Senior Maintenance Engineer Central Business Operations & Other Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Join us at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), where we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, policy makers, and entrepreneurs to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas: Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology, Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change & Managing CO₂, and Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

This is ambitious work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs.

Your Role: We are seeking an experienced Senior Engineer to play a critical role during the construction and commissioning phases of a flagship, extremely high-end development. The initial 12-18 months of this role will involve minimal hands-on work, focusing on familiarisation with the building construction, setting up maintenance & operational procedures, and becoming operationally ready from an Engineering standpoint. Once operational, you will be responsible for ensuring all equipment and facilities are maintained to a very high standard, optimizing performance, and minimizing downtime. You will lead a team of engineers and technicians, providing guidance and ensuring effective and efficient operations. This role will also include on-call responsibilities, requiring you to respond promptly to emergency breakdowns or critical maintenance issues outside of standard working hours.

Your Responsibilities:

• Project Integration & Build Phase (Initial 12–18 Months): Develop a deep, progressive familiarisation with the building as construction advances, maintaining detailed knowledge of systems, layouts, and constraints. Support commissioning activities to ensure systems operate as intended and are maintainable in practice. Define and establish maintenance strategies, procedures, and philosophies well in advance of handover. Identify plant, systems, and specialist equipment requirements, including spares, tooling, and consumables. Build and train a maintenance team through documentation, briefings, and site walkdowns ready for site operations. Support the handover from construction to operations, ensuring a smooth transition with minimal post-completion issues. Assistance across other sites if required.
• Site Management: Oversee and manage maintenance activities across multiple sites, ensuring consistency, compliance with safety standards, and alignment with operational objectives.
• Preventative and Reactive Maintenance: Develop and implement comprehensive preventative maintenance schedules while also managing reactive maintenance requests and resolving issues in a timely manner. Management of critical spares for sites. A hands-on approach will be required when needed.
• Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a team of engineers and technicians, providing guidance, training, and support to ensure high performance and continuous improvement.
• Troubleshooting and Fault Resolution: Act as the point of escalation for complex technical issues, troubleshooting and resolving faults across various systems, equipment, and machinery.
• Setting Processes & Procedures: Work with other areas within Facilities Operations to establish, set and implement processes, procedures & SOPs within the maintenance engineering space for routine checks, plant checks & risk assessments.
• Compliance & Safety: Ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, company policies, statutory regulations, and industry standards. Conduct risk assessments and implement corrective actions as necessary.
• Continual Improvements: Lead and contribute to site-based improvement projects, including upgrades, replacements, or installations of new equipment or systems.
• Cost Control: Identify opportunities to reduce costs without compromising quality or safety.
• On-Call Responsibilities: Provide on-call support outside of regular working hours on a Rota basis, responding to urgent maintenance requests and emergencies in a timely manner.
• Performance Reporting: Provide regular updates and reports to line management on maintenance activities, equipment status, and operational performance. Suggest improvements where applicable.
• Vendor and Contractor Management: Liaise with external contractors and suppliers, ensuring they meet required standards and deliver on time and within budget.

Essential & Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Degree or equivalent qualification in Mechanical, Electrical, or Facilities Engineering, or a related field.
• Relevant certifications in maintenance, health & safety (e.g., NEBOSH, IOSH), and/or industry-specific qualifications are desirable.
• Experience in maintenance engineering within a supervisory or leadership role, preferably managing multiple sites.
• Experience in regulated environments.
• Proven track record in managing both preventative and reactive maintenance schedules.
• Strong knowledge of mechanical, electrical, HVAC, and building services systems.
• Prior experience in troubleshooting and resolving complex technical issues.
• Familiarity with laboratory environments and specialised equipment maintenance.
• Strong team management skills are highly desired; however, this could be an opportunity for an experienced maintenance engineer who can take the next step up in their career.
• Excellent communication, organisational, and problem-solving abilities with a can-do attitude.
• Ability to adapt well to change and handle periods of ambiguity.
• Proficiency in using CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management Systems) or similar maintenance software.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage multiple priorities, and meet deadlines.
• Excellent knowledge of health, safety, and environmental compliance requirements.
• Ability to participate in on-call support and emergency response as needed at weekends within 1 hour of sites.
• Full driving licence (for site visits across multiple locations).

We offer the following salary and benefits:

• Salary: £50k-£65k depending on experience, + travel allowance + bonus.
• Enhanced holiday pay.
• Pension.
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Hospital Cash Plan.
• Therapy Services.
• Perk Box.
• Electric Car Scheme.

Working Together – What It Involves:

You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of Oxford and can commit to the core working hours 5 days per week as well as providing on-call support during certain periods. During peak periods, some longer hours may be required and some working across multiple time zones due to the global nature of the programme. This role will require travel to various sites, currently within the Oxford area. Flexibility with hours may be required, including the ability to respond to urgent maintenance needs outside of regular working hours. Weekend working will be remunerated with time off in lieu; however, on-call working will be remunerated with payment. Physical requirements include lifting, standing, bending, and other manual labour tasks.