Requisition ID 64189
Position Type FT Permanent
Workplace Arrangement 

About Kerry Dairy Ireland

Kerry Group’s UK & Ireland dairy related business includes Dairy Ingredients, Dairy Nutritional Ingredients, Dairy Consumer Foods, and Agribusiness. With a revenue in excess of €1bn per year, it is one of the world’s leading dairy businesses. With our strong dairy heritage and deep-rooted connection to our 3,000 milk suppliers, right through to our portfolio of innovative and high-quality brands, the dairy business has a unique and compelling proposition for both consumers and our customers. 
 

Our dairy business has a diversified portfolio of dairy, nutritional ingredients and market leading dairy brands and its vertically integrated dairy processing ensures the highest quality, sustainably produced 1.2bn litres of milk?for our dairy, nutritional ingredients, and consumer foods business – a key consideration among some of our largest customers across the globe.  

We have an unrivalled dairy consumer brands portfolio coupled with a track record in innovation underpinned by technology and science. We manufacture and market our own leading butter, dairy, and plant spreads brands Dairygold, Low Low, Pure and Golden Cow. We are the largest supplier of Private Label dairy spreads, supplying all major retailers in Ireland, the UK and mainland Europe. Our cheese brands compete in children’s cheese snacks (Attack-a-Snak), natural cheese (block, slices and grated), and in processed cheese segments and our leading cheese brands include Strings & Things, Coleraine, and Charleville Cheese. Through our multi-geographical presence (UK, Ireland, and Western Europe) we have a deep consumer insight which is a key component of the business.

About the role

We are currently recruiting for an Maintenance Team Lead, to join the engineering team at our Cheese & Cheese snacking production facility in Portadown.   A Maintenance Team Lead in food manufacturing oversees the day-to-day maintenance operations that keep production lines running safely, reliably, and in compliance with strict food-safety standards. This role blends hands-on technical work with leadership, planning, and continuous improvement.

The Team Lead acts as the bridge between the maintenance crew, production teams, and management — ensuring equipment uptime, coordinating preventive maintenance, and driving a culture of safety and quality.

This is full-time, permanent role that will require the successful candidate to work a rotating 'double day' shift pattern.  

Key responsibilities

• Lead and supervise maintenance technicians across shifts.
• Diagnose and repair mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and hydraulic equipment.
• Oversee preventive and predictive maintenance programmes.
• Ensure rapid response to breakdowns to minimise downtime.
• Maintain accurate maintenance logs, CMMS entries, and equipment records.
• Support installation, commissioning, and optimisation of new machinery.
• Ensure all maintenance activities comply with food safety standards (HACCP, GMP, BRCGS, ISO 22000).
• Coordinate equipment cleaning, sanitation, and allergen-control procedures.
• Participate in internal and external audits.
• Allocate daily tasks and manage workload across the team.
• Train and mentor technicians, promoting skill development.
• Collaborate with production, quality, and engineering teams to resolve issues.
• Lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement initiatives (e.g., 5 Whys, Fishbone, Kaizen).
• Monitor spare-parts inventory and liaise with suppliers.
• Support budget planning for maintenance activities.
• Track KPIs such as OEE, MTBF, MTTR, and downtime trends.

Qualifications and skills

• NVQ Level 3 or equivalent in Mechanical/Electrical Engineering (or multi-skilled), an Apprenticeship in engineering or maintenance is desirable.
• Significant experience of maintenance engineering withing a manufacturing environment is essential.
• Experience of food, beverage, FMCG, or pharmaceutical manufacturing, hygiene standards, audit requirements is highly desirable.
• 17th/18th Edition (for electrically biased roles).
• Experience with PLC-controlled systems (fault-finding level).
• Ideally you’ll have knowledge of conveyors, mixers, ovens, packaging lines, pumps, refrigeration, etc.
• Understanding of CMMS systems.
• Ability to read engineering drawings and schematics.
• Effective team leadership and coaching ability, 
• Problem-solving mindset with a continuous-improvement approach.
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills with strong communication and cross-department collaboration.
• Supervisory or leadership training (ILM, IOSH Managing Safely, etc.).

Why join Kerry Dairy Ireland?

We can offer you

• Career development opportunities within a leading food manufacuring business
• Competitive hourly rate
• Shift allowance (for shift based colleagues)
• Matched pension scheme up to 10%.
• Life Assurance
• Employee benefit platform with discounts and offers for retailers online and offline, travelling, utilities and more.
  
  

Please note We do not accept CVs or candidate profiles from recruitment agencies where terms of business have not been signed. Additionally, we will not consider or agree to payment of any recruiter fee under these circumstances. This also applies to CVs or candidate profiles sent directly to any Kerry Hiring Managers. In the event that speculative CVs or candidate profiles are submitted by recruitment agencies, we reserve the right to contact these candidates directly and consider them for current or future vacancies without any financial obligation to the recruitment agency.

Kerry is an Equal Opportunities Employer.  Consistent with our policy of providing equality of opportunity for all, we are required to seek particular information from applicants.  As part of your application you will be asked to answer a short number of questions.  This information will be held separate to your application and treated in the strictest of confidence. 

Beware of scams online or from individuals claiming to represent us. A Kerry employee will not solicit candidates through a non-Kerry email address or phone number. In addition, Kerry does not currently utilise video chat rooms (e.g., Google Hangouts) to conduct interviews.