About the Role – Engineering Manager

This is a critical leadership role within Delmaine Fine Foods, responsible for ensuring our plant, equipment, and engineering capability support safe, efficient, and high-performing operations as the business continues to grow.

As our Engineering Manager, you’ll lead the engineering and maintenance function across the site — driving reliability, continuous improvement, and capital efficiency. You’ll balance hands-on technical leadership with strategic planning, ensuring our assets are maintained to a high standard while building a capable, engaged engineering team.

Reporting to the Plant Manager, you’ll be a trusted technical and commercial advisor to the Leadership Team. You’ll provide clear engineering insight, risk assessment, and recommendations that support both day-to-day operations and long-term investment decisions.

This role has full accountability for the Repairs & Maintenance budget and plays a key role in maintenance planning, project delivery, and continuous improvement initiatives across the site. You’ll work closely with production, quality, and safety teams to ensure engineering solutions enable strong operational outcomes, while upholding Delmaine’s safety-first culture.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced engineering team leader or new engineering manager who enjoys improving systems, developing people, being hands on, and making a tangible impact in a complex manufacturing environment.

Start Date: Early March

What You’ll Be Doing

• Leading the engineering and maintenance team to keep plant and equipment running safely, reliably, and efficiently.

• Taking hands-on ownership of day-to-day maintenance activities, including preventative maintenance, fault-finding, and breakdown response.

• Working closely with production to minimise downtime and support daily operational priorities.

• Driving improvements in equipment reliability, plant performance, and maintenance practices across the site.

• Planning and delivering engineering and capital projects, from scoping through to implementation.

• Managing the Repairs & Maintenance (R&M) budget, engineering costs, and contractor performance.

• Actively using the maintenance management system to plan work, prioritise resources, and track performance.

• Providing practical engineering input into process, product, and equipment changes.

• Ensuring all engineering work meets health, safety, quality, and compliance standards.

• Developing, coaching, and leading the engineering team to build capability and accountability.

• Collaborating with Production, Quality, and HSEQ teams to support strong site performance.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven hands-on experience leading engineering or maintenance teams in a manufacturing environment.

• An engineering degree or relevant trade qualification with strong practical capability.

• Strong fault-finding and problem-solving skills across plant, machinery, and automation.

• Experience with preventative maintenance systems and reliability improvement.

• Confidence managing contractors, suppliers, and engineering spend.

• Practical experience delivering engineering and improvement projects.

• A proactive, solutions-focused mindset with a strong sense of ownership.

• The ability to lead by example and work comfortably on the floor when required.

• Clear communication skills and a collaborative working style.

• A strong commitment to safety, quality, and continuous improvement.

• Experience in food manufacturing or FMCG is highly regarded but not essential.

Why Delmaine?

We’re a proud New Zealand-owned food manufacturer recognised for our iconic brands. We're committed to a safety first environment, quality, and continuous improvement. At Delmaine, you’ll join a supportive, down-to-earth team that values integrity, collaboration, and getting things done the right way. We deliver, grow, and celebrate together.

This is an opportunity to lead, influence, and make a tangible impact in a business that’s growing and evolving. If you want a role where your work genuinely matters — we’d love to hear from you.

Next Steps

If you’re an engineering professional who enjoys working in a hands-on leadership role within an FMCG manufacturing environment, we’d love to hear from you.

Please click ‘Apply’ and follow the prompts. We’ll be in touch with shortlisted candidates.

For more information or a full position description, please contact careers@delmaine.com

Please note: To be considered for this role, you must be currently based in New Zealand and hold the appropriate legal right to work in New Zealand. We are unable to consider offshore applicants or provide visa sponsorship for this position.