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Group Head, Technical Services & Process Optimization at Bridgemead Consulting
Bridgemead Consulting
August 28, 2026
Full-time
On-site
Role Purpose
The Group Head, Technical Services & Process Optimization provides technical leadership across the Holdings Company's steel manufacturing, mining, and energy subsidiaries.
The role is responsible for improving process reliability, production efficiency, asset performance, product quality, energy intensity, and operating cost across the Group.
This is not a plant maintenance role. The position serves as the Group's technical-performance authority, working with subsidiary operations teams to diagnose production losses, standardize technical practices, lead root-cause investigations, optimize plant and process parameters, and deliver measurable improvements in throughput, yield, quality, uptime, and cost.
The role holder will establish a Group-wide technical excellence framework while ensuring that each subsidiary retains accountability for daily operations and execution.
Key Responsibilities
Group Technical Strategy & Operational Excellence:
Develop and implement the Group's technical services and process optimization strategy across steel, mining, and energy operations.
Establish Group technical standards, operating philosophies, engineering practices, and performance-improvement frameworks.
Identify major technical constraints affecting production output, quality, cost, energy consumption, equipment reliability, and safety.
Provide technical input into Group strategic plans, annual operating plans, production targets, CAPEX proposals, and turnaround plans.
Lead technical benchmarking against relevant industry standards and comparable operations.
Process Optimization & Production Performance:
Lead structured process optimization initiatives across subsidiaries to improve plant throughput, yield, recovery, product quality, and unit cost.
Analyse process data to identify bottlenecks, production losses, abnormal consumption patterns, quality defects, and process instability.
Support steel operations in areas including melting, billet casting, rolling mill performance, scrap yield, furnace efficiency, refractory consumption, and product quality.
Support mining operations in areas including ore handling, crushing, screening, beneficiation, recovery, grade control, plant availability, and mineral-processing efficiency.
Support energy operations in areas including generation efficiency, heat rate, fuel consumption, availability, load factor, auxiliary consumption, and power-loss reduction.
Develop and monitor technical performance dashboards for each operating subsidiary.
Reliability, Asset Performance & Maintenance Improvement:
Work with Engineering and Maintenance teams to improve equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability.
Lead root-cause analysis for major equipment failures, repeated breakdowns, process upsets, production losses, and quality incidents.
Promote reliability-centred maintenance, preventive maintenance optimization, condition monitoring, and critical-spares management.
Review plant shutdown, turnaround, and maintenance plans to reduce downtime and improve execution quality.
Recommend equipment modifications, upgrades, debottlenecking initiatives, and technology interventions that improve asset performance.
Cost, Energy & Resource Optimization:
Drive initiatives to reduce cost per tonne, cost per unit of output, energy intensity, material losses, waste, rework, and unplanned downtime.
Monitor key operating-cost drivers including raw material yield, fuel, electricity, gas, consumables, maintenance costs, water use, and logistics interfaces.
Lead technical assessments of energy-efficiency opportunities across plants, mines, and power operations.
Partner with Finance to validate savings from technical-improvement projects and ensure benefits are tracked and sustained.
Support waste reduction, scrap recovery, by-product utilization, and circular-economy initiatives where commercially viable.
Technical Governance, Standards & Knowledge Management:
Develop and maintain Group technical manuals, standard operating procedures, process-control standards, and engineering specifications.
Establish a structured system for capturing lessons learned from breakdowns, projects, process trials, and technical incidents.
Ensure technical standards are consistently applied across subsidiaries while allowing for operational differences between sites.
Review and approve technical deviations, process changes, and major operating modifications in line with the Group's management-of-change process.
Support technical due diligence for new acquisitions, expansion projects, joint ventures, and major operational investments.
CAPEX, Projects & Technology Evaluation:
Provide technical review of CAPEX proposals, equipment purchases, plant upgrades, automation initiatives, and expansion projects.
Assess project business cases for technical feasibility, expected capacity impact, operating-cost implications, reliability, and return on investment.
