Jake Norman Jake Norman

Install & Workshop Engineer

Install & Workshop Engineer at OAL

📍 Location: Peterborough, PE2 6YN | Up to £36k (Subject to Experience) | Full-Time, Permanent

About the role

OAL is looking for a hands-on and motivated individual to join our engineering team as an Installation & Workshop Engineer. This is an ideal opportunity for someone fresh out of college with a Level 2 Electrical Installation qualification, who is keen to build a career in automation, control systems and food manufacturing technology.

You’ll work alongside experienced engineers, building, wiring, and testing machinery in our workshop, and supporting on-site installations at food factories across the UK.

We’ll provide full support through mentoring, training, and real project experience.

🛠️ What You’ll Be Doing

  • Build, wiring and testing of electrical panels and machinery

  • Supporting on-site installations of automation and control systems

  • Working from engineering drawings, wiring diagrams and checklists

  • Learning how to troubleshoot and fault-find basic issues on electrical and mechanical systems

  • Following safe working practices (LOTO, permits, PPE, etc.)

👀 What the job actually looks like

Here’s what you can expect when you join:

  • Panel Building Wiring and assembling control panels in our dedicated workshop

  • Site Installations Travelling to food factories to install scanners, sensors, and automation systems

  • Mechanical Assembly Mounting brackets, trays, or cabling as part of project builds

  • Real Environments Working on live production sites – safety, teamwork, and hygiene are key

📚 What We’re Looking For

  • A completed Level 2 Diploma in Electrical Installation (or equivalent)

  • Practical, hands-on mindset – enjoys building, wiring, fixing, or assembling things

  • Willing to travel to customer sites and stay away when required (with team)

  • Reliable, well-organised and a team player

  • Keen to learn new skills in automation, PLCs and electrical systems

🛑 What this role is not

  • This isn’t an office-based design or purely theoretical role

  • It’s not for someone looking to jump straight into software/PLC programming

  • It’s not right if you prefer paperwork or computers to tools

🚀 What You’ll Gain

  • Mentoring from experienced engineers and technical leads

  • Real-world experience working on cutting-edge automation systems

  • Opportunity to grow into roles in controls, project engineering, or site installations

  • A structured development path via sponsored apprenticeship to NVQ Level 3 or ECS Gold Card (if applicable)

About OAL:

OAL helps food manufacturers automate. An innovative family business, based in Peterborough, the company provides automation and system integration services to food manufacturers. It’s a market leader for digital transformation, label and date code verification and robotic powder weighing.

We're a growing SME offering fantastic opportunities in a fast-paced organisation. If you're ready to contribute to groundbreaking work in a supportive environment, we'd love to meet you.


Please fill in the form below to apply

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Jake Norman Jake Norman

People Partner

People Partner at OAL

📍 Location: Peterborough, PE2 6YN | £50,000 to £60,000 | Full-Time, Permanent

Help us build the people function from the ground up

We’re looking for a People & Culture Partner to join us on our mission to transform food and drink manufacturing through automation and robotics.

This is a new role at OAL, reporting directly to the Managing Director. You’ll lead recruitment, performance, and engagement across the business and design simple, scalable people systems to support our next stage of growth.

You’ll be joining a team that believes in direct communication, high standards, and solving hard problems together. If you’re looking for a hands-on opportunity to shape how a fast-growing business hires, develops, and retains great people, this is it.

Your Role Will Involve

  • Leading recruitment for 20+ hires in 2025 across engineering, software, and operations

  • Designing and running end-to-end hiring processes, from sourcing to onboarding

  • Creating simple, impactful performance and development frameworks

  • Supporting managers with feedback, coaching, and employee relations

  • Embedding our values and helping build a high-performance culture

  • Working with the Finance Director to ensure legal and HR compliance

  • Coordinating payroll, contracts, and people systems with finance

  • Acting as a trusted point of contact for employees and line managers

Benefits You’ll Enjoy

  • Flexible Working: Find the balance with our flexible work arrangements.

  • Generous Holiday Package: Enjoy 25 days of holiday plus public holidays, with the option to buy/sell up to 5 days.

  • Pension Scheme: Plan for the future with our company pension scheme.

  • Peace of Mind: Feel secure with our death in service benefit.

  • Continuous Learning: We’ll cover your professional fees, supporting your career development.

  • Smart Health: Access a 24/7 online GP, mental health support, and wellbeing services anytime.

