Section Engineer - Kathu at Anglo American

Purpose

Plans and manages engineering and maintenance activities, ensuring they are conducted safely, efficiently, and in compliance with all relevant regulations and standards.

Your duties will include:

• Stop unsafe work in any area – not just in your area. We are safety leaders.
• Issue safety-related instructions to any employees or contractors at the workplace.
• Initiate action, including training, against subordinates and contractors for their role in unsafe behaviour.
• Align equipment maintenance strategy with production profile.
• Improve engineering discipline by providing quality work and feedback to the maintenance management system.
• Proactively manage production risks.
• Ensure quality control/assurance in routine testing and contractor management.
• Review progress against the plan and make changes and adjustments accordingly.
• Assign tasks to subordinates in line with achieving the agreed production plan.
• Monitor and optimise work schedules.
• Assign tasks to supervisors to meet required tasks and reporting.
• Stop or redirect work that is not being executed according to quality standards or is not being solved by the shift supervisor if needed.
• Engineering and Maintenance:
• Implement preventive maintenance programs, including regular inspections of lubricating machinery and replacement of worn-out parts before they fail, to prevent unexpected breakdowns and reduce downtime.
• Conduct diagnoses when a breakdown occurs, organise repairs, and coordinate with maintenance teams to ensure a swift and effective resolution.
• Utilise condition monitoring sensors to track the performance of critical equipment to identify early signs of wear or potential failures.
• Evaluate and recommend equipment upgrades or modifications to improve efficiency and reliability.
• Maintain detailed records of maintenance activities, equipment history, and repairs conducted to analyse trends and make informed decisions.
• Work closely with RRT to manage the response and get the equipment back into operation as quickly as possible.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for process improvement and data-driven decision-making across HME/Plant.
• Stay abreast of related industry best practices and emerging trends in asset health monitoring to improve the team's quality and relevance continuously.
• People and Teams:
• Communicate effectively with team members, provide information, listen actively, and respond to feedback.
• Establish clear expectations and goals, ensure everyone works towards the same objectives, and track progress over time.
• Handle changes to the plan effectively, minimise disruption, and keep everyone focused on the end goal.
• Monitor performance and promptly address any issues or roadblocks, identify areas for improvement, and make necessary changes.
• Enforce rules and standards of behaviour and address performance or conduct issues.
• Provide training to team members and offer on-the-job training, mentorship, and other forms of development.
•  Identify staffing needs and ensure the right people are in the right roles to support team objectives.
• Manage the talent pool, identify high-performing employees, develop retention plans, and recruit or develop employees with the necessary skills and experience.
• Authority:
• Share information at appropriate forums.
• Introduce change following business needs.
• Prescribe critical tasks and measure performance.
• Enforce discipline to ensure conditions conducive to work.
• Develop or ensure the development of role requirements.
• Select and appoint staff to role requirements.
• Ensure compliance with the budget for the area of responsibility.
• Evaluate and approve cost impacts in the area of responsibility and revise the budget accordingly

Qualifications:

• Relevant Bachelor’s Degree, or
• Relevant Bachelor of Technology
• SA Drivers Licence Code B

Technical Knowledge

• 5 Years operational experience in Engineering maintenance and planning in a mining / operations environment.
• 5 Years management experience in Engineering and Project operations.
• Advanced knowledge of system implementation and support in a heavy engineering environment, including related roles such as engineering and planned maintenance.
• Working knowledge of SQL databases and their interfaces.
• Knowledge of applicable legislation and statutory requirements.
• Understanding system configuration, debugging, and root cause analysis best practices.
• Knowledge of business process mapping, functional design specification document development, test cases, scenario testing, and document/change control.
• Familiarity with various stage gates before system release and roll-outs.
• In-depth knowledge of ERP modules applicable to the work area, particularly SAP PM (Advanced).
• Proficiency in MS Office and other 3rd Party Interface software