Recruiting Engineers for the Can-Making Machinery Industry
18+ Years of Recruitment Experience Supporting Can-Making Equipment Manufacturers
SimWest Engineering Recruitment specialises in recruiting engineers and technical professionals for machinery manufacturers, OEMs and capital equipment businesses.
Our Director, Stephen Simpson, has spent the past 18 years recruiting within engineering and manufacturing. During that time, both through SimWest Engineering Recruitment and previous recruitment roles, he has personally supported a number of businesses supplying machinery and equipment into the 2-piece and 3-piece can-making industries across the UK and Europe.
This experience includes working with companies that manufacture and supply equipment such as:
- Bodymakers, Seamers and Flangers
- Industrial Ovens & Dryers
- Can Washing Systems
- Can Handling and Conveying Systems
- Associated Special-Purpose Machinery and Automation
The Recruitment Challenge
Manufacturers supplying machinery to the can-making industry often need engineers with a relatively specialist combination of skills.
It is rarely enough to simply find someone with the right job title.
Depending on the position, businesses may need people who understand complex capital equipment, high-speed machinery, automated production systems, mechanical handling, electrical controls, installation, commissioning or international field service.
For many positions, relevant candidates are already employed by other machinery manufacturers and are not actively applying to vacancies.
This makes proactive candidate sourcing particularly important.
Roles We Have Recruited
Stephen's experience within the can-making machinery sector has included recruiting across engineering, operations, service, sales and senior management positions.
These have included:
Engineering & Design
- Mechanical Design Engineers
- Electrical Design Engineers
- Design Managers
- Production Engineers
- Project Engineers
- Project Managers
Manufacturing & Assembly
- Mechanical Fitters
- Electrical Fitters
- Production Engineers
- Engineering Buyers
Service & Aftermarket
- Field Service Engineers
- Installation & Commissioning Engineers
- Aftermarket Coordinators
- Aftermarket Managers
Commercial
- Technical Sales Managers
- Sales Directors
Engineering Leadership
- Senior Engineering Managers
- Engineering Directors
- Other senior Director-level appointments
Experience Across Different Can-Making Technologies
Our experience has included supporting a manufacturer of Bodymakers, Seamers and Flangers for the 3-piece can-making sector, recruiting across Mechanical Design, Mechanical and Electrical Fitting, Production Engineering and Engineering Purchasing.
We have also supported a business designing and supplying Industrial Ovens, Dryers and Washers into both 2-piece and 3-piece can-making plants. Recruitment assignments have ranged from Design Engineers and Project Managers through to Service Engineers, Technical Sales Managers, Senior Engineering Management and Director-level positions.
Our experience also extends to manufacturers of can-handling and conveying equipment, including recruitment within Mechanical Design and Aftermarket functions.
Our Approach
For specialist machinery recruitment, relying solely on job advertising can significantly limit the available candidate pool.
SimWest Engineering Recruitment combines vacancy advertising with proactive recruitment and targeted headhunting.
Depending on the assignment, our search can include:
- Direct headhunting
- Our existing engineering candidate network and database
- Specialist engineering CV databases
- Targeting engineers working for relevant machinery manufacturers and OEMs
- Identifying candidates from adjacent capital equipment, automation and special-purpose machinery sectors
- Screening candidates before CV submission
This allows us to look beyond engineers actively searching for work and approach people whose experience may closely match the machinery, technology and customers our clients work with.
Why Sector Experience Matters
Understanding the machinery sector helps us look beyond keywords on a CV.
For example, a candidate may never have worked directly within can-making machinery but could have highly transferable experience designing, building, installing or servicing automated capital equipment within food processing, packaging, converting, printing, material handling or other high-speed manufacturing environments.
Equally, for positions requiring genuine can-making experience, we can focus the search much more narrowly around relevant manufacturers, technologies and candidate backgrounds.
The objective is not to send large numbers of CVs.
It is to identify engineers whose experience genuinely fits the equipment, position and working environment.
Recruiting for the Can-Making Machinery Industry?
If you manufacture or supply machinery and equipment to the 2-piece or 3-piece can-making industry and are looking to recruit engineering or technical staff within the UK or Europe, SimWest Engineering Recruitment would be pleased to discuss your requirements.
Whether you are recruiting an individual specialist engineer, expanding an engineering team or making a senior management appointment, we can build a targeted recruitment campaign around the skills and machinery experience you require.
Speak to SimWest Engineering Recruitment about your next engineering vacancy.
