Morgan McKinley
Head of Engineering
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Head of Engineering (Process & Design)
Salary: £95,000 - £95,000 plus car or car allowance plus bonus
Location: Bedfordshire with regular travel across UK operating sites
Reporting to: Projects Director
The Business
Our client is a growing UK operator of sustainable energy infrastructure, with a multi-site portfolio focused on renewable energy and long-term sustainable solutions.
As the organisation continues to invest in its existing assets and develop its future site portfolio, it is creating a senior engineering leadership position to provide greater technical direction, consistency and governance across the business.
This is an opportunity for an experienced Chemical Engineer to take a genuinely influential role in shaping the engineering strategy of a growing organisation.
The Role
Reporting directly to the Projects Director, the Head of Engineering (Process & Design) will lead the organisation's strategic technical engineering direction across its sites.
This is a strategic, governance-led role rather than a traditional hands-on design position. You will act as the senior Design Authority, owning engineering and process design standards, providing technical assurance across projects and operations, and ensuring design integrity, process safety and engineering quality are consistently maintained.
You will play a key role in the long-term development of the asset portfolio, assessing opportunities to improve site capacity, layout, efficiency and operational performance, while providing senior technical leadership across Operations, Projects, Compliance and site teams.
The role also has direct responsibility for the CAD function, including workload planning, team development, drawing quality, document control and continued improvement of CAD/BIM processes.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Site Development & Capacity Planning
- Develop and maintain long-term site development and expansion strategies across the portfolio.
- Assess site layouts, infrastructure and capacity to maximise the potential of existing assets.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, throughput and operational performance through engineering and design.
- Provide engineering input into site upgrades, development proposals and future capacity requirements.
- Support planning and regulatory approval processes where required.
Engineering & Design Authority
- Act as the senior Design Authority for process and engineering activities across all sites.
- Own and maintain engineering and process design standards.
- Provide technical oversight and approval of engineering models, mass balances, P&IDs, process diagrams and drawings.
- Lead structured design reviews for significant projects and modifications.
- Ensure engineering documentation is technically robust, controlled and delivered to programme.
- Provide technical challenge and assurance to project teams and external contractors.
- Share lessons learned across the portfolio and act as the senior technical escalation point for complex engineering matters.
Process Safety & Engineering Governance
- Lead and support HAZOPs and formal process safety assessments for new projects and significant modifications.
- Own and enforce the Control of Change (CoC) process.
- Ensure designs comply with COMAH, DSEAR, ATEX and safe-access requirements.
- Maintain robust engineering assurance, technical documentation and document-control standards.
- Ensure actions from audits, HAZOPs and engineering reviews are effectively closed.
- Own the production and timely handover of Health & Safety Files and as-built information.
- Promote a strong process safety and engineering governance culture.
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Process & Operational Engineering
- Provide process engineering leadership to improve plant stability, throughput and performance.
- Support Operations with technical expertise relating to process performance and design intent.
- Identify and remove process bottlenecks and opportunities for operational improvement.
- Provide engineering input into risk reduction and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Ensure engineering standards and process documentation remain current and consistently applied.
CAD & Engineering Team Leadership
- Lead and develop the central CAD function, with direct line-management responsibility for the team.
- Manage workload planning, task allocation and priorities.
- Ensure drawings are accurate, coordinated and delivered to agreed standards and programmes.
- Maintain drawing quality, revision and version control.
- Ensure compliance with CAD standards, BIM protocols and document-control requirements.
- Coach and develop CAD staff, including skills development and performance management.
- Improve CAD/BIM processes, templates and working practices.
Innovation & Technology
- Evaluate new and emerging process technologies.
- Lead technical trials and innovation initiatives.
- Identify opportunities to improve digital monitoring, predictive maintenance and plant optimisation.
- Assess opportunities for new energy solutions and potential revenue streams.
- Support the technical evaluation and costing of future opportunities.
Principal Designer
- Take on Principal Designer responsibilities under CDM 2015 for major projects during the pre-construction phase.
- Plan, manage and coordinate health and safety during pre-construction.
- Ensure design risks are eliminated, reduced or controlled so far as reasonably practicable.
- Ensure designers comply with their CDM duties and that design risks are identified, communicated and managed.
- Liaise with the Client and Principal Contractor on health and safety matters.
- Prepare and maintain Pre-Construction Information and ensure the Health & Safety File is completed at project handover.
Stakeholder & Contractor Management
- Provide senior technical leadership across Operations, Projects, Compliance and site teams.
- Build effective relationships with specialist contractors, suppliers, regulators and external bodies.
- Translate complex engineering issues into clear, practical recommendations for senior stakeholders.
- Provide technical challenge and assurance throughout project development and delivery.
About You
We are looking for an experienced senior Chemical Engineer and process engineering leader who combines strong technical credibility with the leadership skills required to influence across a multi-site organisation.
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You will be comfortable operating as a Design Authority and technical leader, while also working with Operations and project teams to solve practical engineering and performance challenges.
Essential Experience
- Degree-qualified Chemical Engineer, ideally with Chartered Engineer (CEng) status.
- Strong senior-level experience in process engineering, engineering leadership, technical authority or a comparable role.
- Advanced process design capability, including mass balances, P&IDs and process engineering documentation.
- Proven experience identifying and removing process bottlenecks and improving plant efficiency or operational performance.
- Significant experience in a process-driven, high-hazard or highly regulated environment, ideally within anaerobic digestion, biogas, biomethane, renewable energy, utilities, waste-to-energy, industrial gases, chemicals or a related sector.
- Experience acting as, or working closely with, a Design Authority or senior technical authority.
- Significant experience of HAZOP leadership and process safety assessment.
- Strong working knowledge of COMAH, DSEAR, ATEX and safe-access design requirements.
- Demonstrable experience implementing robust Control of Change processes.
- Experience across multiple sites and/or major capital engineering projects.
- Strong engineering governance and technical assurance experience.
- Experience working within ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 environments.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capability using data-driven approaches.
- Proven people-management experience, including coaching, development and performance management.
- Experience managing or overseeing a CAD, BIM or engineering design function.
- Strong stakeholder and contractor management skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders.
- Working knowledge of CDM 2015 and Principal Designer responsibilities.
- Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel across operating sites.
Desirable
- Senior-level experience in anaerobic digestion (AD) process engineering.
- Technical knowledge of CHP, biogas and biomethane systems.
- Experience with gas-quality compliance and energy export infrastructure.
- Understanding of PAS110, ABP and environmental permitting requirements.
- NEBOSH or equivalent safety qualification.
- Experience evaluating emerging energy, sustainability or process technologies and potential new revenue streams.
Why Join?
This is a rare opportunity to take ownership of engineering standards, technical governance and process design across a growing multi-site renewable energy operation.
You will have significant influence over how engineering is delivered across the organisation — from long-term site development and capacity planning through to process safety, design assurance, operational performance and future technology adoption.
For an experienced Chemical Engineer ready to step into a broader Head of Engineering / Design Authority position, this is an opportunity to make a tangible impact on the development and performance of a growing UK asset portfolio.
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