Site Engineering Lead

Location: Ultrapharm Bakery, Pontypool

Shift: Monday – Friday

Salary: Competitive with Opportunities for Growth

Remote / Hybrid: Site-based with occasional hybrid working, dependent on operational requirements.

We are seeking an experienced and highly capable Site Engineering Lead to take full accountability for engineering performance at our Ultrapharm Bakery in Pontypool. This is a senior leadership position and a key member of the Site Leadership Team (SLT), with responsibility for asset reliability, engineering strategy, capital investment, and developing a high-performing, future-ready engineering function. While core working hours are Monday to Friday, this role requires flexibility to maintain regular contact with night and weekend shifts, ensuring consistent standards, communication, and leadership presence across the full operation.

Finsbury Food Group is a leading UK specialty bakery manufacturer, supplying high-quality bakery products to major retailers and foodservice customers. Ultrapharm is a dedicated gluten-free bakery, specialising exclusively in gluten-free products since 1993. Our unique craft-led approach delivers premium products with the taste and quality of traditional baked goods. Our Pontypool bakery produces award-winning products including artisanal breads, hot cross buns, and mince pies for major retailers such as M&S and Waitrose.

As Site Engineering Lead, you will take full ownership of the engineering function, ensuring site infrastructure and manufacturing assets are maintained to the highest standards. You will lead the delivery of a robust Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) strategy to minimise downtime, support production targets, and meet quality, cost, and labour requirements. You will own the site engineering agenda, driving continuous improvement, leading major CAPEX projects, and ensuring engineering capability fully supports safe, efficient, and high-quality production in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment. You will play a pivotal role in driving a culture of continuous improvement and process innovation, while developing engineering capability through strong leadership, performance management, and succession planning. Acting as a key member of the Site Leadership Team, you will work closely with cross-functional peers to deliver site objectives and long-term business strategy. This is a highly visible leadership role in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment, requiring strong technical expertise, commercial awareness, and the ability to influence at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Lead, motivate, and develop the site engineering team, setting clear expectations and role-modelling the highest standards of health & safety, food safety, quality, behaviour, and performance.
• Take full ownership of the engineering and maintenance strategy, ensuring all manufacturing assets and infrastructure are maintained to the highest standards of safety, food integrity, quality, and reliability.
• Deliver a robust Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM) programme, driving high compliance to maximise uptime, asset reliability, and ongoing food safety and quality assurance.
• Analyse downtime and performance data, ensuring effective root cause analysis and implementation of sustainable, long-term “100-year fixes” that eliminate safety, food safety, and quality risks.
• Act as a key contributor to site CAPEX planning and delivery, owning engineering-led capital projects from justification through to execution, ensuring designs meet H&S, food safety, hygiene, and quality standards by design.
• Manage third-party contractors and suppliers, ensuring all work is delivered safely, on time, within budget, and fully compliant with site safety, food safety, hygiene, and quality standards.
• Own and control the engineering budget, rigorously challenging spend while ensuring investment supports safe operations, food safety compliance, and quality performance.
• Develop engineering capability through structured performance management, succession planning, apprenticeship programmes, and targeted development plans, with a strong focus on safe systems of work and food safety awareness.
• Work cross-functionally as part of the Site Leadership Team, partnering with Operations, Technical, Quality, and Health & Safety to deliver site performance, compliance, and continuous improvement objectives.
• Champion continuous improvement initiatives, providing strong technical leadership to drive improvements in safety performance, food safety, quality, efficiency, and reliability.
• Work closely with the Health & Safety Manager to implement, audit, and continuously improve statutory compliance, risk assessments, and safety management systems.
• Ensure full compliance with all company policies and food safety, hygiene, quality, legal, and statutory requirements, maintaining audit readiness at all times.
• Define, embed, and continuously improve best-practice engineering processes, systems, and standards that protect people, products, and the brand.
• Report engineering performance, KPIs, risks, and compliance status to Senior Management in a clear, accurate, and timely manner, with particular focus on H&S, food safety, and quality risks.

Essential

• Degree-qualified in a relevant engineering discipline or equivalent NVQ Level 7.
• Proven experience in a senior engineering management role within the food manufacturing sector.
• Strong leadership capability with experience managing, developing, and coaching high-performing teams.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills at all levels of the organisation.
• Results-driven with the ability to plan, prioritise, and deliver against operational and project deadlines.
• Strong commercial awareness with experience managing budgets and controlling costs.
• Confident using data, KPIs, and performance metrics to drive improvement.
• Competent in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook).

Desirable

• Food Hygiene, HACCP, and Allergen Awareness qualifications.
• NEBOSH certification.
• Project management experience.
• Working knowledge of continuous improvement tools and asset optimisation techniques.
• Experience producing detailed engineering and process risk assessments.

What’s in it for you?

• Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave to allow quality time with your new arrival.
• Enhanced Pension Scheme for our employees.
• Death in Service Benefit.
• Free Employee Assistance Programme (open to colleagues and their families).
• Retail discounts accessible via our Benefits Hub platform.
• Company shop available at sites (heavily discounted, yummy products).
• Refer a Friend Scheme (up to £300 per referral – t&cs dependent).
• Employee Recognition Awards.
• Extensive Learning & Development opportunities (including opportunities for sponsored professional memberships and our own in-house development course).
• An opportunity to be part of a fantastic, growing organisation.

Why Join Us?

Our vision is to be the UK’s leading specialty bakery group. We invest in our people because your success drives ours. If you’re passionate about operational excellence, thrive on collaboration, and want to make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you. Apply today and help us shape the future of excellence at Ultrapharm!