Engineering Front Line Lead

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 122,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

Abbott has maintained a strong presence in Ireland since 1946 and celebrates its 80th anniversary in the country in 2026. The company supports the Irish healthcare sector with a broad portfolio spanning diagnostics, diabetes care, medical devices and nutritional products. Today, Abbott employs more than 6,200 people across ten sites located in Dublin, Donegal, Clonmel, Cootehill, Galway, Kilkenny, Longford and Sligo.

Abbott Nutrition produces a range of infant formulae in all pack sizes under the brand name “Similac”. To complement the range of “Similac” infant formulae, the facility also manufactures a range of follow on formulae under the brand name of “Gain”. The essential ingredient is liquid skim milk and this is combined with carbohydrate, vegetable oils, vitamins and minerals. The product is blended, pasteurised, dried and packaged at the site and once packaged, is distributed to Europe, South East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Canada.

Established in 1975, Abbott Nutrition in Ireland is the largest powder manufacturing facility for the production of infant formulae within the Abbott Corporation worldwide.  Approximately 1,000 dairy farms in Ireland and Northern Ireland supply quality milk to the Cootehill facility which processes 500,000 litres per day. This secure supply together with Ireland’s reputation as a green, clean environment is of significant strategic importance to Abbott Nutrition.

Please note any offer of employment for this position is conditional upon the successful completion of a pre-employment medical examination, including drug and alcohol screening, conducted by a medical practitioner designated by the Company.

We have an exciting opportunity as an Engineering Front Line Leader working in our Engineering Department and this role will involve the following

Manage the preventive and predictive maintenance programs, manage maintenance line support, coordinate plant shutdown assignments and oversee the contractors work, provide capital project input and support as well as overseeing the maintenance resources necessary to assure the production plan is met and/or exceeded while maintaining a zero-incident safety mindset, teamwork attitude and excellent customer service.

Leadership:

• →

  Holds themselves and others accountable to delivering results on time and right first time.

• →

  Plans work, monitors labour utilization, and manages overtime

• →

  Administer policies and procedures as they apply to employees.

• →

  Plan and schedule work in accordance with plant demand and available manpower.

• →

  Lead a team of 4-6 craft personnel.

Problem Solving:

• →

  Provide a centralized, strategic look across equipment performance (downtime).

• →

  Improves maintenance processes. Recognizes and implements process improvements and cost reductions; creatively applies others’ ideas.

• →

  Facilitates root cause analysis for equipment downtime, includes RCA tools – 3C’s, 5 Why’s, Fishbone.

• →

  Develops and executes reliability studies and evaluations of equipment robustness.

Project Management:

• →

  Drive a culture of continuous improvement through defined CI Project Methodologies (CHARTER, SIPOC, FMEA, GANTT, etc.).

• →

  Coordinates and monitors activities within the Maintenance Excellence program. Reviews plans and monitors status of implementation for those people assigned to effort; participates in site assessments.

• →

  Estimates and coordinates resources needed (materials, budget, time and people) to accomplish assigned individual tasks.

• →

  Participates in economic analysis and feasibility studies. Jointly responsible for achieving financial targets in support of business objectives.

Technical/Design:

• →

  Provide engineering & technical leadership to the manufacturing operations.

• →

  Independently gathers maintenance and manufacturing performance data (Maximo, Zarpac, etc.), and performs preliminary analysis. Reports findings. Prepares and communicates recommendations and respective action plans to drive cost containment and cost reduction efforts.

• →

  Anticipates future directions. Benchmarks internally and externally.  Assists with deployment of predictive and reliability centred maintenance strategies.

• →

  Bachelor’s Degree in engineering or equivalent discipline

• →

  1-3 years relevant experience in Engineering.

• →

  The ability to organize, motivate and understand people.

• →

  Ability to multi-task and to work in a high paced environment with an awareness of continued impact on production and the plant performance.

• →

  Organised and resourceful with excellent attention to detail and ability to get the job done.

• →

  Clear written and verbal communication skills.

• →

  Energy and self-motivation.

• →

  Proven Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.

• →

  Demonstrated time management skills - ability to handle multiple tasks, set priorities and meet deadlines.

Learn more about our health and wellness benefits, which provide the security to help you and your family live full lives:  Abbott in Ireland | Benefits

Connect with us at www.abbott.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

In specific locations, the pay range may vary from the range posted.