Support project teams during design review, commissioning, performance testing, and handover to operations.
Evaluate new technologies, automation tools, process-control systems, and digital solutions relevant to steel, mining, and energy operations.
Ensure post-investment reviews are conducted to confirm whether approved technical and financial benefits have been achieved.
HSE, Quality & Regulatory Support:
Ensure process optimization initiatives do not compromise health, safety, environmental, or quality requirements.
Work with HSE teams to reduce process-safety risks, emissions, waste, energy losses, and environmental incidents.
Support compliance with applicable technical, environmental, quality, mining, power, and industrial regulations.
Participate in investigations of major incidents with technical or process-related causes.
Promote quality-management and continuous-improvement systems, including ISO-aligned practices, Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and 5S where applicable.
Stakeholder Engagement & Team Leadership:
Provide functional leadership and technical guidance to subsidiary technical, process, engineering, and operations teams.
Build technical capability through coaching, structured training, mentoring, and knowledge-transfer programmes.
Facilitate regular technical-performance reviews with subsidiary CEOs/MDs, Plant Managers, Mine Managers, and Energy Operations Heads.
Present concise technical-performance reports, improvement priorities, risks, and investment recommendations to Group Executive Management and the Board where required.
Build productive relationships with equipment manufacturers, technical consultants, research institutions, regulators, and specialist service providers.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Improvement in production throughput and capacity utilization
Reduction in cost per tonne / cost per unit of output
Reduction in energy consumption per tonne or per MWh
Improvement in yield, recovery rate, and material utilization
Reduction in unplanned downtime and repeat equipment failures
Improvement in plant availability, reliability, and overall equipment effectiveness
Reduction in product defects, rework, wast
Value of validated cost savings and technical-improvement benefits delivered
Completion and sustained impact of process-optimization projects
Technical standards compliance and closure of audit/action items
Improvement in process safety, environmental performance, and quality outcomes
Qualifications & Experience
Educational Requirements:
Bachelor's Degree in Metallurgical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining Engineering, Electrical/Power Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline.
Master's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Energy Management, or an MBA is an advantage.
Professional registration with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) is strongly preferred.
Professional Certifications:
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt is strongly preferred.
Relevant certifications in reliability engineering, asset management, project management, energy management, or process safety are an advantage.
Membership of relevant professional bodies, such as the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Institute of Metallurgical Engineers, or mining/energy professional associations, is desirable.
Experience Requirements:
Minimum of 15 years' progressive technical, process engineering, operations, reliability, or manufacturing experience.
At least 5 - 7 years in a senior technical leadership, plant technical manager, process excellence, operations excellence, or engineering leadership role.
Direct experience in at least one major sector: steel/metals manufacturing, mining/mineral processing, power generation, industrial energy, cement, refinery, or other heavy process industries.
Demonstrable record of delivering measurable improvements in throughput, yield, uptime, energy efficiency, quality, and operating cost.
Strong exposure to plant/process data analysis, root-cause analysis, technical problem-solving, and continuous-improvement methodologies.
Experience working across multiple sites, subsidiaries, or business units is highly desirable.
Experience with ERP, maintenance-management, production-data, SCADA/DCS, historian, or process-control systems is an advantage.
Core Competencies:
Technical and Process Expertise: Deep understanding of industrial process systems, production economics, equipment performance, and process control.
Operational Excellence: Ability to translate technical analysis into sustainable improvements in productivity, reliability, quality, and cost.
Data-Driven Decision Making:Strong capability in analysing operating data, identifying trends, and converting findings into practical actions.
Commercial Acumen:Understands the financial implications of yield, downtime, energy consumption, maintenance, and CAPEX decisions.
Root-Cause Problem Solving: Uses disciplined methods to identify underlying causes rather than treating symptoms.
Cross-Functional Influence: Works credibly with operations, engineering, finance, procurement, HSE, and executive leadership.
Change Leadership: Can introduce new standards and improvement programmes across subsidiaries without undermining site accountability.
Communication: Able to communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Leadership & Capability Building: Develops strong technical teams and promotes a culture of continuous improvement.
