Refrigeration Engineer Manager

We're working with a leading facilities management and commercial refrigeration contractor to appoint a Refrigeration Engineer Manager to lead a team of engineers across a multi-site retail and industrial contract portfolio.

This is a hands‑on leadership role combining technical oversight, team management, and client‑facing responsibility. You'll ensure optimal performance, compliance, and reliability of refrigeration systems while developing your team and driving continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of refrigeration engineers and senior technicians across multiple sites
• Oversee planned preventative maintenance (PPM), reactive breakdowns, and project works on commercial and industrial refrigeration systems (including CO, transcritical, and parallel compression systems where applicable)
• Ensure compliance with F-Gas, H&S, PSM, and client‑specific standards and audit requirements.
• Manage workload planning, call‑out rotas, and on‑call cover to meet SLAs and KPIs.
• Drive first‑time fix rates, reduce repeat calls, and improve system uptime through root cause analysis and engineering solutions.
• Liaise with clients, site managers, and internal stakeholders to agree priorities, scopes of work, and improvements.
• Own technical documentation: P&IDs, maintenance records, risk assessments, method statements, and compliance logs.
• Support tendering, scope definitions, and resource planning for new and existing contracts.
• Contribute to recruitment, training, and competency development within the engineering team.

About You

• Proven background as a Senior Refrigeration Engineer or Refrigeration Manager within FM, retail, or industrial environments
• Strong technical knowledge of commercial refrigeration systems, including rack systems, condensers, evaporators, controls, and refrigerants (including CO and A2L where relevant)
• Experience leading and developing engineering teams, with a clear focus on safety, quality, and performance.simplyhired+1Confident client communicator, able to manage relationships at site and regional level.
• Organised and data‑driven, comfortable using CMMS/FM platforms to track works, compliance, and KPIs.
• Full UK driving licence and willingness to travel across a regional patch.