Maintenance Manager

Engineering Maintenance Manager Cockermouth, on site About James Walker James Walker is part of the James Walker Group of Companies, who are a successful global Industrial organisation supplying high performance sealing products and solutions. With state-of-the-art material technology skills, the James Walker Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of the James Walker Group specialises in the provision of sealing solutions (elastomers, polymers, composites, engineering plastics, high nickel alloys).

Our worldwide group of companies has operations, sales and service entities across Europe, Middle East, India, Australia, New Zealand, SE Asia, South Africa and North and South America Your Role To lead and manage the engineering maintenance function, ensuring the safe, effective and efficient delivery of reactive, corrective, planned and preventative maintenance activities across manufacturing and site infrastructure assets.

The Maintenance Manager is responsible for the performance and coordination of the maintenance team, ensuring labour and resources are aligned with the agreed maintenance plan and operational priorities. Working closely with the wider engineering team, the role will ensure effective planning, prioritisation and execution of maintenance activities whilst providing appropriate escalation and support for significant equipment issues.

The role will drive improvements in equipment availability, maintenance performance and workforce capability through effective use of the CMMS, downtime data, condition-based monitoring, maintenance KPIs and structured continuous improvement. The Maintenance Manager will work collaboratively with the Site Mechanical Engineer, Site Electrical Engineer, Engineering Maintenance Planner, Reliability Maintenance Manager and technical support functions to ensure engineering standards, maintenance strategies and reliability improvements are effectively implemented across the site.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the day-to-day performance of the mechanical and electrical maintenance function, setting clear priorities and deploying labour effectively.
• Develop and deliver daily and weekly maintenance plans with the Engineering Maintenance Planner, ensuring resources, materials, spares and contractors are ready.
• Coordinate major breakdown responses and work with production teams to prioritise maintenance while minimising operational disruption.
• Monitor planned, corrective and reactive maintenance performance, improving schedule compliance, equipment availability and repeat-failure reduction.
• Use CMMS, downtime, condition-monitoring and performance data to prioritise work, identify improvements and ensure work orders are properly managed and closed.
• Lead shutdown planning and execution, supporting engineering projects, equipment upgrades, commissioning and effective handover into maintenance.
• Drive root cause analysis and reliability improvements in partnership with reliability, mechanical, electrical and technical engineering teams.
• Ensure compliance with engineering standards, statutory requirements and safe systems of work, including isolation, LOTO, RAMS and Permit to Work.
• Lead team performance, attendance, competency, training, recruitment, onboarding, coaching and succession planning in line with company policies.
• Promote effective cross-functional communication and a culture of safety, ownership, reliability, quality and continuous improvement.

About you

Preferred Skill & Experience

• Managing maintenance across a multi-shift manufacturing operation.
• Delivering maintenance improvement or reliability programmes.
• Managing major maintenance shutdowns and equipment overhauls.
• Supporting CAPEX projects, equipment installations and commissioning.
• Developing maintenance strategies and performance KPIs.
• Supporting organisational change and maintenance team development. Essential Skill & Experience
• Significant maintenance experience within a manufacturing, process or heavy industrial environment.
• Leading and managing multidisciplinary engineering or maintenance teams.
• Managing reactive and planned maintenance activities.
• Coordinating maintenance resources across production-critical equipment.
• Using CMMS systems to manage and monitor maintenance activities.
• Managing maintenance priorities within a demanding operational environment.
• Managing contractors and specialist engineering support.
• Leading technical and operational problem-solving activities.
• Developing and coaching engineering personnel.
• Strong communication skills with experience working across multiple departments and levels of an organisation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree in Engineering, Maintenance, or a related discipline.
• NEBOSH qualification or equivalent health and safety qualification.
• Recognised qualification in Maintenance or Asset Management.
• Formal training or qualification in Reliability Engineering.
• Leadership or Management qualification.
• Project Management qualification or recognised project management training.
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA) training or qualification. Essential Qualifications
• Recognised engineering apprenticeship or equivalent technical engineering experience.
• HNC/HND in an Engineering discipline, or equivalent relevant technical experience.
• IOSH Managing Safely qualification, or an equivalent health and safety qualification.
• Formal training and competence in Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) and safe isolation procedures.