Mechanical Supervisor / Lead - Animal Feed & Solvent Extraction Plant

About the role

Career Directions Limited is hiring a Mechanical Supervisor / Mechanical Lead for its Engineering / Maintenance department in Nakuru. The role leads mechanical maintenance, reliability and engineering activities across the Animal Feed and Solvent Extraction Plant, aiming to reduce breakdowns and downtime, improve equipment reliability and availability, and support continuous improvement in plant safety, performance and production efficiency.

Key responsibilities

• Lead preventive, predictive, corrective and breakdown maintenance across the plant.
• Oversee maintenance of hammer mills, roller mills, pellet mills, mixers, conditioners, conveyors, elevators, flakers, expanders, cookers, extractors, pumps, gearboxes, bearings, fans, blowers, heat exchangers and related equipment.
• Conduct breakdown analysis, troubleshooting and Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and implement permanent corrective actions.
• Develop and maintain preventive and predictive maintenance schedules, and monitor equipment condition to spot potential failures.
• Plan and maintain critical mechanical spares and equipment history records.
• Supervise fitters, technicians, welders, fabricators and contractors, and manage installation, alignment, fabrication, modification, commissioning and improvement projects.
• Coordinate with Production, Electrical, Procurement, Stores and HSE teams, and support shutdown planning, execution and start-up.
• Ensure compliance with LOTO, Permit-to-Work, hot-work and confined-space safety requirements.
• Monitor maintenance costs, drive improvements in MTBF, MTTR and uptime, and prepare maintenance KPIs, downtime analysis, reports and continuous improvement plans.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, or a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering with strong plant maintenance and equipment reliability experience.
• 5-8+ years of mechanical maintenance experience in a process plant environment; supervisory or managerial maintenance experience preferred.
• Experience in animal feed, solvent extraction, oilseed processing, edible oil or similar process manufacturing is a strong advantage.
• Meets applicable Kenyan professional registration requirements where required.

Required skills

• Rotating equipment, pumps, gearboxes and bearings, conveyors and material-handling systems, hydraulic and pneumatic systems.
• Equipment installation and alignment, fabrication and welding.
• Preventive and predictive maintenance, breakdown troubleshooting and RCA, critical spare-parts planning.
• Maintenance planning and scheduling, contractor supervision, plant shutdown management, maintenance cost control, LOTO and Permit-to-Work.