Maintenance Scheduler in Darlington

Key Responsibilities

• Maintenance Scheduling & Coordination: Develop, maintain and communicate daily, weekly, monthly and shutdown maintenance schedules for all plant assets. Coordinate maintenance activities across manufacturing, utilities, warehousing, packaging and site infrastructure. Align maintenance schedules with production plans to minimise downtime and maximise plant availability. Lead weekly scheduling and planning meetings with Operations, Maintenance, Engineering and Supply Chain teams. Prioritise maintenance activities based on safety risk, equipment criticality, regulatory requirements and operational impact. Manage schedule changes arising from breakdowns, emergent work and changing production priorities. Coordinate planned shutdowns, turnarounds and major maintenance campaigns. Ensure all scheduled work complies with site permit-to-work requirements and safe systems of work.
• Work Preparation & Resource Coordination: Ensure all work orders are fully prepared before being scheduled. Verify availability of labour, materials, spare parts, specialist tools, contractors and permits. Coordinate contractor activities including RAMS reviews, access arrangements, lifting operations and specialist services. Liaise with Stores, Procurement, Engineering and suppliers to resolve material shortages and expedite critical spares. Monitor availability of strategic and critical spare parts to support plant reliability. Ensure maintenance activities are scheduled with all supporting documentation and execution requirements in place. Support effective planning and resource allocation during plant shutdowns and turnarounds.
• Maintenance Work Management & Continuous Improvement: Drive compliance with maintenance work management processes and best practice principles. Support continual improvement of planning, scheduling, execution feedback and work order close-out processes. Identify opportunities to improve maintenance efficiency, resource utilisation and schedule effectiveness. Participate in reliability improvement initiatives aimed at reducing equipment failures and increasing asset availability. Support implementation of Lean Manufacturing, TPM, Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and continuous improvement programmes. Promote a proactive maintenance culture focused on safety, reliability and operational excellence. Support root cause investigations and corrective action implementation where maintenance performance trends indicate recurring issues.
• Schedule Compliance, KPI Reporting & Backlog Management: Monitor and report maintenance performance against agreed KPIs. Track and analyse: Schedule Compliance, Preventive Maintenance Compliance, Work Order Completion, Backlog Volume and Age, Planned vs Reactive Maintenance, Equipment Downtime, Resource Utilisation, Shutdown Performance. Manage maintenance backlog to ensure work is prioritised according to risk, plant criticality and business impact. Produce maintenance reports, dashboards and performance summaries for site leadership. Identify performance trends and recommend actions to improve reliability and maintenance effectiveness.
• CMMS Administration & Data Integrity: Administer and maintain the site CMMS platform. Ensure integrity of asset hierarchies, equipment records, BOMs, maintenance plans and work order data. Support optimisation and standardisation of CMMS workflows and reporting processes. Maintain accurate maintenance history records and backlog visibility. Develop and maintain KPI dashboards and management reports. Conduct routine audits of CMMS data to ensure compliance with site standards. Provide CMMS support and training to maintenance personnel.
• Technical Support: Read and interpret engineering drawings, P&IDs, technical specifications, equipment manuals and maintenance documentation. Support development and review of maintenance job plans and task instructions. Assist Engineering and Reliability teams with maintenance data analysis and asset improvement initiatives. Maintain awareness of equipment criticality and maintenance strategies across mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and control systems.
• Safety, Environmental & Regulatory Compliance: Ensure maintenance schedules support compliance with site safety management systems and permit-to-work procedures. Support safe execution of maintenance activities through coordination of PTW, LOTO and other safe systems of work. Ensure statutory inspections, compliance activities and critical maintenance tasks are completed within required timescales. Promote compliance with company procedures, environmental standards and regulatory obligations. Support Management of Change (MOC) requirements where maintenance activities affect equipment or processes. Contribute to Process Safety Management (PSM) objectives through effective maintenance planning and scheduling. Support COMAH and other high-hazard regulatory compliance requirements where applicable.

Qualifications & Experience

• Essential: HNC/HND or equivalent qualification in Engineering, Maintenance, Manufacturing or related technical discipline. Experience in maintenance planning, scheduling or coordination within manufacturing, process, chemical, utilities, energy or heavy industrial environments. Experience using CMMS systems such as SAP PM, Maximo, Infor EAM, IFS or equivalent. Strong understanding of maintenance work management principles. Experience coordinating labour, contractors, shutdowns and maintenance resources. Knowledge of permit-to-work systems and safe systems of work. Competent user of Microsoft Excel and reporting systems.
• Desirable: Engineering apprenticeship or trade background. Experience within chemical, polymer, process manufacturing or COMAH-regulated environments. CMRP, IAM, APICS or recognised Maintenance Planning certification. Lean Manufacturing, TPM, Six Sigma or Reliability qualification. Experience with Power BI and maintenance analytics tools.

Key Competencies

• Excellent planning and organisational capability.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.
• High attention to detail and data accuracy.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to challenge priorities constructively and make risk-based decisions.
• Good understanding of industrial maintenance processes and plant operations.
• Strong CMMS and systems capability.
• Continuous improvement mindset focused on operational excellence.
• Collaborative approach with Operations, Engineering, Stores and contractor teams.