Maintenance and asset reliability

• Accountable for delivery of statutory, mandatory, planned and reactive maintenance through the approved CMMS, including schedule quality, work-order control, close-out evidence, defect prioritisation and backlog risk management.
• With Engineers, coordinate planned outages, intrusive inspections, OEM interventions and major repairs, ensuring robust work scopes, contingency arrangements, communications.
• Participate in the review of condition, failure and performance data to drive root-cause analysis, reliability improvement and risk-based recommendations for lifecycle, overhaul and capital plans.
• Ensure critical spares, specialist tools and consumables are identified, compatible, serviceable, securely stored, periodically verified and replenished.

Incident response and business continuity

• Act as an incident lead, or support the nominated Incident Manager, for significant plant, network or customer-service events within the applicable response and escalation arrangements.
• Coordinate stabilisation, fault diagnosis, temporary operation, specialist attendance, stakeholder updates and recovery, ensuring that safety and customer impact remain the primary operational considerations.
• Maintain and exercise site disaster-recovery and business-continuity arrangements, including emergency contacts, temporary plant strategies, critical spares.

People leadership and competence

• Line manage and develop allocated personnel, setting clear objectives and completing regular one-to-ones, performance reviews and development conversations.
• Help build a collaborative team that shares learning, standardises good practice and provides effective cross-site support without weakening local asset ownership.
• Promote a culture of accountability, openness and early escalation in which defects, risks and mistakes are reported and managed constructively.

Financial, procurement and contractor management

• Manage delegated regional OPEX, forecasts, accruals and purchase requirements, maintaining cost control while protecting safety, compliance, reliability and contractual performance.
• Prepare clear scopes, review quotations, support tendering and appoint or instruct contractors only within the approved procurement process and delegated authority.
• Manage contractor performance against safety, quality, programme, cost and close-out requirements, escalating recurring underperformance and maintaining suitable alternatives for critical services.
• Develop evidence-based maintenance, overhaul and improvement proposals, including operational risk, customer impact, cost, programme and consequence of deferral, for approval by the Regional Head of Operations.

Customer, contract and stakeholder delivery

• Serve as the senior day-to-day operational escalation point for key stakeholders, coordinating closely with the Regional Head of Operations and Commercial team on sensitive or contractual matters.
• Ensure planned and unplanned outage notifications, operational updates, incident reports and service-performance information are accurate, timely and consistent with contractual and company requirements.
• Understand the operational obligations, service boundaries, demarcation conditions and approval requirements applicable to each scheme, and ensure they are reflected in work planning and site decision-making.
• Build constructive working relationships with customers, local authorities, statutory bodies, framework partners, OEMs and specialist contractors while protecting the clients contractual position.

Performance, reporting and continuous improvement

• Help maintain a concise regional performance view covering safety, compliance, plant and network availability, maintenance delivery, defects, customer impacts, energy performance, costs and improvement actions.
• Support operational readiness, management of change, commissioning and handover for new connections, plant upgrades and lifecycle projects.

Person Specification

Technical and operational

• Strong understanding of operating and maintaining district-energy or comparable critical infrastructure, including thermal plant, distribution networks, electrical systems, controls and customer interfaces.
• Working knowledge of CHP engines, boilers, heat exchangers, pumps, thermal stores, water treatment, BMS (Trend / Tridium) and associated gas and electrical systems; able to recognise when specialist support is required.
• Sound knowledge of maintenance planning
• Practical understanding of UK health, safety and environmental duties, safe systems of work, contractor control and statutory inspection regimes relevant to energy operations.

Leadership and commercial

• Proven ability to lead multi-site teams, set priorities, delegate effectively, develop capability and hold people or suppliers to account.
• Competent in budget management, scope development, quotation review, contractor management and preparation of concise approval papers.
• Able to lead through incidents and uncertainty, make proportionate risk-based decisions and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and reporting skills, with the ability to turn operational and maintenance data into clear action and management insight.

Qualifications and experience - Essential

• HNC/HND, apprenticeship or equivalent engineering qualification, or demonstrably equivalent operational experience in an energy, utilities, process, facilities or critical-infrastructure environment.
• Experience leading operations and maintenance delivery, including direct people management and control of specialist contractors.
• Experience managing safety-critical work, maintenance compliance, incidents, outages and competing priorities across operational assets.
• Recognised health and safety management qualification, such as IOSH Managing Safely, or commitment to obtain the agreed qualification within a defined period.