What We’re Looking For

  • Experience building or running a people function in a growing business

  • Strong generalist background: recruitment, performance, ER, engagement

  • Experience supporting technical or engineering teams

  • Comfortable working independently and building from scratch

  • Solid knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practices

  • CIPD qualified (Level 5 or above)

  • Confident implementing people tools (ATS, onboarding, reviews)

  • Data-savvy, with a focus on insights over intuition

  • Commercial mindset with a focus on people outcomes, not paperwork

  • Tactful, trustworthy and comfortable operating at all levels of the business

About OAL

OAL helps food manufacturers automate. An innovative family business, based in Peterborough, the company provides automation and system integration services to food manufacturers. It’s a market leader for digital transformation, label and date code verification and robotic powder weighing. We're a growing SME offering fantastic opportunities in a fast-paced organisation. If you're ready to contribute to groundbreaking work in a supportive environment, we'd love to meet you.

Please fill in the form below to apply.


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Jake Norman Jake Norman

Applications Engineer – Vision Systems

Application Engineer at OAL

📍 Location: Peterborough, PE2 6YN (Primary location - customers sites) | Up to £Competive (Subject to Experience) | Full-Time, Permanent

About the role

We’re looking for a practical, technically strong Application Engineer to help deploy the next generation of AI vision systems into UK food factories. You’ll work on high-speed production lines, implementing real-time image analysis solutions that detect, count, and verify products, replacing manual quality checks with powerful machine learning.

This is a hands-on role focused on applying AI to solve real production problems. You’ll help OAL deploy cutting-edge vision, contributing to some of the most innovative projects in the UK food industry.

Why You’ll Love Working With Us

  • Vision-Driven Innovation: Help deploy leading-edge vision solutions that improve food safety, quality, and traceability.

  • Autonomy with Support: Take ownership of your projects while collaborating with expert engineering teams.

  • Real Impact: This is not a lab job. Your systems will directly improve efficiency, reduce waste and solve complex food manufacturing challenges.

Your Role Will Involve

  • Designing and implementing machine vision inspection systems.

  • Running trials and developing proof-of-concepts to validate AI models for real-world conditions.

  • Programming and configuring PLCs and SCADA systems.

  • Installing, commissioning, and supporting automated solutions on customer sites across the UK.

  • Creating and maintaining clear documentation, including functional design specs and support manuals.

  • Acting as the technical liaison with customers during deployment and troubleshooting.

  • Supporting the wider automation team in delivering complete project solutions.

  • Conducting trials and feasibility studies for customer-specific vision requirements.

Benefits You’ll Enjoy

  • UK-wide travel.

  • Flexible Working: Find the balance with our flexible work arrangements.

  • Generous Holiday Package: Enjoy 25 days of holiday plus public holidays, with the option to buy/sell up to 5 days.

  • Company vehicle.

  • Pension Scheme: Plan for the future with our company pension scheme.

  • Peace of Mind: Feel secure with our death in service benefit.

  • Continuous Learning: We’ll cover your professional fees, supporting your career development.

  • Smart Health: Access a 24/7 online GP, mental health support, and wellbeing services anytime.

What We’re Looking For

  • Experience deploying machine vision or image analysis systems in an industrial or research setting.

  • Comfortable working with AI/ML platforms or deep learning vision tools

  • Hands-on engineering experience with automation or robotics systems.

  • Able to work on site, troubleshoot systems hands-on, and communicate clearly with operators and engineers.

  • Has over 5 years of experience in a similar role.

  • Full UK driving licence and happy to travel UK-wide (50%+ field-based).

About OAL

OAL helps food manufacturers automate. An innovative family business, based in Peterborough, the company provides automation and system integration services to food manufacturers. It’s a market leader for digital transformation, label and date code verification and robotic powder weighing. We're a growing SME offering fantastic opportunities in a fast-paced organisation. If you're ready to contribute to groundbreaking work in a supportive environment, we'd love to meet you.

Please fill in the form below to apply.


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Jake Norman Jake Norman

I Want to Work at OAL

📍 Peterborough | Full-time or Part-time | £Competitive

About the role

We’re always looking for brilliant people to join our team, even if the right role isn’t listed right now.

If you’re excited about the future of food manufacturing and think you can bring something special to OAL, we want to hear from you.

Whether your background is in automation, robotics, systems engineering, software development, operations, or something else entirely, we’re open to conversations with people who share our values and ambition.

