Engineering Manager

Engineering Manager

Location: Bailieborough, Co. Cavan

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.

With the most modern dairy manufacturing facilities in 6 locations on a cross-border basis, the Group supplies to a broad customer base including some of the world’s foremost ‘blue chip’ companies across the dairy food ingredients, foodservice and consumer food channels on a domestic Ireland, UK, European and global basis. Internationally we export some 240 different products to over 100 countries worldwide.

The Group’s Agribusiness Division (Lakeland Agri) operates a state-of-the-art Animal Feed Manufacturing Facility and is a leading and innovative provider of the highest quality feeds and agricultural inputs to dairy, beef, and sheep farmers across the north and south of Ireland.

The Role

The Engineering Manager is responsible for leading the Engineering function to ensure maximum equipment uptime, efficient energy usage and safe, compliant factory operations. This role oversees the reliability of production assets, leads engineering projects, manages the utilities infrastructure (steam, compressed air, refrigeration, HVAC, ETP, water treatment) and drives continuous improvement across the plant. The manager ensures that engineering activities support business objectives related to productivity, quality, safety, sustainability and cost efficiency.

Key Responsibilities

• Asset Care & Maintenance Strategy – Develop and implement site-wide asset care, preventive, predictive, and reliability-based maintenance programs.

• Equipment Reliability & Standards – Ensure all machinery is maintained to OEM, regulatory, and operational standards while reducing downtime and losses.

• Troubleshooting & RCA Leadership – Lead root cause analysis and resolution of major or recurring equipment and performance issues.

• Utilities Management & Optimisation – Oversee safe, compliant, and efficient operation of all site utilities, driving energy and water reduction initiatives.

• Engineering Budget & Cost Control – Own and manage engineering and utilities budgets, CapEx planning, KPIs, and cost reduction initiatives.

• Safety, Compliance & Quality – Ensure full compliance with ISO, GMP, HACCP, FSSC, and legal standards; lead LOTO, permit-to-work, and risk assessments.

• Stores & Spares Management – Manage outsourced stores operations via KPIs and develop a robust critical spares strategy. People Leadership & Collaboration – Lead, develop, and performance-manage engineers and technicians while collaborating with Operations, Quality, and EHS.

• Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement – Drive OEE, OpEx culture, standardised engineering practices, and long-term reliability improvements.

Qualifications and Experience

• Degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Automation, Manufacturing or related discipline).

• Significant experience in a senior engineering leadership role, within a manufacturing or food processing environment is highly desirable.

• Proven experience managing engineering and maintenance functions, including preventative, predictive and reliability‑based maintenance programmes in highly automated environments.

• Demonstrated experience delivering capital engineering and utilities projects, safely, on time and within budget.

• Experience using CMMS systems to manage assets, maintenance plans and performance (experience with Avantis and/or Ultimo highly desirable).

• Strong budget ownership experience, including cost control, CapEx planning and delivery of cost‑reduction initiatives.

• Hands‑on experience leading Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and resolving recurring plant performance or reliability issues.

• Proven people leadership experience, including developing engineers and technicians, performance management and skills development.

• Track record of driving Operational Excellence and OEE improvements in a manufacturing setting.

To apply for this role, please submit a copy of your CV by no later than midday on Monday 22nd June at 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 049 4364200 or email careers@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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