EC&I Manager in London

Hart Process Services (HPS) is a growing multidisciplinary design consultancy with approximately 40 engineers and designers, specialising in:
Process Engineering
Process Safety
Electrical, Control & Instrumentation (EC&I)
Mechanical, Piping and Layout
Validation
Project Management
We support a wide variety of clients in the whisky distilling, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors. With around 30 active projects at any time, our typical design project values reach up to £3 million in fees.
HPS is headquartered at:
UnitA10, The Embankment Business Park, Heaton Mersey, SK4 3GN.
Job Summary
The EC&I Engineering Manager will lead the Electrical, Instrumentation & Control discipline across HPS. This dual-role position combines technical leadership and team management with a strategic commercial focus — supporting proposal development, client engagement, and the wider growth of the business.
You will be responsible for managing the EC&I department’s operations, developing talent, ensuring project delivery, and actively contributing to client satisfaction and commercial success.
In the early stages of the role, the EC&I Engineering Manager is expected to spend approximately 80% of their time on fee-earning project work. This will naturally be reviewed as the department and workload grow.
EC&I Department Management
Leadership & Oversight
Line management for 4 EC&I engineers, 4 designers, and 1 apprentice designer.
Weekly task alignment, workload balancing, and milestonetracking.
Facilitate weekly 30-minute team meetings to assess progress and priorities.
Conduct monthly one-to-one sessionsand annual performanceappraisals.
Guide, mentor and support apprentices by providing regular feedback, and opportunities for skill development, ensuring alignment with both departmental goals and engineering standards.
Project Alignment
Collaborate with Project Managers during project kick-off to align scope, resourcing, and deliverables.
Assist project managers with identifying and mitigating project delivery risks.
Ongoing support and oversightof EC&I resource deployment across projects.
Technical Assurance & Design Governance
Implement and maintain HPS EC&I checking and approval procedures in line with company-wide technical assurance requirements.
Act as EC&I discipline approver for defined deliverables, delegating checking responsibilities appropriately within the team.
Ensure EC&I designs are consistently safe, compliant, and phase-appropriate across all projects.
Escalate novel, high-risk,or safety-critical technical issues to the Technical Director.
Planning & Reporting
Participate in weekly resource planning with the Operations Director and the Director of Projects.
Attend quarterly management meetings to review departmental performance, inter-discipline coordination, and continuous improvement opportunities. Present departmental KPI’s, providing analysis of trends, opportunities, and risks.
Performance Management
Define and track department-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Drive process improvements and maintain high-quality technical delivery.
Recruitment & Growth
Support recruitment of EC&I personnel, including assessing technical competencies.
Mentor and develop the team to build future leadership and technical expertise.
Culture
Embrace and actively promote company values through collaboration, ethical behaviour and teamworking.
Build trust with client teams to make HPS the partner of choice through project delivery excellence.
Lead assigned projects from an EC&I perspective,overseeing engineering deliverables and quality.
Recognises that EC&I professionals typically specialise in one or two disciplines and therefore must demonstrate a sound technical grounding and working understanding of core principles across their weaker EC&I areas.
Able to competently review, challenge, and integrate Electrical,Instrumentation, and Control designs by understanding intent, limitations, and interfaces, even where not a subject-matter expert.
Demonstrates sufficient cross-discipline technical awareness to identify risk, ensure design coherence, and make informed engineering decisions across the full EC&I scope.
Holds a good working knowledge of hazardous area design (ATEX / BS EN 60079) sufficient to act as design authority, review compliance, and provide hands-on support where required.
Demonstrates a sound understanding of functional safety to BS EN 61511, enabling effective oversight of safety lifecycle activities and informed technical decision-making.
Has a strong appreciation of EC&I requirements on GMP projects, including design intent, documentation standards, and verification expectations.
Attend weekly internal design reviews to report progress and identify technical or commercial risks.
Provide guidance to designers and review technicaloutputs before submission.
Lead external design reviews with clients to ensure alignment and satisfaction.
Input into project planning estimation, scheduling,and cost reporting.
Ensure all designs meet applicable UK, EU, and client-specific standards and regulations.
Commercial and Business Development
Lead EC&I input on proposal development: attend client sites for initial sales meetings, contribute to scope definitions, and produce manhour estimates.
Provide strategic input into business development efforts to win new work and retain existing clients.
Identify and follow up additional opportunities emerging from ongoing projects Client Relationship Management.
Build and maintain long-term relationships with key clients, understanding their needs and aligning HPS services accordingly.
Maintain strong client satisfaction throughout project delivery, ensuring effective communication and professional representation of HPS.
Capture lessons learned across projects and implement improvement actions within the department.
Foster and promote a culture of accountability, client focus, and commercial awareness throughout the team.
Skills, & Experience
Essential Skills and Qualifications
Demonstrable experience leading and managing engineering teams.
Proven ability to act as technical lead /design authority on EC&I projects.
Degree-qualified in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
Strong experience in EC&I engineering within process industries.
Track record of successful multi-disciplinary project delivery.
Ability to contribute to and review commercial proposals and client scope documents.
Comfortable engaging with clients and internal stakeholders at all levels.
Knowledge of relevant UK and EU design regulations and standards.
Familiarity with project controls including scheduling, cost tracking, and reporting.
Desirable Skills & Qualifications
Experience of functional safety design and good working knowledge of BS EN 61508 / 61511. TUV functional safety qualification or similar.
Experience of ATEX hazardous area design and good working knowledge of BS EN 60079. CompEx Ex12 qualification or similar.
Working Conditions:
Salary: £75,000 – £85,000 per annum (depending on experience)
Package: Performance-related bonus, pension, flexible working, and progression opportunity within a growing consultancy.
Full-timeposition with occasional travel to project sites.
Officebased in Heaton Mersey, SK4 3GN
Free onsite parking
Investment in training & development opportunities
Flextime
Flexibility in work hoursmay be required toaccommodate deadlines and international time zones.
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