Manufacturing Engineering Director

SUMMARY:

Engineering, Maintenance & Toolroom Leadership

📍 Cape Town – Northern Suburbs
💰 Circa R1.5 Million Total Cost to Company

Engineering Leadership for a World-Class Manufacturing Environment

Our client is seeking an experienced Manufacturing Engineering Director to lead the Engineering, Maintenance, and Toolroom functions within a highly technical manufacturing operation.
This is an engineering-first leadership role for a senior professional who understands how manufacturing engineering, product support, asset reliability, tooling, machining, and technical governance integrate to deliver operational excellence on the factory floor.
This is not a production, operations, project engineering, or maintenance-only role.
We are looking for a technically credible engineering leader who is equally comfortable shaping engineering strategy, leading technical teams, driving manufacturing improvement, and engaging directly with factory-floor execution.

The Opportunity

Reporting into executive leadership, you will be responsible for the overall engineering capability of the business, ensuring that manufacturing processes, engineering systems, maintenance practices, tooling resources, and technical governance support a safe, efficient, and globally competitive manufacturing operation.
You will lead Engineering, Maintenance, and Toolroom teams while driving continuous improvement, reliability, asset performance, manufacturing support, and engineering excellence across the business.

 

POSITION INFO:

Key Responsibilities

Engineering & Manufacturing Systems Leadership

• Lead the Manufacturing Engineering function across machining, fabrication, assembly, and production support activities
• Ensure robust engineering governance, technical standards, and manufacturing support systems
• Maintain and improve BOM structures, routings, manufacturing documentation, and engineering master data
• Drive process optimisation, industrialisation, capacity improvement, and manufacturing efficiency initiatives
• Support new product introduction and ongoing product engineering requirements
• Ensure alignment between product engineering requirements and manufacturing capability

Maintenance & Reliability Leadership

• Lead maintenance and reliability strategies to maximise equipment availability and manufacturing performance
• Drive preventative and predictive maintenance programmes
• Improve asset reliability, lifecycle management, and engineering support processes
• Ensure compliance with machinery, safety, and statutory engineering requirements

Toolroom & Machining Leadership

• Provide leadership to toolroom and machining support functions
• Ensure tooling capability supports production requirements, quality standards, and operational efficiency
• Drive continuous improvement within machining and tooling environments
• Support precision manufacturing and assembly operations through effective tooling strategies

Strategic Engineering Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop engineering managers, maintenance managers, and technical teams
• Drive engineering CAPEX planning and implementation
• Build a culture of accountability, ownership, technical excellence, and continuous improvement
• Partner with operational leadership to ensure engineering solutions support business objectives
• Establish engineering systems and governance capable of supporting sustainable growth

What We're Looking For

Essential Qualifications & Experience

• BEng or BTech in Mechanical Engineering or a related engineering discipline
• 10–15 years' experience within manufacturing environments
• Minimum 5 years' experience in senior engineering leadership roles
• Proven experience leading engineering managers, maintenance managers, and multidisciplinary technical teams
• Strong understanding of:
  • Manufacturing Engineering
  • Engineering Governance & Systems
  • Asset Reliability & Maintenance
  • BOM and Routing Management
  • CAPEX Planning & Implementation
  • Continuous Improvement
  • Production Support Engineering

Manufacturing Environment Experience

We are particularly interested in candidates from:

• Automotive Manufacturing
• Defence Manufacturing
• Precision Engineering
• Heavy Fabrication
• Industrial Equipment Manufacturing
• Engineered Products Manufacturing
• Similar discrete manufacturing environments

You should have exposure to one or more of the following:

• Machining environments
• Toolroom operations
• Fabrication and assembly
• Precision manufacturing
• High-volume manufacturing
• Engineered products manufacturing

Advantageous

• GCC (Government Certificate of Competency)
• SAP experience
• Experience in globally competitive manufacturing environments
• Exposure to defence, aerospace, automotive, or other technically demanding industries

The Ideal Candidate

You are a practical, hands-on engineering leader with strong technical credibility and a genuine understanding of factory-floor execution.
You have successfully led engineering functions beyond maintenance alone and understand how engineering systems, manufacturing processes, tooling, reliability, and production support work together to drive operational performance.
You are comfortable balancing strategic leadership with practical implementation and are recognised for ownership, accountability, and technical leadership.

Please Note

This role is not suited to:

• Pure Operations or Plant Managers
• Production-focused leaders without engineering depth
• Maintenance-only professionals
• FMCG or process manufacturing specialists without discrete manufacturing experience
• Utilities or facilities engineering leaders
• Project or Design Engineering professionals
• Technical specialists without leadership scale and team leadership experience

 

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