A lot of companies offer progression and training but how many actually stick to it?

Often, you're given a laptop and van, thrown you out on a job and expected to just carry on going through Groundhog Day until you're ready to retire.  Is that you, or would you prefer a chance to better yourself?

A company that we’re working with are looking for a BMS engineer that they can train up at their in-house training academy to become a BMS Project Engineer, the person running it used to be an instructor for TREND, so you’ll be in safe hands. It’s a safe space and you’ll be able to be open and honest and ask any questions that run through your mind (they appreciate that you’re most likely not going to hit the group running) …

They’re looking for someone that comes from a BMS Service background or someone that’s confident when it comes to integration, if you can do design, software and commissioning that’d be a bonus but they’re willing to train in all areas too.

The systems they work with are TREND, Tridium and Distech so knowledge in at least one is essential.

To start with you’ll focus on the engineering aspects so there will be a lot of technical design, software writing, commissioning and testing that’ll be carried out and then you’ll slowly learn more of the management side of things.

As it stands, there’s about 30 people in the company but they’re looking for this to grow to around 100 people over the next 4 years so there’s really nothing stopping you from becoming a Project Manager in your first 5.

Site wise, it’d be anywhere around the Southeast area, so you’d have to be fairly flexible when it comes to travelling and you’ll be looking at around 45-55k plus a company car/allowance, bonus scheme, pension, holidays and lots of training.

If there’s enough in this for you to feel like it’d be worth a chat, give me a call and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have – 0161 260 5326.

Apprenticeships have really taken back off again in the last few years.  For some companies, they really buy in to the idea of “growing their own” and helping your career to take off both during and after your studies.

Others use them for cheap labour. 

The latter often underpay you, even when you qualify and then choose not to invest any more time and money in your development.

If that sounds like you, and you did an Electrical Engineering apprenticeship, I might have an interesting job for you to consider.

It’s an Electrical Maintenance Engineer position that’ll probably have a real learning curve to it.  You’ll learn everything there is to know about Siemens 840D, which is a premium software product used to control 5 axis machine tools.

Rather than working on routine maintenance activities, you’ll actually become the “go to” person when it all hits the fan and the team of highly skilled maintenance engineers on site have been stumped by a problem. 

You can probably imagine that might not be an overnight thing.  In the meantime, you’ll be sent on external courses to learn more about the Siemens software and you’ll shadow a team of highly trained engineers who know everything there is to know about high value CNC machines.  You know, the massive ones with enough intricacy to craft the premium Swiss watches your boss probably wears.   

The salary is actually a bit of a weird one with this but I’ll do my best to explain it.  Your basic will probably be somewhere around £35k - £37k, but there’s an expectation that you’ll do a few hours of overtime every week as standard.  That means you’ll be doing 45 hours a week, but actually taking home between £48k and £51k every year by doing those hours. 

There’s more overtime available at the weekend as well, for what it’s worth, but whether or not you do that is completely your choice.

A pretty decent thing is that they do “average holiday pay” – so if you go away, you don’t lose out on the OT you’d normally have done during a week and get paid your holiday pay as standard, plus the overtime pay you’d have been paid based on an average of what you’d been doing up until you went away.

Oh, and you’ll be based on site at BAE in Samlesbury, so you’ll need to be able to get security clearance if you’d like to be considered.

If there’s enough in this for you to feel like it’d be worth a chat, give me a call and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have – 0161 260 5326.

Have you not been given that promotion you were promised at the start of this month?

Well, if you’re an experienced CMM Programmer looking to progress and ready to make the next step as a Measurement Systems Engineer, then this might be the part where you want to keep on reading…

You would be producing CMM/PMM programmes specifically in PCDmis and Modus Software and must be able to interpret complex blueprints and model data.

The three main parts of the role would include CMM programming, Assisting Quality Engineers with the production of First Articles and design of CMM fixture and over checking CMM programmes by 1st principle overcheck.

If you have proven inspection, programming background with comprehensive AMSE Y14.5 knowledge then I’d love to hear from you.

Salary at this stage is negotiable dependant on experience and you would be based in the Burnley site from Monday to Friday.

