The Technical Manager leads the Technical Department, the central technical hub of the Operations Business Unit responsible for process engineering, analytical and product-quality evaluation, technology stewardship and asset integrity. The Technical Manager provides strategic technical direction and governance across Process Support, Process Safety and Design, Fixed Equipment Integrity (FEI), Laboratory, and Control Systems functions. The role governs the process-support engineering focus that sustains operational stability and long-term asset health, owns all process technologies, catalysts and technical operating envelopes, and, through the Fixed Equipment Integrity (FEI) function housed within the department, acts as the refinery's mechanical-integrity authority. Leading process support, process safety and design, FEI, the laboratory and control systems, the Technical Manager ensures the refinery is optimised for profitability and reliability within safe operating limits, in alignment with the plan set by Enterprise Value Chain Optimisation (EVCO).
Strategic Implementation
- Translate strategy into operational initiatives with measurable business outcomes and targets.
- Facilitate the development of best practice in operations and service excellence.
- Own the technical strategy for the Operations Business Unit as the custodian of all process technologies, catalysts and technical operating envelopes, ensuring the asset's long-term health and competitiveness are protected and advanced.
- Own the catalyst and chemicals management strategy and ensuring proposals into the strategy are in keeping with operational reliability, performance and profitability targets aligned to the business plan.
- the evaluation and recommendation of chemical contractors and tenders to secure optimal chemical performance and value.
- Steward technology across the refinery, maintaining technology-licensor relationships, governing process guarantees and operating envelopes and evaluating technology upgrades to sustain and improve asset capability.
- Ensures technoeconomic viability of projects within the Astron Energy project portfolio strategy and business plan, as the Project Prioritisation Committee approval authority to proceed along the project stage gate model to detailed engineering
Operational Effectiveness
- Provide technical leadership to the Process Support, Process Safety and Design, FEI, Laboratory and Control Systems functions, ensuring disciplinary standards, engineering practices and technical governance frameworks are consistently applied across all teams.
- Drive refinery profitability and operational stability by setting strategic performance goals for process optimisation stemming from the technical strategy, in alignment with the business plan and EVCO driven plans.
- Ensure structures are embedded for the Process Support Team to lead structured technical troubleshooting during process instability or performance degradation, to enable rapid corrective action.
- Own technical escalation requests to Glencore, licensors, technology expert consultants by ensuring a structured technical query process exists, with the supporting agreements as well as the approval of prioritised requests.
- Ensure the effectiveness of Fixed Equipment Integrity (FEI) monitoring and inspection programme through verification, ensuring the programme remains risk-based, current and aligned to API and regulatory requirements across the refinery and terminals.
- Ensure systems exist to effectively capture Fixed Equipment Integrity experience and lessons learned and the update of integrity management systems, ensuring institutional knowledge from inspection, repair and failure events is embedded in future programme design.
- Own process design capability and the process engineering design standards for Astron, and ensure the owner's-team capability to review and sign-off of process design work performed by engineering contractors.
- Ensure the control systems workflows alignment to maintenance and optimisation of the base layer control systems as well as the development, implementation and maintenance of advanced process control through verification.
- Set the direction for the laboratory and analytical function to deliver accurate, timely product-quality certification and sample analysis, issue product-quality certificates and support quality compliance and loss reduction.
- Steer capital projects through PPC stage gates (Stage 2 and Stage 3 sanction and formal project sanction), endorsing conceptual engineering and cost estimates, Front-End Engineering Design with business case updates, the main contracting strategy and tender evaluations with contract award, and providing input to engineering execution, start-up and project close-out
- Provide input to integrity risk assessments and Integrity Management Plans, and direct integrity performance assessments and KPI reporting
- Ensure critical meters and analysers are audited annually to inform maintenance strategy, and oversee the consolidation, publication and regular review of losses
- Approve test-run purpose, type, timing and duration, endorse RCA outcomes with change requests and prioritisation, and direct reviews of resource baselines and regular sample schedules, including schedule change requests
- Endorse the detailed integrated schedule (IMS) and provide input to statutory regulatory reporting, permit and licence renewals, engagement with regulatory authorities, MOC stewardship, deviation assessments and PSSR maintenance
Financial Management
- Manage budgets and monitor expenses ensuring expenditure is within approved budgets.
- Accountable for the Technical department operating budget, including laboratory operations, control systems maintenance and engineering services expenditure, ensuring fiscal discipline and alignment to approved targets.
