Head of Systems

Your new company is a growing and ambitious organisation operating across a portfolio of nine anaerobic digestion plants, playing a key role in the renewable energy and circular economy sectors. With a strong focus on operational excellence, safety, sustainability and data‑driven decision-making, the business continues to invest in its systems, people and platforms to support safe, compliant and scalable growth across the Group.

Your Role: As Head of Systems, you will hold strategic and operational ownership of all business and plant operational systems across the Group platform. This is a senior leadership role, responsible for ensuring the reliability, effectiveness and continuous improvement of systems that underpin 24/7, safety‑critical operations.

You will lead end‑to‑end ownership of plant control systems (PLCs & SCADA), asset and maintenance systems (CMMS / EAM / Asset Life cycle Management), and associated integrations, ensuring systems are robust, well governed and consistently adopted across all sites. Acting as the key interface between Operations, Engineering, Finance, Health & Safety, external IT partners and system vendors, you will define standards, shape systems strategy, lead implementations and support sites through change - balancing hands‑on technical credibility with long‑term architectural thinking.

Key responsibilities include:

• Leading the Group systems strategy across PLCs, SCADA, CMMS and supporting platforms, aligned to operational, safety and growth objectives.
• Owning governance, standards and architecture for operational and business systems across all nine sites.
• Providing senior oversight and technical leadership for PLC and SCADA environments, including upgrades, integrations and commissioning.
• Developing and optimising CMMS / EAM capability, driving consistent asset structures, maintenance strategies and data quality.
• Leading system implementations, enhancements and integrations, including development of robust business cases.
• Building internal systems capability, documentation, training frameworks and site‑level adoption.
• Managing external vendors, integrators and system providers, ensuring service quality, cyber security, cost control and long‑term alignment.
• Supporting safe and compliant operations through strong data integrity, alarm management, reporting and audit readiness.
• Working closely with IT on cyber security, access control, backup and disaster recovery for operational systems.
• Supporting analytics, reporting and system‑enabled decision making across the Group.

What You Need to Succeed: You will be a pragmatic and credible systems leader, comfortable operating in industrial, operationally focused environments, and able to bridge the gap between plant teams, engineers and senior leadership.

Essential experience and capabilities:

• Significant experience working with PLCs, SCADA and plant operational systems within an industrial or process environment (energy, utilities, manufacturing, AD or similar).
• Strong understanding of asset management, maintenance strategies and CMMS / EAM systems.
• Proven experience leading system implementations and upgrades across multi‑site operations.
• Experience operating in 24/7, safety‑critical environments with a strong reliability and risk mindset.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence both operational teams and senior leaders.
• Strong vendor and systems integrator management experience.
• Comfortable working at both strategic and hands‑on technical levels.

Qualifications and knowledge:

• Degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering or similar (or equivalent experience).
• Ongoing professional development in systems, digital or operational technologies.
• Strong understanding of system architecture, databases and digital platforms.
• Working knowledge of reporting and analytics tools.
• Understanding of GDPR, data protection and cyber security principles within OT / IT environments.

Desirable:

• Experience within renewables, utilities, biogas or heavy industry.
• Exposure to ERP integrations or enterprise platforms.
• Familiarity with CMMS platforms (e.g. Fiix, Ultimo or similar).
• Awareness of OT cyber security standards and OT/IT convergence.
• Experience standardising systems across a growing multi‑site platform.

What You Will Get in Return: You will join a purpose‑driven organisation at a key stage of its growth, with the opportunity to shape the systems backbone of a critical renewable energy platform. In return, you can expect:

• A senior leadership role with real influence and ownership.
• The opportunity to design and implement systems that directly impact safety, reliability and performance.
• A collaborative working environment with strong access to senior stakeholders.
• Long‑term career development within a growing and evolving organisation.
• Competitive salary and benefits package aligned with the seniority of the role.
• The chance to play a meaningful role in supporting sustainability and the energy transition.