Maintenance Lead
Location: North West England
Employment Type: Permanent
An established manufacturing facility in the North West is seeking a Maintenance Lead to oversee all maintenance activities across a complex site. This role is ideal for someone experienced in chemical, petrochemical, utilities, or pharmaceutical environments, with a passion for improving plant reliability, leading multidisciplinary teams, and maintaining a strong safety culture.
Role Overview
The Maintenance Lead is responsible for planning, scheduling, and driving all maintenance activities, including predictive and preventive maintenance, corrective work, facility upkeep, and small modification projects. The position oversees mechanical, electrical, and instrumentation workstreams, ensuring safe, cost-effective, and efficient execution. The role plays a key part in technical improvements, documentation, and fostering high performance within the maintenance team.
Key Responsibilities
-
Cultivate a strong EHS culture by leading the maintenance team in line with corporate policies and best practices
-
Lead and coach team members to deliver optimised maintenance planning aligned with site operational strategy
-
Identify development needs and drive competency building within the maintenance team
-
Lead predictive and preventive maintenance planning and safe execution, including mechanical integrity activities
-
Improve plant reliability by reviewing maintenance trends and evaluating the effectiveness of maintenance programmes using recognised tools
-
Oversee facility-related maintenance needs
-
Ensure maintenance information and equipment history are kept up to date in relevant systems
-
Track maintenance KPIs and identify opportunities for improvement
-
Support compliance with internal processes, quality and environmental standards, and change-management procedures
-
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to support wider site and business objectives
-
Supervise maintenance and project activities carried out by contractors, ensuring safe and timely execution
-
Support cost-effective spare parts and store management without compromising safety or quality
-
Lead maintenance budgeting, justification, planning, and reporting
-
Review equipment design, replacements, and upgrades where necessary
-
Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives and reliability-focused programmes
-
Identify and deliver improvement ideas related to efficiency, energy saving, vendor strategy, and maintenance optimisation
Minimum Requirements
-
Experience within chemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, petrochemical, or related manufacturing environments
-
Strong IT and digital skills
-
Demonstrated leadership capability and strong analytical thinking
-
Must be eligible to work in the UK
This role offers an excellent opportunity for a proactive leader with a strong technical foundation to drive plant reliability, safety performance, and continuous improvement across a key manufacturing site.