The Group Head, Technical Services & Process Optimization provides technical leadership across the Holdings Company's steel manufacturing, mining, and energy subsidiaries.
The role is responsible for improving process reliability, production efficiency, asset performance, product quality, energy intensity, and operating cost across the Group.
This is not a plant maintenance role. The position serves as the Group's technical-performance authority, working with subsidiary operations teams to diagnose production losses, standardize technical practices, lead root-cause investigations, optimize plant and process parameters, and deliver measurable improvements in throughput, yield, quality, uptime, and cost.
The role holder will establish a Group-wide technical excellence framework while ensuring that each subsidiary retains accountability for daily operations and execution.
Key Responsibilities
Group Technical Strategy & Operational Excellence:
Develop and implement the Group's technical services and process optimization strategy across steel, mining, and energy operations.
Establish Group technical standards, operating philosophies, engineering practices, and performance-improvement frameworks.
Identify major technical constraints affecting production output, quality, cost, energy consumption, equipment reliability, and safety.
Provide technical input into Group strategic plans, annual operating plans, production targets, CAPEX proposals, and turnaround plans.
Lead technical benchmarking against relevant industry standards and comparable operations.
Process Optimization & Production Performance:
Lead structured process optimization initiatives across subsidiaries to improve plant throughput, yield, recovery, product quality, and unit cost.
Analyse process data to identify bottlenecks, production losses, abnormal consumption patterns, quality defects, and process instability.
Support steel operations in areas including melting, billet casting, rolling mill performance, scrap yield, furnace efficiency, refractory consumption, and product quality.
Support mining operations in areas including ore handling, crushing, screening, beneficiation, recovery, grade control, plant availability, and mineral-processing efficiency.
Support energy operations in areas including generation efficiency, heat rate, fuel consumption, availability, load factor, auxiliary consumption, and power-loss reduction.
Develop and monitor technical performance dashboards for each operating subsidiary.
Reliability, Asset Performance & Maintenance Improvement:
Work with Engineering and Maintenance teams to improve equipment reliability, availability, and maintainability.
Lead root-cause analysis for major equipment failures, repeated breakdowns, process upsets, production losses, and quality incidents.
Promote reliability-centred maintenance, preventive maintenance optimization, condition monitoring, and critical-spares management.
Review plant shutdown, turnaround, and maintenance plans to reduce downtime and improve execution quality.
Recommend equipment modifications, upgrades, debottlenecking initiatives, and technology interventions that improve asset performance.
Cost, Energy & Resource Optimization:
Drive initiatives to reduce cost per tonne, cost per unit of output, energy intensity, material losses, waste, rework, and unplanned downtime.
Monitor key operating-cost drivers including raw material yield, fuel, electricity, gas, consumables, maintenance costs, water use, and logistics interfaces.
Lead technical assessments of energy-efficiency opportunities across plants, mines, and power operations.
Partner with Finance to validate savings from technical-improvement projects and ensure benefits are tracked and sustained.
Support waste reduction, scrap recovery, by-product utilization, and circular-economy initiatives where commercially viable.
Technical Governance, Standards & Knowledge Management:
Develop and maintain Group technical manuals, standard operating procedures, process-control standards, and engineering specifications.
Establish a structured system for capturing lessons learned from breakdowns, projects, process trials, and technical incidents.
Ensure technical standards are consistently applied across subsidiaries while allowing for operational differences between sites.
Review and approve technical deviations, process changes, and major operating modifications in line with the Group's management-of-change process.
Support technical due diligence for new acquisitions, expansion projects, joint ventures, and major operational investments.
CAPEX, Projects & Technology Evaluation:
Provide technical review of CAPEX proposals, equipment purchases, plant upgrades, automation initiatives, and expansion projects.
Assess project business cases for technical feasibility, expected capacity impact, operating-cost implications, reliability, and return on investment.
Support project teams during design review, commissioning, performance testing, and handover to operations.
Evaluate new technologies, automation tools, process-control systems, and digital solutions relevant to steel, mining, and energy operations.
