Mechanical Team Leader

Te Tūranga | About the Role

We're looking for a Mechanical Team Leader to join our Engineering team at our Belfast site in North Christchurch. This is a key leadership role responsible for leading a team of tradespeople to deliver safe, reliable, and efficient engineering support across our processing operation.

You will play a critical role in ensuring engineering services are delivered to the highest standard, balancing production requirements with maintenance priorities while never compromising safety, quality, or compliance. As a trade-qualified leader, you'll provide technical guidance, coaching, and direction to your team while fostering a culture of accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

This role combines people leadership with hands-on technical expertise, ensuring equipment reliability, effective breakdown response, and the successful delivery of planned maintenance activities.

Beyond day-to-day operations, you'll be instrumental in building team capability, identifying improvement opportunities, and championing operational excellence through Silver Fern Farms' continuous improvement programmes.

Shift Pattern: The hours of work for this role will be between 6:00am and 5:00pm, Monday to Friday, with some Saturday work expected when required (shutdown etc).

What you'll have ownership of:

• Leading, coaching, and developing a team of engineers and tradespeople to achieve safety, quality, maintenance, and production objectives
• Coordinating mechanical maintenance activities including breakdown response, preventative maintenance, and equipment improvements
• Providing technical expertise across mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, conveyor, and plant systems
• Ensuring engineering resources are effectively deployed to minimise downtime and maximise operational performance
• Driving a strong safety culture through hazard management, safe work practices, permit systems, and compliance requirements
• Championing continuous improvement initiatives and embedding Streamline principles across the engineering team
• Building strong working relationships with production, technical, health and safety, contractors, and site leadership teams
• Supporting the installation, commissioning, and ongoing reliability of plant and equipment assets

Ōu Pūkenga | About You

You're an experienced engineering professional with strong leadership capability and a passion for developing people. You understand the importance of delivering reliable engineering services in a manufacturing or processing environment and thrive in a role where no two days are the same.

Your leadership style is practical, approachable, and accountable. You build trust quickly, communicate effectively, and know how to motivate a team to deliver exceptional outcomes. You lead by example and are committed to creating a safe, high-performing workplace culture.

Ideally, you'll bring:

• A relevant mechanical trade qualification
• Proven experience leading or supervising maintenance teams in a manufacturing, processing, or industrial environment
• Strong knowledge of plant maintenance, reliability, mechanical systems, and engineering best practices
• Sound understanding of health, safety, and compliance requirements within an operational environment
• Experience managing breakdown maintenance and prioritising resources in a production-focused setting
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills with the ability to engage across all levels of the business
• Experience using CMMS systems and Microsoft Office applications
• A continuous improvement mindset with the ability to identify and implement practical solutions
• Knowledge of pneumatic, hydraulic, conveyor, and processing equipment systems

Tono Mai | To Apply

Click Apply below to submit your application.

Silver Fern Farms welcomes people from all backgrounds and experiences. We are proud of our diverse, inclusive workplace and are committed to providing equal opportunities for everyone.

Come and create goodness together with us.