- Govern capital investment portfolio prioritisation and stage-gate approvals, ensuring capital expenditure commitments are grounded in rigorous business cases and deliver the targeted return on investment.
- Drive reduction of asset-related costs and unplanned downtime through effective FEI programme oversight, catalyst and chemicals strategy governance together with ensuring effective unit troubleshooting and optimisation structural capability.
People Management
- Provide leadership to the entire team, defining objectives to be achieved by the department.
- Manage performance of direct reports ensuring agreement of annual goals and measuring performance against agreed goals and addressing non-performance issues.
- Deploy people management processes effectively, in line with Company policies, procedures and prevailing improvement initiatives.
- Ensure strategy is effectively operationalised through managers and their teams.
- Drive a culture of high performance and accountability and encourage team members to live the Company values.
- Build succession depth within the Technical leadership team, coaching the technical leadership to operate with increasing autonomy and strategic contribution
- Work with the Process Support Superintendent, Process Safety and Design Superintendent, FEI Lead, Laboratory Manager and Control Systems Lead to identify capability gaps, training needs and coaching and mentoring priorities to enhance workforce capability across all technical functions; ensure appropriate organisational structures and resource loading tools are in place to assess and drive delivery across all areas.
Safety, Health, Environment and Quality
- Ensure compliance with all Safety, Health, Environmental and all other applicable regulatory statutes, and all other safety and quality processes for the area of responsibility/work.
- Steward OMS within Astron Energy to ensure continuous improvement.
- Own the technical governance of asset integrity across the refinery ensuring process safety design standards and inspection frameworks collectively meet the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Act 85 of 1993, applicable SANS standards and Astron Energy Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) policies.
- Ensure statutory inspection and regulatory compliance of fixed equipment is governed and maintained through the Fixed Equipment Integrity (FEI) function, including legally required statutory testing and certification.
- Ensure the laboratory systems support accurate and timely product-quality certificates and manages off-spec and non-conforming results in line with quality and regulatory requirements, by deciding on and overseeing external quality audits and management reviews.
- Ensure all technical activities and process changes comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993, Management of Change (MOC) and Process Safety Management (PSM) requirements, and applicable environmental regulations.
- Promote a strong safety culture within the team and ensure adherence to permit-to-work and life-saving rules in all activities
Stakeholder Relationship Management
- Identify, build, and nurture trust and collaborative relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Serve as the technical authority to EVCO GM, considering operation outside of normal operating window, ensuring operation within safe limits of the asset
- Serve as the technical authority to the Business Team Managers and Reliability and Maintenance Manager who execute and prioritise technical opportunities.
- Manage relationships with technology licensors, catalyst and chemical vendors, the central subject-matter-expert hub (Becht) and the asset chemicals-management contractor to secure technical support and optimal technology and catalyst performance.
- Partner with Reliability and Maintenance, the Turnaround organisation and Projects to deliver integrated integrity, inspection and process-support outcomes across the asset lifecycle.
- Engage with the SHEQ Manager to ensure process safety, engineering integrity and environmental management obligations are embedded in all Technical department activities and deliverables.
This list is not exhaustive and may include other responsibilities assigned by your line manager that are within your competency and capability to safely execute.
Professional Qualification and Certifications:
- BSc in Engineering (Chemical / Process) or equivalent
- Postgraduate degree (e.g., MBA) with focus on commercial, strategy or operational leadership, advantageous
- Professional registration (e.g. Professional Engineer) advantageous
Work Experience:
- 10–15 years' experience in a manufacturing or refinery environment, preferably in a technical leadership or business-improvement role
- Proven expertise in refinery process technical support, process design, process optimisation, fixed equipment integrity management and refinery technology management
- Experience leading multidisciplinary engineering teams and managing complex refinery operations
- Experience with overall asset integrity management and process safety in a refining environment
- Experience interfacing with executive leadership and external regulatory stakeholders on technical, safety and investment matters
Knowledge & Skills
- Strong capability in technical strategy setting and implementation
- Deep technical knowledge of refinery processes, process technologies and technical operating envelopes
- Strong understanding of process safety, asset / mechanical integrity, corrosion and reliability management systems
- Knowledge of advanced process control, DCS optimisation and process simulation
- Strong understanding of energy optimisation and refinery gross-margin drivers
- Strong leadership and multidisciplinary team-management abilities
- Excellent problem-solving, analytical thinking and stakeholder-engagement skills
- Sound knowledge of process-safety, pressure-equipment and environmental regulations
Competencies:
Application deadline:
13 November 2026
