Maintenance Engineer

Uncommon began its journey as Higher Steaks and recently underwent a transformative rebranding. Our new brand and identity truly reflects our mission, values, and the positive global influence we aspire to achieve. We transform the global food system by making delicious and nutritious food – from animal cells and plants. We are pioneering the development of cultivated meat to solve some of the world’s growing challenges in health, sustainability and animal welfare.
We're a purpose, science and engineering-driven company dedicated to creating breakthrough technologies that will push the boundaries of what’s possible – delivering innovations that benefit people, the planet and animals.
Our brilliant team are experts in their respective fields, drawn from around the world. We’re passionate, curious, innovative and at the forefront of the ground-breaking work being done in this exciting and rapidly growing sector. Uncommon is a well-funded biotech company; we’ve experienced spectacular growth over the last few years and continue to accelerate every month.
We are growing rapidly again this year so this is a great time to join us and solve one of the most important challenges we face today!
 

The role
Our R&D, Bioprocessing, Pilot Plant and Product Development teams are all growing at a real pace as we continue our journey towards taking a cultured meat product from the research laboratory to commercial scale. That journey includes the design, build and fit-out of a state-of-the-art facility in Cambridge, UK. The facility includes early-stage R&D laboratory space, a bioprocessing unit, a pilot manufacturing plant, a food development laboratory and office and communal space.
Critical to our success will be the design and implementation of our maintenance and site management systems. As a Maintenance Engineer at Uncommon, you will be responsible to develop our maintenance and site management systems and processes, and subsequently oversee the business’s planned and reactive maintenance tasks including the upkeep of the new pilot facility, scheduling and supervising maintenance workers and contractors and responding to maintenance emergencies.
This role will be based in our new facility in Cambridge, UK.

What you’ll be doing:
- Design and build the Uncommon maintenance system
- Maintain and regularly update processes as required by the business
- Manage contract relationships and negotiate new contracts
- Prepare maintenance strategies to maximise equipment uptime and lifespan
- Manage and coordinate facility-wide spares, off-site storage etc, to ensure continued operations
- Ensure safety and quality compliance with statutory regulations and inspections e.g., PAT, PSSR
- Overseeing general building repair and maintenance, installation and repair of furniture/equipment in both lab and office areas
- Ensure that equipment servicing and calibrations are performed in line with customer and supplier recommendations
- Respond to support requests in a timely manner while providing a high level of customer service
- Perform as appropriate daily, weekly, etc building walks to monitor the general operation, safety and condition of the facility. Proactively communicate, plan and implement solutions with the operations team to resolve findings.
- Manage a facilities budget and report against progress and challenges

What we think you need:
- Electrical, Mechanical or Calibration Maintenance experience in a relevant biotechnology industry
- Experience in creating a maintenance schedule from scratch
- The ability to understand the risks of equipment, and create performance-based maintenance strategies to support critical site processes
- Hands-on experience in equipment diagnostics and repair
- Technical understanding of electrical, mechanic and hydraulic systems for planning and troubleshooting
- Experience conducting site inspections and identifying areas requiring extra maintenance work
- Experience performing, scheduling and managing contractors.
- Good verbal communications skills and an ability to operate effectively under pressure
- Organisational skills for scheduling maintenance tasks and ensuring job completion
- Attention to detail, ensuring maintenance tasks are not overlooked and minor site problems do not become major site problems
- A safety-based work approach and experience with task-based Risk Assessments
We’d love it if you also have:
- Experience in writing safety permits and safety plans
- Experience in managing multiple technical support contracts and experience in contract negotiations
- Experience in lean inventory management

Reward
Alongside a competitive base salary, all our people get these benefits:
- Share options
- Flexible hours
- 28 days annual leave
- Enhanced parental leave pay
- Cycle-to-work scheme and gym membership
- "Make your work life easier" annual stipend
- Quizzes and other fun team activities
- Snacks, fruits, tea, coffee and more!

Uncommon recruits, employs, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, disability, age, and other protected status as required by applicable law.
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by incumbents assigned to this job. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all the functions, responsibilities, duties and skills required for the position, and Uncommon Limited retains the discretion to modify.