Capital Expenditure Manager (Global)

Job Description

Job Title:                           Capital Expenditure Manager (Global)

Function:                         Global Operations                   

Reports to:                     Head of Global Asset Care and Capex

Location:                         Dublin               

Role Type:                        12-Month Fixed Term Contract

Career Level:                 P4

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Ornua is a leading dairy co-operative which sells premium dairy products globally on behalf of its Member Co-operatives, Ireland’s dairy processors and, in turn, Irish dairy farmers. 

Ornua has revenues of €3.4 billion and is supported by a global team of approximately 2,800 employees. The Group operates as a commercial organisation across 10 business units, including 12 production facilities located in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. 

The commercial organisation is responsible for the marketing and sales of Ornua’s consumer brands including Ireland’s most successful food export: Kerrygold. Consumer markets are served by production facilities in Ireland, Germany and the UK and by in-market Sales & Marketing Teams in Asia, Germany, Ireland, MEA, Poland, Spain, rest of Europe and North and Latin America. 

It also manages the procurement of Irish and non-Irish dairy products, the sale of dairy ingredients to food manufacturing and foodservice customers globally, and the implementation of de-risking and trading strategies to manage market volatility. These activities are supported by production facilities and in-market teams in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. 

WHY THIS ROLE IS VALUABLE: 

The Head of Capital Projects (Global) will play a critical role in ensuring that capital is allocated, governed and deployed effectively across the organisation, enabling sustainable growth, operational performance, resilience and long-term value creation.

The role will provide enterprise leadership of the capital investment portfolio, establishing the governance, financial disciplines, standards and decision frameworks required to ensure investments are strategically aligned, appropriately prioritised and supported by robust business cases.

The role will oversee the capital portfolio from early concept and investment evaluation through approval, execution, commissioning and operational handover, providing appropriate challenge and assurance at key stages of the investment lifecycle.

The role will also build project and engineering capability across the organisation, creating greater consistency in how capital projects are developed and delivered and leveraging scale through standardisation, repeatable design solutions, strategic supplier relationships and disciplined cost management.

This reflects the move towards a more standardised global operating model already evident in Global Operations, including a capital and technology roadmap and globally aligned standards and controls.

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:

Capital Allocation & Investment Strategy

• Lead the development and management of the enterprise capital investment portfolio, ensuring capital is prioritised towards the opportunities that best support business strategy, operational performance, growth, compliance and asset sustainability.
• Establish a consistent framework for evaluating, prioritising and sequencing capital investment proposals across business units and manufacturing locations.
• Provide robust challenge to capital requests, ensuring investment decisions are supported by clearly defined business need, strategic rationale, operational requirements and appropriate financial analysis.
• Partner closely with Finance and business leadership to ensure capital allocation decisions reflect affordability, investment returns, risk and competing enterprise priorities.
• Maintain visibility of the overall capital pipeline, commitments, expenditure, forecast and emerging investment requirements.
• Support the development of medium and long-term capital investment roadmaps aligned with business, manufacturing and asset strategies.

Capital Governance & Financial Control

• Develop and maintain a robust enterprise Capex governance framework, defining clear approval thresholds, delegated authorities, stage gates, decision rights and escalation requirements.
• Establish financial controls and governance mechanisms to ensure capital expenditure remains within approved funding and delegated authority.
• Ensure capital investments comply with company policies, financial controls, approval processes and applicable governance requirements.
• Define the minimum financial, commercial, technical and operational information required to support investment approval at each stage.
• Establish clear governance for changes in project scope, cost, timeline and investment assumptions, ensuring material deviations are appropriately reviewed and approved.
• Partner with Finance to strengthen forecasting, cash-flow management, investment tracking and post-investment evaluation.
• Drive transparency and accountability for investment decisions, benefits and project outcomes.

Capital Portfolio & Project Oversight

• Oversee the portfolio of strategic capital projects from initial concept and feasibility through business case, design, approval, execution, commissioning and operational handover.
• Establish portfolio-level governance, reporting and review mechanisms covering cost, schedule, risk, benefits, resources and delivery confidence.
• Provide independent challenge and assurance on major capital projects at critical stage gates.
• Ensure project scope, assumptions, benefits, dependencies and success measures are sufficiently robust before capital is committed.
• Identify portfolio-level risks, dependencies and resource constraints and ensure these are surfaced and managed appropriately.
• Intervene, escalate or initiate recovery actions where material projects are at risk of failing to deliver agreed outcomes.
• Establish effective post-investment reviews to assess delivery against approved scope, cost, benefits and operational outcomes.

