Maintenance Leader
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 3, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 1, 2026. Essity scores B on the Alion truth index.
At Essity, we're committed to breaking barriers to well-being through leading hygiene and health solutions. We are now looking for a Maintenance Leader to join our team at Stubbins Paper Mill, a key manufacturing site producing high-quality paper products for some of the UK's most trusted brands.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced maintenance professional and people leader to play a critical role in driving asset reliability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement across our mill. As part of our succession planning and future growth strategy, you'll have the opportunity to work alongside the current Maintenance Leader ahead of a planned retirement, ensuring a strong knowledge transfer while supporting significant site improvement projects.
About the Role
As Maintenance Leader, you will be responsible for leading the maintenance function, ensuring safe, efficient, and reliable operation of site assets. You'll champion our "Run to Standard" culture, drive maintenance best practices, and create an environment where safety, quality, reliability, and continuous improvement are embedded in everything we do.
Working closely with production and engineering teams, you will develop and implement maintenance strategies that support the site's long-term objectives while delivering improvements in equipment performance, cost efficiency, and operational stability.
What You Will Do
Reporting into the Site Leadership Team, you will:
- Lead and promote Essity's I Care culture, creating a safe, healthy, and sustainable workplace.
- Ensure compliance with all legal, regulatory, and site maintenance requirements.
- Drive adherence to maintenance standards, systems, and processes including SAP PM/MM, CILs, Centrelining, and maintenance best practices.
- Own planned and reactive maintenance activities across the mill.
- Develop and lead maintenance planning and scheduling processes, including safety briefings and shutdown planning.
- Champion a "zero unplanned stops" philosophy by reducing breakdowns and improving asset reliability.
- Lead root cause analysis, breakdown elimination activities, and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Own maintenance KPIs, budgets, defect reduction programmes, and maintenance performance reporting.
- Manage maintenance systems, technical databases, and asset management processes.
- Develop and maintain long-term maintenance and investment plans, including sustainability initiatives and asset lifecycle management.
- Coach, develop, and lead maintenance teams, creating a culture of accountability, capability-building, and high performance.
- Contribute to the site's Maintenance Roadmap and support delivery of the wider site strategy.
Who You Are
We're looking for a collaborative and proactive leader who thrives in a manufacturing environment and is passionate about developing people, improving reliability, and driving operational excellence.
You will ideally have:
- A degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent industry experience.
- Proven experience within maintenance, engineering, or reliability leadership in a manufacturing environment.
- Experience leading, coaching, or influencing technical teams.
- Strong understanding of preventative maintenance, asset management, and continuous improvement methodologies.
- Experience using maintenance management systems such as SAP or equivalent CMMS platforms.
- Knowledge of root cause analysis, defect elimination, and reliability improvement processes.
- Strong financial awareness and experience managing maintenance budgets.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills.
What We Can Offer You
At Essity, you'll be part of a global organisation with a strong local presence, manufacturing trusted hygiene and health products while contributing to a more sustainable future. You'll join a supportive environment that encourages innovation, collaboration, and professional development.
Our purpose, Breaking Barriers to Well-Being, provides meaning to everything we do. Join us to improve well-being for people and drive positive change for society and the environment. At Essity, you'll feel valued, empowered to grow, and challenged to achieve business results in a collaborative and open atmosphere. Innovate for Good | Excel Together | Be You with Us
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