Lead Engineer

Site Maintenance Lead

Location – Based in Ilminster – Somerset

Salary - Up to £43k depending on experience

Hours - Mon–Fri 8:00 – 16.00 with flexibility around Kitchen start time can be am to 3pm or 7.30am to 3.30pm.

At COOK, we make remarkable food, properly and that means our Kitchens need to run safely, reliably, and smoothly every day.

We’re looking for a hands-on Site Maintenance Lead to look after our Puddings Kitchen site. This is a practical role for someone who enjoys fixing things, keeping equipment running, and taking pride in a well-looked-after workplace.

This isn’t a big management job. You’ll spend most of your time on the tools, solving problems, carrying out maintenance, and being the go-to engineering person on site.

What you’ll be doing

Keeping things running

• Carrying out planned and reactive maintenance across our Kitchen equipment and site services
• Responding to breakdowns quickly and calmly to minimise disruption
• Completing routine checks and planned preventative maintenance to keep problems from happening in the first place
• Spotting recurring issues and suggesting simple, practical improvements

Hands-on engineering

• Fault-finding and fixing mechanical and electrical issues
• Supporting installation, adjustment, and minor modifications to equipment
• Working on a range of food production, packaging machinery and site services
• Coordinating with external engineers when specialist support is needed

Looking after the site

• Being the main on-site engineering contact for day-to-day issues
• Communicating clearly with colleagues about what’s working, what’s not, and what needs doing
• Keeping basic records, spares, and tools in good order

Working safely and responsibly

• Always working safely and following site procedures
• Making sure engineering work meets food safety, hygiene, and GMP standards
• Supporting audits by keeping equipment and documentation up to scratch

Making things better

• Sharing ideas to improve reliability, safety, and efficiency
• Helping investigate repeat problems and prevent them happening again
• Taking a common-sense approach to maintenance, simple, effective, and well done

What we’re looking for

• Experience in a hands-on maintenance or engineering role
• Overview of the site repairs & maintenance budget
• Good practical mechanical and/or electrical skills
• An engineering apprenticeship or equivalent hands-on experience
• Someone comfortable working independently on a small site
• A practical mindset. You enjoy rolling your sleeves up and getting stuck in
• An understanding of food safety and hygiene is helpful, but training can be provided

If you tick most of these boxes but not all—don’t stress. We’re all about potential.

This role is for you if you?

• Like being busy and useful
• Take pride in fixing things properly
• Enjoy ownership and responsibility without lots of management overhead
• Prefer the workshop floor to a desk

This role isn’t?

• A big people-management role
• Heavy on budgets, reports, or strategy
• An all day sit-behind-a-computer engineering job

Excellent Benefits including

• Paid leave on your birthdays, moving house, become grandparent or your child starts school for the first time
• staff profit share
• Wellbeing program
• 30% staff discount
• Access to CookieJar Smart Spending discounts and free food perks.
• Team meals , events & away days
• Be part of a B-Corp-certified business that values sustainability, people, and the community. And many more ?.

What Cook is About

We’re a proudly independent, family-owned B Corp, which basically means we care. A lot. About our food. About our people. And about doing the right thing—even when it’s not the easy thing.

Our vision for COOK has always been that we are a place where EVERYONE is welcome. We want everyone to feel like they belong at COOK. We all have different roles, different abilities and different personalities. By collaborating we can do remarkable things. Whatever your story, if you would like to grow with COOK please apply.

INDHP