Project Governance & Standards

• Establish and continuously improve the organisation's capital project governance framework, methodologies, standards and tools.
• Define clear stage-gate requirements from concept through feasibility, detailed design, investment approval, execution, commissioning and close-out.
• Implement common project-management standards covering business cases, project charters, schedules, cost controls, risk management, change control and reporting.
• Establish consistent project documentation, templates and approval protocols across the organisation.
• Ensure lessons learned from completed projects are captured and embedded into future project design and execution.
• Drive clear accountability for project sponsorship, project management, technical approval and operational acceptance.

Cost Optimisation & Value Creation

• Drive improved value from capital expenditure through rigorous scope development, cost challenge, benchmarking and value engineering.
• Identify opportunities to reduce investment cost and project complexity through standardisation, repeatable designs and common engineering specifications.
• Develop strategies to leverage capital expenditure across the organisation rather than procuring and engineering solutions on a project-by-project or site-by-site basis.
• Partner with Procurement to establish strategic relationships with key engineering partners, technology providers, equipment manufacturers and contractors.
• Use internal and external benchmarks to challenge project cost, design choices and execution approaches.
• Ensure whole-life cost, maintainability, reliability and operational efficiency are considered alongside initial capital cost.
• Drive stronger discipline around benefits realisation and demonstrate the value generated from capital investment.

Engineering & Project Capability

• Build and strengthen capital project and engineering capability across the organisation.
• Define the project management, commercial, financial and technical capabilities required to successfully deliver the future capital portfolio.
• Establish common standards and ways of working for project managers, engineers and other colleagues involved in capital delivery.
• Lead, coach and develop Capex project and governance teams, building strong commercial judgement and project execution capability.
• Develop effective relationships with external engineering and project-management partners to supplement internal capability where required.
• Promote knowledge sharing and reuse of proven engineering solutions across manufacturing locations.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Work closely with Manufacturing, Engineering, R&D/Innovation, Quality, Supply Chain, Procurement, Finance and Health & Safety to ensure investment decisions reflect end-to-end business requirements.
• Ensure appropriate functional involvement in project design and approval, avoiding late-stage operational, quality, supply-chain or technical issues.
• Facilitate constructive challenge between business sponsors, technical teams and Finance to strengthen investment decisions.
• Build strong relationships across global and local teams, balancing enterprise priorities with legitimate site and business-unit requirements.
• Champion an enterprise-first approach to capital investment, particularly where investment decisions have implications across multiple sites or business units.

Executive Reporting & Stakeholder Management

• Provide the Executive Committee and senior leadership with clear, concise updates on the capital portfolio, including investment requirements, financial position, delivery status, key risks and decisions required.
• Present investment recommendations and portfolio trade-offs in a way that enables informed executive decision-making.
• Ensure emerging cost, schedule, scope and delivery risks are escalated early, with clear recommendations and mitigation plans.
• Provide senior stakeholders with confidence that the capital portfolio is appropriately governed and that investment commitments are delivering intended value.
• Represent the capital projects agenda in relevant executive and functional governance forums.

KEY REQUIREMENTS: 

• 7+ years’ experience in capital investment, engineering and project/programme management within a complex, asset-intensive manufacturing environment.
• Degree in Engineering or another relevant technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience. A recognised project management qualification would be advantageous.
• Proven experience overseeing major capital portfolios, including investment prioritisation, governance, financial control and end-to-end project delivery.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, with experience developing and challenging business cases, investment returns, budgets and cost forecasts.
• Strong understanding of Capex governance, stage-gate processes, risk management and delegated authority frameworks.
• Proven ability to drive cost optimisation and value creation through standardisation, value engineering, strategic sourcing and supplier partnerships.
• Strong leadership and influencing capability, with the credibility to challenge and align senior stakeholders across Manufacturing, Engineering, Finance, R&D, Quality and Supply Chain.
• Strategic, enterprise-focused mindset, combining sound judgement and technical credibility with a strong focus on execution, accountability and continuous improvement.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS:  Monday 9th November, 2026