EC&I Manager

Company Summary

Hart Process Services (HPS) is a growing multidisciplinary design consultancy with approximately 40 engineers and designers, specialising in:

• Process Engineering
• Process Safety
• Electrical, Control & Instrumentation (EC&I)
• Mechanical, Piping and Layout
• Validation
• Project Management

We support a wide variety of clients in the whisky distilling, chemical, and pharmaceutical sectors. With around 30 active projects at any time, our typical design project values reach up to £3 million in fees.

HPS is headquartered at:

UnitA10, The Embankment Business Park, Heaton Mersey, SK4 3GN.

Job Summary

The EC&I Engineering Manager will lead the Electrical, Instrumentation & Control discipline across HPS. This dual-role position combines technical leadership and team management with a strategic commercial focus — supporting proposal development, client engagement, and the wider growth of the business.

You will be responsible for managing the EC&I department’s operations, developing talent, ensuring project delivery, and actively contributing to client satisfaction and commercial success.

In the early stages of the role, the EC&I Engineering Manager is expected to spend approximately 80% of their time on fee-earning project work. This will naturally be reviewed as the department and workload grow.

EC&I Department Management

Leadership & Oversight

• Line management for 4 EC&I engineers, 4 designers, and 1 apprentice designer.
• Weekly task alignment, workload balancing, and milestonetracking.
• Facilitate weekly 30-minute team meetings to assess progress and priorities.
• Conduct monthly one-to-one sessionsand annual performanceappraisals.
• Guide, mentor and support apprentices by providing regular feedback, and opportunities for skill development, ensuring alignment with both departmental goals and engineering standards.

Project Alignment

• Collaborate with Project Managers during project kick-off to align scope, resourcing, and deliverables.
• Assist project managers with identifying and mitigating project delivery risks.
• Ongoing support and oversightof EC&I resource deployment across projects.

Technical Assurance & Design Governance

• Implement and maintain HPS EC&I checking and approval procedures in line with company-wide technical assurance requirements.
• Act as EC&I discipline approver for defined deliverables, delegating checking responsibilities appropriately within the team.
• Ensure EC&I designs are consistently safe, compliant, and phase-appropriate across all projects.
• Escalate novel, high-risk,or safety-critical technical issues to the Technical Director.

Planning & Reporting

• Participate in weekly resource planning with the Operations Director and the Director of Projects.
• Attend quarterly management meetings to review departmental performance, inter-discipline coordination, and continuous improvement opportunities. Present departmental KPI’s, providing analysis of trends, opportunities, and risks.

Performance Management

• Define and track department-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Drive process improvements and maintain high-quality technical delivery.

Recruitment & Growth

• Support recruitment of EC&I personnel, including assessing technical competencies.
• Mentor and develop the team to build future leadership and technical expertise.

Culture

• Embrace and actively promote company values through collaboration, ethical behaviour and teamworking.
• Build trust with client teams to make HPS the partner of choice through project delivery excellence.

EC&I Engineering

• Lead assigned projects from an EC&I perspective,overseeing engineering deliverables and quality.
• Recognises that EC&I professionals typically specialise in one or two disciplines and therefore must demonstrate a sound technical grounding and working understanding of core principles across their weaker EC&I areas.
• Able to competently review, challenge, and integrate Electrical,Instrumentation, and Control designs by understanding intent, limitations, and interfaces, even where not a subject-matter expert.
• Demonstrates sufficient cross-discipline technical awareness to identify risk, ensure design coherence, and make informed engineering decisions across the full EC&I scope.
• Holds a good working knowledge of hazardous area design (ATEX / BS EN 60079) sufficient to act as design authority, review compliance, and provide hands-on support where required.
• Demonstrates a sound understanding of functional safety to BS EN 61511, enabling effective oversight of safety lifecycle activities and informed technical decision-making.
• Has a strong appreciation of EC&I requirements on GMP projects, including design intent, documentation standards, and verification expectations.
• Attend weekly internal design reviews to report progress and identify technical or commercial risks.
• Provide guidance to designers and review technicaloutputs before submission.
• Lead external design reviews with clients to ensure alignment and satisfaction.
• Input into project planning estimation, scheduling,and cost reporting.
• Ensure all designs meet applicable UK, EU, and client-specific standards and regulations.

Commercial, Client & Continuous Improvement

Commercial and Business Development

• Lead EC&I input on proposal development: attend client sites for initial sales meetings, contribute to scope definitions, and produce manhour estimates.
• Provide strategic input into business development efforts to win new work and retain existing clients.
• Identify and follow up additional opportunities emerging from ongoing projects Client Relationship Management.
• Build and maintain long-term relationships with key clients, understanding their needs and aligning HPS services accordingly.
• Maintain strong client satisfaction throughout project delivery, ensuring effective communication and professional representation of HPS.

Continuous Improvement

• Capture lessons learned across projects and implement improvement actions within the department.
• Foster and promote a culture of accountability, client focus, and commercial awareness throughout the team.

Skills, & Experience

Essential Skills and Qualifications

• Demonstrable experience leading and managing engineering teams.
• Proven ability to act as technical lead /design authority on EC&I projects.
• Degree-qualified in Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.
• Strong experience in EC&I engineering within process industries.
• Track record of successful multi-disciplinary project delivery.
• Ability to contribute to and review commercial proposals and client scope documents.
• Comfortable engaging with clients and internal stakeholders at all levels.
• Knowledge of relevant UK and EU design regulations and standards.
• Familiarity with project controls including scheduling, cost tracking, and reporting.

Desirable Skills & Qualifications

• Experience of functional safety design and good working knowledge of BS EN 61508 / 61511. TUV functional safety qualification or similar.
• Experience of ATEX hazardous area design and good working knowledge of BS EN 60079. CompEx Ex12 qualification or similar.

Working Conditions:

• Salary: £75,000 – £85,000 per annum (depending on experience)
• Package: Performance-related bonus, pension, flexible working, and progression opportunity within a growing consultancy.
• Full-timeposition with occasional travel to project sites.
• Officebased in Heaton Mersey, SK4 3GN
• Free onsite parking
• Unlimited Fresh Fruit
• Supportive Working Environment
• Investment in training & development opportunities
• Flextime
• Flexibility in work hoursmay be required toaccommodate deadlines and international time zones.
• Company Health shield provided