Vibrant Foods
Lead Engineer
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About Vibrant Foods
Vibrant Foods is one of Europe's largest South Asian food groups, bringing together a portfolio of well-established heritage brands, including East End, TRS, Fudco, Cofresh, and Everest. Headquartered in Watford, with three manufacturing facilities across the Midlands, the company is dedicated to creating authentic, flavour-led food experiences that celebrate South Asian heritage while meeting the growing demand for plant-based and vegetarian products.
The business combines a rich cultural legacy with a modern, growth-focused approach, supplying both retail and foodservice markets across the UK and internationally. Its purpose is to create adventures in flavour that bring people together by connecting consumers with foods rooted in taste, heritage, and culture.
At the heart of Vibrant Foods is a people-focused culture underpinned by five core values: Swift, Passionate, Inclusive, Collaborative, and Empowered. Employees are encouraged to share ideas, work collaboratively to solve challenges, and take ownership of their work. This creates an agile, supportive environment where innovation, continuous improvement, and personal development are actively encouraged.
Job title - Lead Engineer (Electrical Bias)
Location - Leicester, UK
Salary - £60,000 per annum
Working pattern - Monday to Friday dayshift (flexible hours) and occasional out-of-hours work
Reporting to - Head of Engineering
Role Purpose
To provide leadership and technical expertise across two food manufacturing sites, ensuring safe, reliable and compliant performance of assets and infrastructure. With an electrical bias, the role also oversees mechanical performance, develops engineering capability and drives continuous improvement.
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Key Responsibilities
- Support the Head of Engineering with leadership, direction and technical oversight across two manufacturing sites.
- Develop engineers and apprentices, establishing competency frameworks, standards, procedures and best practice.
- Drive a proactive engineering culture focused on safety, reliability, operational excellence and continuous improvement.
- Provide technical leadership for electrical and mechanical systems, including HV/LV, power distribution, automation and controls.
- Lead complex fault investigations and root-cause analysis, and develop preventative, predictive and reliability-centred maintenance strategies.
- Support capital projects, commissioning, shutdowns and plant upgrades, managing contractors and specialist suppliers.
- Monitor asset performance, KPIs, budgets and maintenance effectiveness to improve reliability, sustainability and cost.
- Deputise for the Head of Engineering and coordinate multi site maintenance planning and resources.
- Act as Electrical Duty Holder for both sites, maintaining safe systems for isolation, permits, switching and authorisations.
Person Specification
Essential
- Level 3 minimum in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline.
- Extensive senior engineering leadership experience in manufacturing, FMCG, food production or industry.
- Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams, with strong coaching and people management.
- Strong electrical background covering HV/LV systems, power distribution, automation and control systems.
- Sound understanding of mechanical systems, maintenance, statutory compliance and engineering standards.
- Proven experience managing engineering budgets, contractors and maintenance performance.
- Excellent fault-finding, problem-solving, decision-making and cross-functional communication skills.
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Desirable
- Experience as an Electrical Duty Holder or Senior Authorised Person.
- IOSH or NEBOSH qualification, plus DSEAR/ATEX experience.
- Food manufacturing or FMCG experience; steam boiler care experience is advantageous.
Benefits Full of Flavour
At Vibrant Foods, we believe great benefits are an essential ingredient in a rewarding career. Here’s a taste of what you can enjoy:
- 33 days’ annual leave - Plenty of time to relax, recharge and enjoy life outside work.
- Pension contributions matched up to 5% - Contribute 5% and we’ll match it—giving you a total pension contribution of 10%.
- Private healthcare eligibility - Access additional support to help you look after your health and wellbeing.
- Volunteering days - Take time away from your usual role to support the causes and communities that matter to you.
- Free on-site parking - Making your daily journey a little easier.
- And many more benefits to enjoy!
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