Site Equipment Engineering Manager

About Abbott in Ireland

Abbott has been an established presence in Ireland since 1946 and will commemorate its 80th anniversary in 2026. The company supports the Irish healthcare sector with a diverse portfolio including diagnostics, diabetes care, medical devices, and nutritional products. Abbott employs over 6,200 employees across multiple sites in Dublin, Donegal, Clonmel, Cootehill, Galway, Kilkenny, Longford, and Sligo.

Company Overview

Abbott is a worldwide leader in healthcare innovation, enhancing lives across all stages with a broad range of technologies in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals, and branded generic medicines. Its workforce of 122,000 colleagues operates in more than 160 countries.

Terms and Conditions

Employment offers for this role are conditional upon successful completion of a pre-employment medical examination, including drug and alcohol screening carried out by a company-appointed medical practitioner.

Role Purpose

This role leads the site’s equipment engineering and automation initiatives, steering the development and implementation of both current and next-generation manufacturing technologies. Responsibilities include managing capital projects, ensuring equipment reliability, and integrating tooling, stations, equipment, and advanced automation systems to support operational excellence and the site’s long-term strategy.

Key Duties

• Lead all technical activities related to equipment engineering aligned with site strategic goals, supporting current operations and R&D programs.
• Manage and nurture a multidisciplinary team comprising designers, project managers, and engineers, cultivating a culture focused on high performance and innovation.
• Own and drive the site’s automation strategy from conceptualization through deployment and scaling up.
• Achieve tangible improvements in efficiency, cost savings, and process reliability via automation and ensuring data integrity.
• Plan and execute capital investments, guaranteeing projects meet timelines, budgets, and specified requirements.
• Oversee project and spend budgets, resource allocation, and prioritization in line with business objectives.
• Direct complete project lifecycles including concept design, procurement, validation, and handover.
• Champion continuous improvement efforts to increase equipment uptime, yield, and overall performance.
• Collaborate across functions to decrease downtime and elevate overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).
• Supervise mechanical design and station development ensuring manufacturing processes are robust, scalable, and easy to maintain.
• Drive design-for-manufacturability and standardization across tooling and ergonomic station platforms.
• Ensure compliance with data integrity standards, regulatory mandates, and internal quality systems for all equipment and automation systems.
• Support validation procedures and ensure adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and industry standards.
• Lead change management efforts related to introducing new equipment, processes, and technologies.
• Engage and align a broad set of stakeholders across engineering, operations, quality, and senior leadership levels.

Qualifications and Skills

• Possess a National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) Level 7 credential in a relevant field and a minimum of nine years’ relevant professional experience, or an equivalent mix of education and work experience.
• Experience in guiding and supervising exempt specialists or supervisory personnel towards department objectives.
• Capability to monitor project costs and resource usage, tracking company-wide indicators, and awareness of external technical or professional developments.
• Function effectively within a quality system environment to ensure compliance with governmental regulations, avoiding risks of noncompliance.
• Develop immediate and long-term plans aligned with senior management goals, prepare departmental budgets, forecast future needs including human, material, and capital resources, and recommend organizational adjustments with senior management approval.