General Manager – Operations
Re-Gen Waste | Newry
Retained Search by May Consulting for Re-Gen Ltd
This is not a role for someone looking to “step up” into operations. It is for someone who has already been there, stood on the floor, dealt with breakdowns at the worst possible time, and understands what it takes to keep a large, difficult operation moving forward when conditions are far from ideal.
Re-Gen Waste operates at scale. The environment is demanding. It is noisy, dirty, and affected by odour and fumes. The plant runs hard, and when it stops, the consequences are immediate — lost productivity, frustrated teams and pressure across the operation.
The General Manager will take full responsibility for how the operation runs on a daily basis. This is not a strategic or commercial leadership position. The focus is operational excellence in its purest sense: keeping people safe, machinery running, and the site operating consistently and predictably.
A key priority will be addressing the lack of a structured planned preventative maintenance regime. At present, too much time is spent reacting to failures rather than preventing them. Introducing disciplined maintenance planning, working closely with engineering teams, and reducing unplanned downtime will be central to the role. This is about reliability, not theory — understanding what fails, why it fails, and how to stop it happening again.
Equally important is the workforce. Leading large teams in a physically unpleasant environment requires credibility, resilience and honesty. Retention is not solved by slogans or engagement surveys, but by strong supervision, clear expectations, fair treatment and visible leadership. The successful candidate will be comfortable spending time on the floor, dealing with issues as they arise, and building respect through consistency rather than charisma.
This role will suit an experienced operational leader who has already run asset-intensive operations in sectors such as waste, utilities, energy-from-waste, heavy manufacturing, quarrying or similar environments. You will be pragmatic, calm under pressure and comfortable making difficult decisions. You will understand that improvement comes from control first, then optimisation — not the other way around.
Success in this role will not be measured in presentations or long-term strategy documents. It will be visible in quieter shifts, fewer breakdowns, safer working practices and a more stable operation. When things go wrong — and they will — you will be the person people look to for direction and calm.
Re-Gen offers the opportunity to take responsibility for a large, complex operation where good leadership genuinely matters. If you are motivated by fixing real problems, improving reliability and leaving an operation better than you found it, this is a role worth having a serious conversation about.