DS SMITH

Engineering Planner

Launceston Full time

Engineering Planner

Launceston

DS Smith is a leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services worldwide. At our Launceston site, our Engineering team plays a critical role in ensuring safe, reliable and efficient operations to support our customers and grow our business.

We are now looking for an Engineering Planner to strengthen our Engineering function and help drive world-class maintenance planning, asset reliability and continuous improvement.

About the Role

The Engineering Planner is responsible for owning the planning and scheduling of all preventive, planned and corrective maintenance activities. Working closely with the Engineering Manager, Reliability Engineer, Operations and wider Engineering team, you will ensure maintenance work is well prepared, prioritised and delivered safely, efficiently and in line with site and business objectives.

This is a key role in reducing reactive maintenance, improving asset health and supporting consistent operational performance in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own the end-to-end planning and scheduling of preventive, planned and corrective maintenance activities, ensuring work is optimised, prioritised and scheduled at least one week in advance where practicable
  • Develop, maintain and continuously improve high-quality maintenance plans, including accurate labour, materials, tooling, permits and operational requirements
  • Build and maintain a credible, achievable weekly maintenance schedule aligned to site priorities, labour availability and operational constraints
  • Lead the weekly scheduling process, ensuring clear communication, challenge and commitment from Engineering, Operations and key stakeholders
  • Maintain accurate, complete and reliable CMMS (SAP) data, including work orders, task lists, asset care plans, Bills of Materials and maintenance history
  • Act as the Engineering SAP key user for the site, supporting standard ways of working, system compliance and UK SAP governance requirements
  • Monitor maintenance performance through agreed KPIs, using data to improve schedule compliance, reduce downtime and support effective decision making
  • Work closely with the Reliability Engineer to review asset strategies, optimise preventive maintenance and improve asset health, reliability and cost
  • Ensure all planned maintenance activities comply with DS Smith Health, Safety and Environmental standards, embedding safety into all work planning
  • Drive continuous improvement in planning and scheduling processes, challenging inefficiencies and supporting root cause analysis and improvement activities

What We’re Looking For

  • Proven experience in an Engineering Planner / Scheduler role within a manufacturing, industrial or FMCG environment
  • Strong understanding of maintenance planning, scheduling and asset care principles
  • Experience using a CMMS system, ideally SAP
  • High attention to detail with a data-driven and structured approach
  • Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
  • A proactive, continuous improvement mindset aligned to DS Smith values
  • Knowledge of Health, Safety and Environmental standards within maintenance activities

What we can offer you:

  • Competitive salary
  • Qualifying Sick Pay scheme
  • Pension scheme & Life insurance
  • Share Save scheme
  • Income Protection
  • 25 days holiday plus Bank Holidays
  • Employee Assistance Programme
  • Virtual GP, Occupational Health & free Flu vaccine
  • Cycle to Work and shopping discounts

We are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 65,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us!


Our people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria.”