downtime, improving equipment performance and developing operator capability through maintenance training and support.
As the site's lead maintenance professional, you will provide technical leadership on the factory floor, helping to drive a proactive maintenance culture focused on reliability, efficiency and continuous improvement.
Key Responsibilities
- Respond to machine breakdowns, diagnose faults and restore production quickly
- Carry out electrical, mechanical and electromechanical fault-finding and repairs
- Implement, maintain and continuously improve preventative maintenance programmes
- Conduct root cause analysis to reduce recurring faults and improve equipment reliability
- Proactively identify potential issues before they result in equipment failure or production downtime
- Maintain a strong presence on the factory floor and support production teams as required
- Manage maintenance stock levels and critical spare parts inventory
- Coordinate and supervise external contractors and specialist service providers
- Support equipment upgrades, installations, commissioning and continuous improvement projects
- Provide guidance and support to operators and supervisors on basic maintenance activities and best practices
- Assist with wider site maintenance activities when required
- Ensure all maintenance activities are carried out safely and in line with food manufacturing standards
What We're Looking For
- Qualified Electrical Engineer, Maintenance Engineer or similar engineering qualification
- Strong electrical fault-finding and troubleshooting experience
- Electromechanical maintenance experience within a manufacturing environment
- Proven experience reducing downtime and improving equipment reliability
- Hands-on approach with the ability to work independently and take ownership of maintenance activities
- Experience managing preventative maintenance systems and maintenance records (CMMS experience desirable)
- Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify root causes and implement lasting solutions
- Comfortable communicating with operators, contractors, suppliers and equipment manufacturers
- Fluent English, with the ability to work from technical documentation and support audit requirements
- A proactive mindset and the confidence to take the lead in driving maintenance improvements across the site
- Experience within food manufacturing is highly desirable. Candidates from pharmaceutical, medical device or other manufacturing environments with transferable machinery experience will also be considered