Senior Manager – Engineering Standards & Asset Strategy (Refrigeration & HVAC)

The Senior Engineering Manager is responsible for leading Asda’s engineering strategy across refrigeration, HVAC and M&E systems, ensuring all asset models, designs and specifications deliver operational suitability, energy efficiency and strong lifecycle value. Acting as the senior engineering authority within the Property team, the role governs technical standards, ensures compliance, supports capital planning, and drives cost‑effective solutions across new stores, refits and maintenance programmes. Through strong supplier leadership, performance optimisation and the adoption of innovative technologies, the Senior Engineering Manager ensures Asda’s estate remains safe, resilient, sustainable and commercially efficient while providing expert guidance to cross‑functional teams.

You will:

• Engineering Strategy & Standards Leadership: Own the development and continuous evolution of Asda’s engineering strategy across refrigeration, HVAC, and M&E systems, ensuring solutions are safe, scalable, energy‑efficient, and aligned with business and sustainability priorities.
• Asset Model & Design Ownership: Define and maintain the technical models and specifications for all engineering assets, ensuring systems are designed for operational suitability, lifecycle value, resilience, and alignment with industry best practice.
• Technical Governance & Compliance: Provide senior‑level governance to ensure all engineering systems comply with statutory legislation, British Standards, environmental regulations, and internal engineering policies, maintaining audit‑ready documentation.
• Asset Performance & Optimisation: Oversee the analysis of asset performance data to identify opportunities for optimisation, rationalisation, and innovation, ensuring the estate delivers maximum uptime, energy efficiency, and cost performance.
• Capital Investment & Cost‑Effectiveness Management: Lead the technical input into capital planning, developing robust business cases and cost‑effective engineering strategies for new stores, refits, maintenance programmes, and asset replacement cycles.
• Supplier & Contractor Leadership: Set the technical direction for strategic suppliers and contractors, ensuring models, specifications, and installation standards are consistently met across the supply chain. Support procurement with technical assessment and contract input.
• Project & Programme Technical Assurance: Act as the senior engineering authority across property programmes, ensuring refrigeration, HVAC, and M&E solutions are correctly specified, installed, commissioned, and handed over in line with Asda standards.
• Innovation & Future Technologies: Champion the evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies—including natural refrigerants, low‑carbon HVAC solutions, digital monitoring, and smart building systems—to future‑proof the asset base and reduce total cost of ownership.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration & Influence: Work closely with construction, maintenance, energy, sustainability, store operations, and commercial teams, providing expert engineering insight to support strategic decision‑making across the estate.
• Leadership, Risk Management & Continuous Improvement: Provide senior technical leadership across the engineering function, driving continuous improvement, managing engineering risks, and cultivating a culture of safety, compliance, and engineering excellence.

Detailed understanding of HFO and CO2 refrigeration systems. UK recognised qualifications in Refrigeration & Air Condition systems. Project Management, Cost & Budget Management, Compliance & Legislation, Forecasting, Managing Contractor, Consultants & Suppliers, Stakeholder Engagement across all teams including internal and external stakeholders, Strategic Thinking and Planning, MCIOB – Member of the chartered institute of building (Desirable), Prince 2 or equivalent Project Management certificate (Desirable).

To ensure we balance moments where we know we need to collaborate together and the need for flexibility, Asda has a hybrid way of working with a minimum 3 days a week in one of our Home Offices. Over and above this, each area of Asda may have additional requirements which may require spending more days in the office, visiting suppliers, stores or depots.

You will also get an excellent benefits package including:

• Discretionary company bonus
• Company pension up 1.5 times colleagues' contribution (Max 15%)
• Company Car allowance of £8000
• 15% colleague discount in store and online
• Free access to wellbeing services such as Stream, 24/7 virtual GP, counselling, health and dental cash plans and a 24/7 employee assistance helpline, alongside discounts across a range of services and activities, from airport parking, enhanced to theme parks and cinemas.
• Asda Allies Inclusion Networks – helping colleagues to make sure everybody is included and that our differences are recognised and celebrated
• Excellent parental leave policies, including maternity & adoption leave, paternity leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave, and support for those doing fertility treatments.

We want all colleagues to be able to bring their best and true selves to work, every day. Simply put, we want our colleagues to be Proud to be Asda and proud to be themselves.