Planning Engineer

Are you an organised, proactive engineer with a passion for planning, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement? We’re looking for a Planning Engineer to support our Engineering function and play a key role in ensuring smooth, cost-effective operations across our factory.

What You’ll Do:

• Own and manage the factory stores, ensuring materials, parts, and resources are available when needed.
• Plan and schedule engineering maintenance activities, coordinating with production, suppliers, and the engineering team.
• Raise and manage purchase orders within approved budgets and timelines.
• Monitor stock levels, usage, and variances, escalating potential risks to ensure production continuity.
• Produce weekly reports on costs, stock usage, and key planning metrics.
• Maintain planning trackers, schedules, and systems with accurate, traceable data.
• Support cost control, continuous improvement initiatives, and audit compliance.
• Promote a quality-first culture, ensuring all aspects of food safety, legality, and product integrity are observed.
• Maintain orderly and compliant stores layouts in line with 5S and housekeeping standards.

Who You Are:

• Educated to secondary level (or equivalent), with good PC skills; electrical or mechanical qualifications are desirable.
• Experienced in a hands-on engineering role, ideally within manufacturing or FMCG.
• Familiar with reactive and preventative maintenance, high-speed packaging machines, and stores/inventory management.
• Able to read, follow, and update electrical and mechanical diagrams; PLC knowledge is a plus.
• Strong organisational, planning, and problem‑solving skills.
• A team player who can also work independently in a fast‑paced environment.
• Knowledge of GMP, 5S, and continuous improvement methodologies.

What Success Looks Like:

• Accurate planning and stock management with minimal stock‑outs.
• Timely maintenance scheduling and adherence to planned activities.
• Effective cost control, reporting, and audit compliance.
• Supporting continuous improvement and operational efficiency in the engineering function.

Non-negotiables (must-haves on CVs):

• Hands‑on manufacturing or engineering experience (reactive and preventative maintenance).
• Stores/inventory management experience in an industrial or factory environment.
• Planning and scheduling experience (including use of systems like Maint Master or similar).
• Attention to compliance and quality standards (GMP, 5S, food safety if FMCG).

Optional / nice-to-haves (used for scoring but not deal-breakers):

• PLC knowledge.
• Experience with high-speed packaging machines.
• Experience in FMCG or food production.

Why Join Us?

This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of engineering planning and stores processes, work closely with cross‑functional teams, and contribute to the smooth running of a high‑performing manufacturing environment.

Planning Engineer
• Birmingham, England, United Kingdom