Engineering Manager

Role overview

This permanent, full-time Engineering Manager position is based in Galway East (City) and offers a salary in the range of €90,000 to €110,000, depending on experience. The successful person will guide an engineering team, bring technical direction, and ensure delivery against business priorities, quality expectations, and agreed timeframes.

The role suits a leader who can combine hands-on engineering understanding with strong people management, operational discipline, and a continuous improvement mindset. You will work closely with teams across operations, quality, product, and other functions to keep engineering performance aligned with site goals.

Key duties

• Manage, mentor, and support a team of engineers so they can perform strongly and remain engaged.
• Hold regular one-to-one meetings, carry out performance assessments, set objectives, and build development plans.
• Contribute to hiring, onboarding, and succession planning for the engineering department.
• Encourage a workplace culture focused on safety, teamwork, inclusion, and ongoing improvement.
• Organise engineering priorities, workload distribution, and resource planning.
• Work with Operations, Quality, Product, and other stakeholders to deliver on commitments.
• Monitor progress against delivery targets, quality standards, cost controls, and performance measures.
• Identify and manage risks, dependencies, and escalations before they affect delivery.
• Use the QMS effectively to support root cause analysis and corrective action activity.
• Promote continuous improvement initiatives that support OEE across the plant.
• Drive process enhancements, tooling upgrades, and efficiency improvements.
• Encourage innovation and the adoption of suitable new technologies or working methods.
• Support asset replacement planning and lifecycle management where required.
• Implement preventative maintenance best practices to improve equipment reliability and efficiency.
• Create and maintain meaningful KPIs that support site performance reporting.
• Lead collaborative problem-solving with cross-functional teams.
• Control departmental spending within approved budget limits.
• Support internal and external audits connected to the engineering function.
• Review the effectiveness of the function on an ongoing basis and make improvements where needed.

Candidate profile

Applicants should hold a Level 7 or higher degree in Engineering, ideally in Polymer or Mechanical Engineering. A Lean or Six Sigma qualification is also required, along with strong analytical and problem-solving ability.

The employer is looking for someone with at least 5 years of experience in a similar engineering management position, plus a proven record of leading and developing engineering teams. A strong technical background in manufacturing or plant engineering is important, as is the ability to balance technical leadership with people management and delivery ownership.

Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills are essential. The ideal candidate should also be comfortable making decisions, solving problems quickly, and working in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment.

Benefits and package

• Health insurance
• Dental insurance
• Pension contributions starting at 1.5% from day one and increasing to 7.5% after 6 months
• Death in service cover equal to 4 times current salary while employed
• Permanent health insurance
• Christmas bonus
• Service awards
• 21 days of annual leave, increasing with service
• Company phone and laptop
• Business expenses covered according to company policy

Working conditions

This is mainly an office-based role within a manufacturing/plant setting in Galway East (City). Some moderate travel may be needed for site visits, and occasional after-hours support may be required for urgent engineering matters.

Additional information

This is a permanent employment opportunity. The role is being handled by Gi Group on behalf of a client in Galway East. Privacy and recruitment processing details apply to candidates who choose to proceed with an application.