Group Performance Engineer – Energy in Southampton

Middlemore has been exclusively retained to recruit for a senior performance engineering opportunity for an experienced power/thermal specialist to take ownership of boiler and turbine performance across a modern UK Energy from Waste fleet. This is a high-impact, data-driven role focused on measurable efficiency gains, working at group level rather than tied to a single plant.

Role overview

• Asset Management – performance owner for operational EfW assets, reporting into Group Asset Management leadership. Group remit across multiple plants, leading asset performance, reliability and efficiency to deliver best-in-class asset performance and margin improvement.

What you will be doing

• Act as performance owner for boilers and turbines, materially influencing thermal efficiency, turbine efficiency and overall plant output across the EfW portfolio.
• Lead the definition, monitoring and interpretation of asset KPIs, providing periodic performance and diagnostic reporting on critical plant assets.
• Optimise combustion/boiler and turbine cycle performance, including fuel calorific value, thermodynamic performance and the knock-on impact of plant changes across the whole process.
• Use and challenge thermodynamic, CFD and airflow models; verify outputs with independent calculations and plant data from DCS/SCADA and PI or similar historians, acting as custodian of data quality and reliability.
• Lead or support performance tests, reconcile performance mismatches and translate plant performance into financial impact (margin and EBIT), educating operations teams on the “price of non‑conformance”.
• Provide day-to-day performance engineering expertise to Operations, Maintenance and Engineering teams, and oversee an Assistant Performance Engineer who is more plant‑based.
• Proactively identify and deliver improvement projects to increase efficiency, availability, reliability and safety, including feasibility studies, conceptual and detailed designs.

In the first 12–18 months

• Deliver targeted efficiency uplifts on boilers and turbines across multiple sites.
• Optimise waste throughput within technical and environmental limits, improving overall plant output.
• Reduce performance losses that impact margin and EBIT, embedding changes and new ways of working with site teams.

What we are looking for

• Degree-qualified engineer in Engineering, Physics, Mathematics or similar, ideally Chemical/Process or Power.
• Strong track record in power/thermal plant performance (EfW, CCGT, biomass, coal, CHP or similar), with a deep grounding in thermodynamics, boiler operation, calorific value and turbine control logic.
• High technical capability and comfort with performance modelling, data analysis and performance monitoring software, including advanced Excel and tools such as Power BI, SQL, Access or similar.
• Experience working with plant efficiency data, energy production and performance monitoring software, including historians (e.g. PI) and DCS/SCADA data.
• Strong interpersonal and stakeholder skills: able to command a room, influence operators and senior stakeholders and embed change through communication and gravitas rather than “pressing the buttons” yourself.
• Proven leadership with the ability to guide an Assistant Performance Engineer, manage cross-functional work and contribute to budgets and commercial outcomes.
• Minimum 3–5 years in a similar performance or process engineering role, ideally within the energy sector.

Working pattern and environment

• Hybrid role combining desk-based performance analysis with regular site presence for performance tests, investigations and support to site teams.
• National travel to multiple UK sites as required for performance, commissioning and critical issue resolution.
• Predominantly office/control-room and plant environment, with exposure to typical industrial conditions when on site.

How to apply

If you are a technically strong performance engineer who enjoys complex thermodynamic problem‑solving, data-driven decision-making and influencing operators and senior stakeholders, please get in touch for a confidential conversation and full brief.