Ensure post-investment reviews are conducted to confirm whether approved technical and financial benefits have been achieved.
HSE, Quality & Regulatory Support:
Ensure process optimization initiatives do not compromise health, safety, environmental, or quality requirements.
Work with HSE teams to reduce process-safety risks, emissions, waste, energy losses, and environmental incidents.
Support compliance with applicable technical, environmental, quality, mining, power, and industrial regulations.
Participate in investigations of major incidents with technical or process-related causes.
Promote quality-management and continuous-improvement systems, including ISO-aligned practices, Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, and 5S where applicable.
Stakeholder Engagement & Team Leadership:
Provide functional leadership and technical guidance to subsidiary technical, process, engineering, and operations teams.
Build technical capability through coaching, structured training, mentoring, and knowledge-transfer programmes.
Facilitate regular technical-performance reviews with subsidiary CEOs/MDs, Plant Managers, Mine Managers, and Energy Operations Heads.
Present concise technical-performance reports, improvement priorities, risks, and investment recommendations to Group Executive Management and the Board where required.
Build productive relationships with equipment manufacturers, technical consultants, research institutions, regulators, and specialist service providers.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Improvement in production throughput and capacity utilization
Reduction in cost per tonne / cost per unit of output
Reduction in energy consumption per tonne or per MWh
Improvement in yield, recovery rate, and material utilization
Reduction in unplanned downtime and repeat equipment failures
Improvement in plant availability, reliability, and overall equipment effectiveness
Reduction in product defects, rework, wast
Value of validated cost savings and technical-improvement benefits delivered
Completion and sustained impact of process-optimization projects
Technical standards compliance and closure of audit/action items
Improvement in process safety, environmental performance, and quality outcomes
Qualifications & Experience
Educational Requirements:
Bachelor's Degree in Metallurgical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining Engineering, Electrical/Power Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline.
Master's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Energy Management, or an MBA is an advantage.
Professional registration with the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) is strongly preferred.
Professional Certifications:
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt is strongly preferred.
Relevant certifications in reliability engineering, asset management, project management, energy management, or process safety are an advantage.
Membership of relevant professional bodies, such as the Nigerian Society of Engineers, Nigerian Institute of Metallurgical Engineers, or mining/energy professional associations, is desirable.
Experience Requirements:
Minimum of 15 years' progressive technical, process engineering, operations, reliability, or manufacturing experience.
At least 5 - 7 years in a senior technical leadership, plant technical manager, process excellence, operations excellence, or engineering leadership role.
Direct experience in at least one major sector: steel/metals manufacturing, mining/mineral processing, power generation, industrial energy, cement, refinery, or other heavy process industries.
Demonstrable record of delivering measurable improvements in throughput, yield, uptime, energy efficiency, quality, and operating cost.
Strong exposure to plant/process data analysis, root-cause analysis, technical problem-solving, and continuous-improvement methodologies.
Experience working across multiple sites, subsidiaries, or business units is highly desirable.
Experience with ERP, maintenance-management, production-data, SCADA/DCS, historian, or process-control systems is an advantage.
Core Competencies:
Technical and Process Expertise: Deep understanding of industrial process systems, production economics, equipment performance, and process control.
Operational Excellence: Ability to translate technical analysis into sustainable improvements in productivity, reliability, quality, and cost.
Data-Driven Decision Making:Strong capability in analysing operating data, identifying trends, and converting findings into practical actions.
Commercial Acumen:Understands the financial implications of yield, downtime, energy consumption, maintenance, and CAPEX decisions.
Root-Cause Problem Solving: Uses disciplined methods to identify underlying causes rather than treating symptoms.
Cross-Functional Influence: Works credibly with operations, engineering, finance, procurement, HSE, and executive leadership.
Change Leadership: Can introduce new standards and improvement programmes across subsidiaries without undermining site accountability.
Communication: Able to communicate complex technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Leadership & Capability Building: Develops strong technical teams and promotes a culture of continuous improvement.