Commissioning Manager

Location: Port of Nigg, Inverness, Scotland

Job Type: Full-time, Onsite

Europlan Group is a leading international engineering and project services company, delivering innovative, safety-driven solutions to the energy and industrial sectors.

We have been appointed as the EPCM (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Management) contractor for a £450M state-of-the-art HVDC subsea cable factory at the Port of Nigg, in partnership with Japanese multinational company Sumitomo Electric.

This flagship project will deliver critical infrastructure to strengthen renewable energy supply chains and play a key role in Europe’s offshore wind and clean energy future.

As the Commissioning Manager you will be responsible for planning, coordinating, and overseeing the commissioning process for complex projects. Ensuring that all systems, equipment, and facilities are designed, installed, tested, operated, and maintained in accordance with project requirements. You will serve as the primary point of contact for all commissioning activities, ensuring safe, efficient, and timely project delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement comprehensive commissioning strategies, plans, schedules, procedures, and test programmes, ensuring commissioning requirements are integrated into the overall project delivery programme.
• Lead and manage all commissioning activities from pre-commissioning through testing, energisation, start-up, integrated systems testing, and final handover, ensuring systems are safely and progressively brought into operation.
• Coordinate closely with project management, engineering, construction, contractors, vendors, consultants, operations, and the client to ensure commissioning requirements, interfaces, and responsibilities are clearly understood and effectively managed.
• Review design and technical documentation throughout the project lifecycle, providing commissioning input on system design, sequencing, access, maintainability, testing requirements, and operational readiness.
• Oversee system inspections, testing, functional performance testing, start-up activities, energisation, and integrated systems testing, ensuring all systems meet the required performance and acceptance criteria.
• Ensure all commissioning activities are carried out in accordance with health, safety, quality, environmental, statutory, regulatory, and project-specific requirements, promoting a strong safety culture throughout the commissioning phase.
• Monitor commissioning progress against project schedules, milestones, and readiness targets, identifying risks, constraints, resource requirements, and potential delays and implementing effective corrective actions.
• Manage commissioning documentation, including commissioning procedures, test scripts, method statements, test records, check sheets, punch lists, system handover documentation, and final commissioning reports, ensuring records are complete and traceable.
• Lead the identification, investigation, and resolution of technical issues and defects during commissioning and start-up, coordinating engineering, vendors, contractors, and specialist resources where required.
• Organise and facilitate witness testing, inspections, demonstrations, and acceptance activities with the client, consultants, vendors, regulatory authorities, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Operate and control the Permit to Work system during commissioning, ensuring appropriate permits, isolations, risk assessments, method statements, and authorisations are in place before work commences.
• Define and control the limits of plant and systems being commissioned, ensuring all other plant and equipment is appropriately isolated, locked out, and protected from unauthorised operation or energisation.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong leadership and team management skills, with the ability to lead multidisciplinary commissioning teams and coordinate contractors, vendors, and specialist personnel.
• Excellent project planning and scheduling skills, with the ability to develop commissioning programmes and manage activities against key project milestones.
• Strong technical commissioning expertise, with a broad understanding of mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, controls, testing, energisation, and integrated systems.
• Strong risk management capability, with the ability to identify commissioning risks and implement appropriate controls and mitigation measures.
• Excellent client and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to communicate clearly and build effective working relationships across multiple project disciplines.
• Strong quality assurance and control focus, ensuring all requirements are completed to the required standards.
• A strong commitment to safety management
• Strong troubleshooting and analytical thinking skills, with the ability to assess technical problems, identify root causes, and drive timely solutions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, preferably Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, or equivalent technical qualification and relevant commissioning experience.
• Significant experience in commissioning, project delivery, or operations within a large-scale manufacturing, industrial, energy, or infrastructure environment.
• Strong understanding of commissioning methodologies, system turnover, testing procedures, functional and performance testing, energisation, start-up, and relevant industry standards.
• Experience managing multidisciplinary teams and external contractors.