Mechanical Manager

Brighter Together Building a reliable, safe and efficient future together. #ShineBrighterTogether At KRONOS Europe, we colour the world with titanium dioxide (TiO₂), the pigment that makes products whiter, stronger and more durable. From our site in Ghent, around 300 colleagues work every day with passion for safety, quality and innovation. As ONE KRONOS, we strengthen each other and move forward together.

We are looking for a Mechanical Manager who, above all, can connect people and help them grow. A leader who brings energy and enthusiasm, who provides direction, coaches, motivates and inspires. Technical expertise is welcome, but your people skills make the real difference.

About The Job As Mechanical Manager, you organise and coordinate the mechanical department to ensure our plant continues to run reliably. You provide operational leadership to a core team of eight employees (including a Mechanical Maintenance Engineer and Team Leaders) and, through the line organisation, guide approximately 35 mechanics. You focus on safety, quality, planning and continuous improvement, ensuring clear priorities, transparent communication and a positive team dynamic.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Leadership & coaching: You monitor staffing needs, coach and evaluate employees, coordinate training and develop an engaged, learning-oriented team.
• Daily operations: You oversee the workflow (work orders, planning), supervise major maintenance activities (including shutdowns), and ensure all necessary work instructions and documentation are in place.
• Safety & environment: You ensure compliance with safety and environmental regulations, conduct (task) risk analyses (e.g. HAZOP), investigate incident reports and follow up on safety inspections.
• Quality & reliability: You perform quality checks, manage spare parts, and analyse failures/wear in order to prevent downtime and improve overall reliability.
• Improvement & innovation: You participate in project teams, exchange knowledge with engineering and process technology, and propose improvements related to quality, capacity and cost efficiency.
• Stakeholder management: You collaborate closely with production, planning and procurement, and coordinate with contractors and external specialists where needed.

About You You are, above all, a people leader: you bring structure and calm, you motivate and inspire teams, and you create a climate of trust where people are encouraged to think along, contribute and grow. You communicate clearly, from shop floor to fellow section managers, and you are able to set priorities independently.

You bring:

• An engineering background (or equivalent experience) and the maturity to lead a technical team. Your people skills matter more than deep maintenance expertise: you quickly grasp the processes and the plant and have a natural affinity for technology.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to connect across departments (mechanical, production, planning, procurement, contractors).
• An improvement mindset: you spot opportunities, take initiative and turn ideas into action (maintenance processes, documentation, spare parts management, project work).
• A fresh, energetic drive to bring change and guide your team through it.
• Languages: fluent in Dutch & English.

About Our Offer At KRONOS, you join an environment where you can truly make a difference.

In this strategic leadership role, you directly contribute to our production reliability and the further development of our site.

You are given the space to take initiative, drive improvements and grow personally and professionally, all within a culture where safety, respect and connection are at the heart of everything we do.

Curious to learn more? Get in touch via [email protected] or call 09/254.03.10.

Together, we make KRONOS stronger. Shine Brighter Together.