Maintenance Manager

Team Horizon is seeking a Maintenance Manager for a leading manufacturing company in Sligo.

The Maintenance Manager’s role is a key engineering position reporting to the Engineering Manager.

The Maintenance Manager's role is to lead and manage the maintenance operations at our EU GMP vaccine manufacturing facility in Ireland. The position entails supervising all aspects of equipment, utilities, and facility maintenance—both planned and reactive—to ensure continuous, compliant, and efficient manufacturing processes.

Why you should apply:

• Our client has developed a stand-out culture of innovation, inclusion and development, and consistently features as a great place to work.


• They put their people first and live their diversity and inclusion values embracing all perspectives.

What you will be doing:

• Lead and manage the maintenance engineering team.


• Plan maintenance schedule to various planning horizons, ensuring that vendor lead maintenance is booked well in advance of due date and the appropriate EHS and PO is in place.


• Work with Site Production Scheduler to plan appropriate timeslots access to equipment, facilities and utilities for maintenance, keeping maintenance down time to the minimum.


• Work with QC Manager to plan appropriate timeslots access to QC Lab equipment, facilities and utilities for maintenance, keeping maintenance down time to the minimum.


• Implement team workload planner to track and ensure visibility to maintenance schedule, balancing workload amongst all team members.


• Ensure that all equipment, utilities and facilities are maintained within their due dates.


• Assign and prioritise workload for maintenance engineers as well as contingent workers to maintain equipment in validated state to support production schedule.


• Manage Work Orders within the eMaint system, ensuring timely approval and closure of Work Orders to confirm correct work completed, correct documentation attached and accurate metrics.


• Manage leading metrics, taking action immediately.


• Assign each eMaint asset a primary and secondary maintenance engineer, achieving a balanced workload across the maintenance department. Plan the required cross training to implement same.


• Develop and implement preventive and predictive maintenance programs for all GMP critical assets (e.g., HVAC, WFI, Clean Steam, autoclaves, reactors).


• Ensure all maintenance activities are executed in compliance with EU GMP, EHS, and other regulatory standards.


• Manage service contracts and vendor performance for critical systems and calibration services.


• Ensure SLA’s for critical equipment and systems in place with vendors.


• Identify necessary spares and maintain organised and adequate levels on site for easy access.


• Manage the team on-call maintenance rota and be available to provide on call cover for the site one week per month or as per business requirements.


• Responsible for ensuring maintenance related deviations, CAPA’s and change controls are completed on time and to the required standard.


• Supporting day-to-day activities and projects, as well as coordinating work with appropriate internal departments, contractors, and external agencies.


• Support regulatory inspections (HPRA, EMA, FDA) and internal audits; lead investigations and CAPA implementation related to maintenance.


• Coordinate with Manufacturing, Quality, Validation, and Engineering teams to ensure operational continuity and improvement.


• Prepare and manage departmental budgets and KPIs for maintenance performance.


• Lead root cause analysis and continuous improvement projects to optimise equipment reliability and uptime.


• Manage training on SOP’s, work instructions and OJT to ensure compliance and no overdue training.


• Support the introduction of new equipment or technology through FAT/SAT/commissioning and validation phases.


• Perform duties in a compliant manner and accordance with site SOPs, EHS standards and guidelines, and relevant legal requirements.


• Other duties as assigned.

What you need to apply:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, or related field).


• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in maintenance management, including people management, in a GMP-regulated pharmaceutical or biotech environment.


• Experience with automation and building management systems (BMS).


• Experience supporting sterile/aseptic manufacturing or vaccine production is a strong advantage.


• Six Sigma, Lean or Reliability Certifications. Project management experience in capital or upgrade projects.