Optimisation Engineer

Optimisation Engineer

Location: Oxfordshire

Salary: Up to £45,000 per annum

Job Type: Full-time, Permanent

The Opportunity

I'm working with an exciting Food Manufacturing business that is looking for an experienced Optimisation Engineer to join their Operations team.

This is a fantastic opportunity for an engineer who enjoys being hands‑on, data‑driven and focused on making a measurable difference across manufacturing performance.

You will play a key role in improving efficiency, reliability, quality and cost, using continuous improvement and engineering principles to reduce waste and downtime while increasing throughput and capacity.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyse production data including OEE, downtime, yield, waste and energy consumption to identify improvement opportunities.
• Lead and support Continuous Improvement / Lean / Six Sigma initiatives.
• Optimise manufacturing processes to improve efficiency, capacity and cost.
• Work closely with Production and Engineering teams to improve equipment reliability and reduce breakdowns.
• Lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and implement sustainable corrective actions.
• Support commissioning, validation and optimisation of new equipment and process changes.
• Lead or support CI projects from concept through to implementation and validation.
• Act as a Pillar Lead for Autonomous Maintenance and Progressive Maintenance.
• Play a key role in a major capacity expansion project, including the evaluation of in-line freezing.
• Develop SOPs, best-practice processes and training for operators and engineers.
• Lead projects focused on automation, energy reduction and delivering strong ROI.
• Track and report improvements, savings and project performance.
• Work collaboratively across Production, Quality, Technical, Engineering and Supply Chain.

About You

You'll ideally have:

• A degree or equivalent experience in Engineering – Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing, Chemical or similar.
• Minimum 2 years' experience within Food or FMCG Manufacturing.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and production equipment.
• Experience working with OEE, SPC and manufacturing performance data.
• Experience using CAD packages.
• Knowledge of Lean Manufacturing / Continuous Improvement methodologies.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and project management skills.
• The ability to influence and engage shop-floor teams.

Desirable

• Six Sigma Green Belt or higher.
• Advanced Excel / Power BI experience.
• Experience in temperature-controlled food manufacturing.
• Automation, PLC or process control experience.
• Knowledge of BRC, HACCP or ISO 22000.
• Previous project management experience.

Why Apply?

This is an opportunity to join a fast-moving Food Manufacturing environment where you can have a genuine impact on manufacturing performance.

You'll be working on significant improvement and capacity projects, including high-ROI automation and energy reduction initiatives, while helping to build a stronger culture of operational excellence.

If you're a proactive engineer who enjoys solving problems, improving processes and seeing the results of your work on the shop floor, this could be an excellent next career move.

Salary: Up to £45,000 + benefits