Job Description

Maintenance Front Line Manager

Newtownards

Lakeland Dairies Co-operative Society Limited (The Group) is the second largest dairy processor on the island of Ireland. The business is complex and ambitious with a milk supply pool of 2 billion litres of milk, drawn from over 3,200 family farms across 16 counties.

Applications are invited for the above position at our Newtownards site.

The opportunity

Our team in Newtownards are seeking an experienced and people-focused Maintenance Front Line Manager to lead our engineering maintenance team and play a key role in delivering world-class manufacturing performance.

This is an exciting opportunity to combine strong technical expertise with leadership capability, ensuring the safe, efficient and reliable operation of site assets while driving continuous improvement across the plant. Working closely with Production, Quality, Planning and Warehouse teams, you will lead from the front, develop engineering talent and create a culture focused on safety, accountability and operational excellence.

What success looks like:

• Lead, motivate and develop a team of Maintenance Technicians and Service Operators, managing performance, attendance, engagement and capability through a collaborative and empowering leadership style.
• Manage engineering resources effectively, including shift rotas, holidays, overtime, absence cover and training schedules, ensuring operational requirements are consistently met.
• Deliver planned maintenance activities by coordinating weekly maintenance schedules, downtime plans and contractor support to maximise equipment reliability and plant performance.
• Drive rapid and effective breakdown response, prioritising maintenance activities and coordinating manpower, spare parts and external contractors to minimise downtime and production impact.
• Champion health, safety and food safety standards, ensuring compliance with permit-to-work systems, LOTO procedures, risk assessments and all relevant site and legislative requirements.
• Support continuous improvement and operational excellence initiatives, promoting the site Operational Excellence programme and working cross-functionally to improve equipment performance, efficiency and reliability.
• Develop engineering capability by identifying training needs, providing coaching and mentoring, and supporting ongoing skills development across the maintenance team.
• Drive the successful integration of the Ultimo CMMS across Engineering embedding its correct and consistent use to improve maintenance planning, execution, asset history and KPI reporting
• Act as a key engineering leader on site, collaborating with stakeholders across Production, Quality, Planning, HR and Warehousing, while deputising for the Maintenance Manager when required.

We are seeking a confident and proactive engineering leader with a strong background in food manufacturing or FMCG environments. You will combine hands-on technical expertise with excellent people management skills, enabling you to lead high-performing teams, drive operational improvements and deliver results in a fast-paced, safety-critical environment.

What you will bring:

• Time-served engineering apprenticeship with proven experience within a food manufacturing or FMCG environment.
• Demonstrable hands-on maintenance engineering experience, with a strong understanding of asset reliability and equipment performance.
• Previous experience leading, supervising or managing engineering teams within a manufacturing environment.
• Strong IT skills, including proficiency in Microsoft Office and proven ability to lead, motivate and develop teams.
• Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence, engage and drive change at all levels of the organisation.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, and capable of building effective working relationships across multiple functions.
• Highly organised with excellent planning, coordination and prioritisation skills.

A relevant third level engineering or Health & Safety qualification, and/or experience in continuous improvement and/or asset care delivery would be advantageous.

If you have the necessary skills and attributes to meet this challenging opportunity in a dynamic, high volume and fast-moving business, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Application Process:

To apply for this role, please complete our online application process by no later than Monday 12th October 2026.

Lakeland Dairies Ltd is committed to having an inclusive workplace where every employee feels they belong. If you require accommodations to be made during the recruitment process or have questions relating to accessibility, please contact us at recruitmentni@lakelanddairies.com.

We are committed to equality and believe in building a diverse organisation that is representative of and responsive to the needs of our customers and stakeholders.

A NOTE FOR RECRUITMENT AGENCIES:

We prefer to hire people directly, but we do have a preferred supplier list for when we need a helping hand. We'll be in touch directly if we need you!

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