Plant Engineer

About the role

Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) is looking for a Plant Engineer to join its Polokwane team, reporting to the Engineering & Maintenance Manager. The role leads asset care, utilities management and engineering projects in line with safety and compliance standards. CCBA is the 8th largest Coca-Cola authorised bottler in the world by revenue and operates in 14 African countries.

Key responsibilities

• Lead the site's maintenance strategy and execution across utility and infrastructure assets, implementing preventive, predictive and condition-based maintenance and ensuring CMMS compliance.
• Oversee the availability and reliability of utilities such as steam, compressed air, refrigeration, water and effluent, and manage building services, HVAC, electrical distribution, roofs, roads, fire detection and suppression systems and security interfaces.
• Improve utility cost efficiency and the environmental footprint.
• Plan, coordinate and deliver engineering projects, including capital and improvement projects from initiation to commissioning and handover, within standards, safety regulations and budget controls.
• Ensure compliance with statutory engineering regulations, SANS standards and internal requirements, and manage inspections, audits and certifications (e.g. boilers, pressure vessels, electrical).
• Lead and develop Team Leaders and technical staff, coach frontline teams and champion risk assessments and mitigation plans.
• Monitor engineering KPIs such as MTBF, MTTR, availability and energy consumption, analyse downtime trends and report on cost drivers and cost-reduction initiatives.

Required profile

• BTech or Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical or Industrial Engineering; a Government Certificate of Competency (Factories) is preferred.
• ECSA registration as a Professional Engineer or Technologist is advantageous.
• 5-8 years' experience in plant or factory engineering within FMCG, beverage or food manufacturing.
• Proven experience managing utilities and infrastructure, and project management experience including capital projects.
• Experience leading technical teams and dealing with external contractors and regulatory bodies.

Required skills

• Knowledge of utilities systems (boilers, ammonia/refrigeration, compressed air, HVAC, water treatment) and energy management systems.
• Root cause analysis methods such as 5-Why, RCA and FMEA.
• Maintenance systems such as SAP PM or similar CMMS.
• Statutory engineering legislation, ISO standards and safety and risk management.
• Project management (scope, budget, schedule) and technical report writing.

Applications must be submitted through the company's e-recruitment portal; the closing date is 2026-12-04.