Asset and Grounds Maintenance Operative

Asset & Grounds Maintenance Operative

Are you seeking an opportunity to apply and develop your skills in infrastructure and environmental asset maintenance? Are you excited by the chance to play a vital role in controlling water levels, maintaining critical waterways, and supporting daily port and canal operations? We are seeking an Asset & Grounds Maintenance Operative to join our Engineering Infrastructure team along the Manchester Ship Canal.

Your Role

In this role, you will proactively maintain deposit grounds, facilities, waterways, and associated infrastructure across the Manchester Ship Canal estate to ensure regulatory compliance, optimise equipment effectiveness, and keep operations running smoothly. Working individually or as part of a multi-skilled engineering maintenance team, you will inspect water gates and dams to manage water levels, monitor roads, footpaths, and ditches, clear debris, perform vegetation management, and maintain site security. You will also assist contractors with specialised vegetation control, support marine and dredging activities including vessel assistance, and conduct dynamic risk assessments before undertaking work.

Additionally, you will oversee administrative, compliance, and systems reporting using SAP, SAP Ariba, Outlook, and Safety Culture to raise purchase orders, issue permits, log maintenance activities, and perform meter readings. You will complete essential Environment Agency return forms, perform regular safety audits, and directly support canal compliance efforts by reviewing Zurich reports, updating SAP EHS safety reporting, and closing out Fire Risk Assessment actions. Working flexibly across the canal network, you will collaborate closely with supervisors, colleagues, and external contractors to deliver planned maintenance on time, maintain safe working environments, and respond effectively to operational demands. 

What you'll bring

You will bring hands-on experience in facilities maintenance, grounds care, infrastructure asset management within an operational environment. You will possess practical knowledge of risk assessments, safety procedures, and permit-to-work systems. Strong IT competence is required, including experience using system tools such as SAP, SAP Ariba, Outlook and Safety Culture, along with excellent communication, problem-solving, and team-working capabilities. Candidates should hold a WAMITAB qualification or demonstrate a willingness to undertake WAMITAB training, and a full UK driving licence is essential. Ideally, you will also hold technical qualification, alongside Emergency First Aid certification.

Who are we?

Already one of the UK’s leading port and planning companies, we are planning substantial capital investment over the next 5 years to achieve our vision of becoming the UK’s leading port operator. We have ambitious plans to grow and transform the supply chain to benefit our customers. Our investments are decarbonizing our operations, which in turn is helping us work towards our goal of having Net Zero Port Operations by 2040. Much of our success depends on our unrivalled facilities and technology. But in our sector, it comes down to having the right talent to enable our organisation to grow.

What we can offer you

In addition to a competitive salary, we have a strong track record of developing our people to expand their skills and experience and develop their careers.  Valuing and rewarding our workforce is important to us which is why we offer a fantastic range of flexible benefits to choose from, such as:

• 27 Days Annual Leave (plus bank holidays)
• Up to 10% Matched Contribution Pension
• Peel Ports Flexible Benefits including salary sacrifice car scheme, healthcare cash plans, Cycle2Work Scheme, Critical Illness insurance, Gym Membership Scheme, Retail Vouchers, plus more!
• Commitment to learning and personal development – Last year we supported over 50,000 hours of training and personal development!
• We promote good physical and mental health and can provide additional support to colleagues via our Employee Assistance Programme when required