Please call the office on 01706 250 5326 and ask for Beth or alternatively e-mail your CV to beth@optima-cs.com

Sick of your leadership team being stuck in a more ‘traditional’ mindset?

Something I hear all too often is that people are looking to leave their job because the business can’t move into this century.

Coming in as an Operations Manager, you’d be joining a progressive and open-minded leadership team that are way past being stuck in the 60s.

Don’t get me wrong, there are probably still a couple of old school ways that you’ll need to navigate, but you’ll have the buy in and support from the people you need it from in order to make improvements - the bonus is that you’ll be able to see the impact of what you’re doing quite quickly.

You’ll be overseeing all Operations, Production and Planning as you develop and improve current and future organisational strategies across the business, and as the result of winning a huge new contract, you’ll also play a big part in accelerating their market diversification too.

There’ll be some challenges (as with most exciting roles) along the way, as admittedly, they’ve got this one wrong a couple of times, so you’ll first need to come in and simply understand the current dynamic of the business before getting straight to work. You’ll be developing the workforce as the business grows and have the opportunity to really upskill people in your team to enable more effective work is carried out moving forward.

They’ve a pretty rare culture that people typically look for; it’s dynamic and friendly and one that is massive on internal development and progression, so cultural alignment is arguably the most important thing to them here.

Ultimately, there’s a good opportunity for you to put your own stamp on this role with the amount of autonomy you’ll have and a real chance to make some impactful and effective changes in a business that actually wants to improve. In an ideal world, you’ll come from a manufacturing background and even better if it’s aerospace – though that bit isn’t essential.

They’re based in Sheffield and salary is around the £55-60k mark, though there could be flex for the right person.

Get in touch for more info - 0161 250 5326 | grace@optima-cs.com

Are you a BMS Commissioning Engineer on the lookout for some ad-hoc based work?

If so, I have a 6–12-month contract available immediately due to a company that I’m working with going through a growth period and needing an extra pair of hands to uphold the new projects coming through.

You’ll need experience working with TREND, Tridium and Siemens due to customer requirements varying. It’ll based in and around the Midlands area and the amount of days you’ll be working will vary on a weekly basis.

Rates wise it’ll be between £280-350 a day depending on experience (outside of IR35).

If you think this could be in the right spot, please reach out…

For more information please email eloisa@optima-cs.com or pop me a call on 0161 250 5326. 

Do you think you’re an inspiring leader with the capability to drive improvements across a busy, fast paced production line?

As a Production Supervisor at this business, you’ll have the opportunity to lead the Production Teams by example and inspire them to achieve volume expectations and other KPIs to ensure and champion a continuous improvement culture across the team.

There’s a real opportunity to put your own stamp on this role given it’s newly created and your boss is busy enough with his own job that he’s not going have time to micro manage you (not that he would anyway), so there’s a big degree of freedom and autonomy here as well – though you’ll have as much support as you need.

Day to day, you’ll be responsible for monitoring processes, equipment and tooling and basically making sure that if anything goes wrong you fix it or eradicate any problems. Shorter term, there’s quite a lot of low hanging fruit so there’ll be plenty of quick fixes for you to get stuck in to, and talking more in the long term, you’ll get the opportunity to get involved in more strategic planning and implementation of process and equipment improvements as you work closely with the Production Manager.

You’ll be coordinating production resources to achieve schedules and will work with the overall Production team to maintain and develop an already existing CI culture.

Speaking of culture, a lot of businesses pay lip service to the fact they have this amazing culture but when you get there it ends up being the same as the place you just left for that same reason, but not here. What they have here is something that a lot of people would probably want. It’s really inclusive, collaborate and transparent, and it’s something that they as a business value really highly and want to make sure they keep intact, so cultural fit is arguably more important with this one.

The plant moves quickly so experience of high volume manufacturing is an essential here as you maximise OEE performance and look to eliminate & prevent abnormalities across a fast paced production line.

You’d be based at the site in Bolton, it’s a days based role and the salary has been set around the £38-£40k mark, though there could be the potential for a bit of flex for an exceptional candidate.

Get in touch if you’d like to know more about this opportunity.