Director, Asset Lifecycle Management and Utilities

About The Role

The Director, Asset Lifecycle Management and Utilities will maximise Kerry’s industrial assets value throughout the entire lifecycle by integrating capital project delivery, asset reliability, environmental performance, maintenance strategy, decarbonisation readiness, and long-term replacement planning.

Combining strategic leadership with deep technical expertise, the role will accelerate the development of strategies and policies working closely with several global functions, regional engineering teams, and in full alignment with our overall operational excellence framework and sustainability roadmap.

Kerry operates a Hybrid working policy, candidates will be required to work from our offices in Naas each week.

Key Responsibilities

Asset Lifecycle Management Strategy

• Develop and deploy a multi-year Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) strategy aligned with business growth, manufacturing excellence, asset insurability, and sustainability objectives.
• Establish global standards for asset design, maintainability, reliability, operability, and lifecycle cost optimization.
• Define asset criticality frameworks and lifecycle management processes across manufacturing sites.
• Embed energy efficiency, carbon, water, waste, refrigerant and climate-resilience criteria into asset design, selection, renewal and retirement decisions
• Develop asset-class transition pathways for high-energy and fossil-fuel-dependent assets, including boilers, CHP, refrigeration, thermal-process and wastewater-treatment systems

Asset Care & Reliability Excellence

• Establish world-class asset care practices to improve asset availability, reliability, and performance.
• Deploy standardised reliability methodologies including:
  • Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM)
  • Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
  • Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
  • Predictive and Condition-Based Maintenance
• Partner with site engineering and operations teams to reduce equipment failures, unplanned downtime and drive maintenance maturity
• Develop strategies for spare parts optimisation and critical asset risk management.

Utilities & Energy Excellence

• Lead global standards and performance improvement programs for utility systems including:
  • Steam and boiler systems
  • Refrigeration and cooling systems
  • Compressed air

• • Water and wastewater treatment
  • HVAC systems
• Establish programs to improve utility reliability, efficiency, capacity utilisation, and resilience.
• Partner with Sustainability teams to identify and deploy best practices in utility optimisation, energy management, carbon emissions and water usage.

Capital Projects & Asset Integration

• Ensure asset lifecycle principles are embedded into capital project planning and execution.
• Support equipment selection, engineering standards, and design reviews during project development.
• Define requirements for reliability, maintainability, operability, and digital connectivity.
• Improve start-up, commissioning, qualification, and operational readiness of plant asset management teams.

Digital Asset Management

• Drive implementation and standardisation of digital asset management capabilities across the enterprise.
• Advance the use of:
  • CMMS / EAM platforms
  • Asset Performance Management (APM)
  • Predictive analytics
  • Condition monitoring
  • Industrial IoT solutions
  • Digital twins
• Standardise and utilise data analytics to improve asset performance, lifecycle decisions, and maintenance effectiveness.

Asset Risk Management & Asset Protection

• Establish enterprise standards to protect manufacturing assets and minimise operational, safety, and business continuity risks.
• Partner with Corporate Risk Management, Insurance, regional and site leadership teams to ensure compliance with insurer recommendations and risk engineering requirements.
• Drive closure of risk deficiencies identified internally including insurer recommendations and ensure alignment with global engineering and asset management standards.
• Assess physical climate risks affecting critical assets and utilities, including water scarcity, flooding, extreme heat and utility-supply disruption
• Integrate climate adaptation and water-stress considerations into site asset plans
• Identify assets at risk of technological or economic stranding because of carbon cost, refrigerant phase-out or changing environmental requirements

Governance & Capability Building

• Establish global governance, standards, and KPI frameworks for Asset Lifecycle Management and Utilities.
• Develop asset management capabilities within Engineering, Maintenance, and Operations teams.
• Lead communities of practice and technical networks across regions.
• Ensure the right talent and skills are in place at all levels within the organisation

Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Industrial, or related discipline). A master’s degree or relevant certification (e.g., Certified Asset Management Professional, IAM, CAMA) is preferred.
• Minimum 15 years of experience in asset management and utilities, with a focus on lifecycle management, ideally in Food & Beverage, Consumer Goods, or Process Industries
• Experience developing global standards and continuous improvement programs in global, decentralised multi-site manufacturing environments.
• Familiarity with ISO 55000 standards, asset management systems (AMS) and CMMS/EAM solutions (e.g. MaintainX).
• Experience working with insurance providers, risk engineers, and loss prevention specialists in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience integrating energy, carbon, water and resilience requirements into asset and capital-investment decisions.

About Kerry

Kerry is the world's leading taste and nutrition company for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. Every day we partner with customers to create healthier, tastier and more sustainable products that are consumed by billions of people across the world. Our vision is to be our customers' most valued partner, creating a world of sustainable nutrition. A career with Kerry offers you an opportunity to shape the future of food while providing you opportunities to explore and grow in a truly global environment.

Get in touch today!

In Kerry we benefit from the knowledge of our colleagues who bring a diverse range of cultures, backgrounds, lifestyles, and experiences. One team fostering an inclusive culture that, above all, inspires food and nourishes life. One culture where everyone brings their unique perspectives and experiences to help make us better, together. We are committed to nurturing an environment of positivity and inclusiveness, where everyone can be at their best, both personally and professionally.

Our recruitment, selection and assessment process are based on the skills and competencies of the specific roles and based entirely on merit. We are committed to and value Diversity and Inclusion in all recruitment processes within Kerry and do not discriminate based on gender, race, class, economic status, ethnic background, sexual orientation, age, political beliefs, veteran status, marital status or any other protected characteristic.