Engineering Manager - Chef Fresh (Coles Group) - Banksmeadow

We’ve been proudly serving Australian communities since 1914 and have grown to become a top 30-listed company on the ASX with a portfolio of iconic homegrown brands. At the heart of our continued success is over 115,000 team members working across the country, all contributing to bringing our customers smiles. You’ll not only get to see your work make a difference, you’ll be part of a team working together to help Australians eat and live better every day.

About the role 

The Engineering Manager is a key member of the Senior Leadership Team, reporting directly to the Head of Site. This role is responsible for leading the Engineering function within our ready-made meals manufacturing facility, ensuring engineering excellence is aligned to broader business performance, operational efficiency, and long-term strategic objectives.

This position requires a commercially minded leader who can balance operational reliability with business outcomes. You will combine strong technical capability with strategic leadership, using data, financial insight, and continuous improvement principles to drive productivity, cost efficiency, asset performance, and team capability across the site.

With a strong focus on safety, reliability, operational performance, and people leadership, you will play a critical role in supporting sustainable growth and delivering site-wide results.

You will also:

• Lead and embed a strong safety culture through visible leadership, engagement, accountability, and proactive risk management.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing engineering team, fostering a culture of ownership, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
• Align engineering priorities with broader business objectives, ensuring engineering strategies contribute to operational performance, customer outcomes, and financial targets.
• Drive plant performance through the implementation of Lean Manufacturing principles, Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), and continuous improvement initiatives to maximise uptime, efficiency, and first-pass quality.
• Oversee day-to-day engineering operations while contributing to longer-term strategic planning, capital investment decisions, and site performance initiatives.
• Develop and manage maintenance and capital budgets, balancing operational requirements with commercial outcomes and return on investment.
• Use data, reporting, and performance metrics to identify opportunities, reduce downtime, improve asset utilisation, and support informed business decisions.
• Maintain robust records of maintenance, asset performance, and project activities to support traceability, continuous improvement, and business reporting.
  
  

About you and your skills

• Extensive leadership experience within a food FMCG or complex manufacturing environment, leading large, multi-disciplinary engineering teams reporting into site owners/general managers.
• A degree qualification in Engineering, with additional qualifications or experience in Business, Management, Operations, or Commercial Leadership highly regarded.
• Strong commercial and strategic capability, with the ability to balance operational priorities with business performance outcomes.
• Proven ability to lead teams, influence stakeholders, and deliver engineering strategies that improve reliability, productivity, cost performance, and operational efficiency.
• Experience developing and implementing CMMS systems and maintenance strategies to reduce downtime and optimise asset performance.
• Strong financial and analytical capability, including experience managing maintenance and capital budgets and delivering value across both operational expenditure and capital investment.
• Demonstrated success driving continuous improvement initiatives using Lean Manufacturing, TPM, RCM, or similar operational excellence methodologies.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage and influence across all levels of the business.
• A proactive, people-focused leadership style with a strong commitment to safety, capability development, and team performance.

What’s in it for you?

• Discounts: Eligible team members receive 5% discount all year round on your Supermarket and Liquor online and in-store purchases. We also offer additional periods of double discount (10%) at various times throughout the year. As well as hotdeals exclusive to team members that translate into additional savings.
• Reward through recognition: Give and receive recognition, linked to our Coles values, through our digital recognition platform ‘mythanks’. You can accumulate points to redeem in the online shop for exciting gifts and electronic gift cards from an extensive range of retailers.
• Opportunities for learning and development: No matter where you start within our diverse business, you’ll have experiences, exposure, and education to satisfy you. Discover and explore a variety of career development programs and job-specific training.
• Paid parental leave: We understand how important your life outside work is and offer permanent team members paid parental leave to support you in balancing work and family.
• Investment in your future: Our annual team member share plan offer allows eligible team members to make regular pre-tax salary sacrifice deductions to purchase Coles Group shares.

About the recruitment process

We’re continuing to build a gender equitable team, and a culture that is just as diverse, inclusive and welcoming as the communities we serve. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe and respectful for our team. We encourage applications from people of all ages, cultures (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), abilities, sexual orientation and gender identities.

We’re happy to adjust our recruitment process to support candidates with disability. For further information and additional contact details visit the ‘Our Recruitment Process’ section of our careers site or email inclusionrecruitment@coles.com.au

Job ID: 183717

Employment Type: Full time
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