About OAL

OAL helps food manufacturers automate.

We’re an innovative, family-run business based in Peterborough, delivering automation and system integration projects to the UK’s leading food and beverage manufacturers. As a market leader in digital transformation, packaging verification, vision and robotics, we’re helping the industry tackle critical problems with smart, practical solutions.

If you’re ready to make a meaningful impact and be part of a fast-paced, supportive environment, we’d love to meet you.

What We Value

We're proud of our culture and look for people who live our values:

  • Positive – You bring energy and optimism to every interaction

  • Honest, Open & Respectful – You build trust by being transparent, respectful and supportive

  • Committed to Customers – You take ownership and go the extra mile to help our customers succeed

  • Team Player – You collaborate closely and lift others around you

  • Communication – You communicate clearly, directly and early to avoid surprises

  • Professional – You hold yourself to high standards and take pride in your work

If this sounds like you, you’ll fit right in.

What You Can Expect

We offer:

  • A welcoming and flexible work environment

  • Competitive salary and benefits

  • Opportunities for personal growth and career progression

  • A chance to work on cutting-edge automation and digital projects with real-world impact

  • Generous Holiday Package: Enjoy 25 days of holiday plus public holidays, with the option to buy/sell up to 5 days.

  • Pension Scheme: Plan for the future with our company pension scheme.

  • Peace of Mind: Feel secure with our death in service benefit.

  • Continuous Learning: We’ll cover your professional fees, supporting your career development.

  • Smart Health: Access a 24/7 online GP, mental health support, and wellbeing services anytime.

Upload your CV with a short note about why you’d like to work at OAL and where you think you’d add value. We’ll review every application and be in touch if there’s a potential fit – now or in the future.


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Jake Norman Jake Norman

Project Engineer

Project Engineer at OAL

📍 Location: Peterborough, PE2 6YN (Primary location - customers sites) | Up to £60k (Subject to Experience) | Full-Time, Permanent

About the role

We are looking for a proactive and hands-on Project Engineer to join our team at OAL. In this role, you will play a critical part in delivering cutting-edge automation and robotic systems to our customers. You’ll be responsible for the successful installation, commissioning, and testing of deployed systems, while ensuring customer satisfaction and adherence to high safety and quality standards.

Why You’ll Love Working With Us

  • Innovative Projects: Work on groundbreaking projects like our Carbon Trust net-zero initiative using robots to make food.

  • Collaborative Culture: Thrive in a workplace that’s all about teamwork, fun, and making an impact.

  • Professional Growth: Stay ahead of technology trends with on-the-job training and professional development opportunities.

Your Role Will Involve

  • Carry out engineering works to install, commission, and test deployed automation and robotic systems.

  • Manage your own activities in a safe and efficient manner, ensuring colleagues adhere to safe working practices and company standards.

  • Act as the primary on-site liaison with the customer during installation, commissioning, and testing phases, ensuring the system meets expectations.

  • Providing training to customers on applications and systems.

  • Production and maintenance of documentation, for use by the customer and OAL.

  • Responsible for fault reporting and implementation and testing of design modifications.

  • Providing support to the customer, the team, and other teams within OAL.

  • To work within agreed budgets/costs.

Benefits You’ll Enjoy

  • UK-wide travel.

  • Flexible Working: Find the balance with our flexible work arrangements.

  • Generous Holiday Package: Enjoy 25 days of holiday plus public holidays, with the option to buy/sell up to 5 days.

  • Company vehicle.

  • Pension Scheme: Plan for the future with our company pension scheme.

  • Peace of Mind: Feel secure with our death in service benefit.

  • Continuous Learning: We’ll cover your professional fees, supporting your career development.

  • Smart Health: Access a 24/7 online GP, mental health support, and wellbeing services anytime.

What We’re Looking For

  • Hands-on engineering experience with automation or robotics systems.

  • Strong communication and interpersonal skills for effective on-site customer interaction.

  • Ability to work independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.

  • A commitment to safe working practices and continuous improvement.

  • Has over 5 years in a similar role.

  • A full UK driving licence.

  • Happy to travel and spend time at food manufacturing sites across the UK, more than 50%.

About OAL

OAL helps food manufacturers automate. An innovative family business, based in Peterborough, the company provides automation and system integration services to food manufacturers. It’s a market leader for digital transformation, label and date code verification and robotic powder weighing. We're a growing SME offering fantastic opportunities in a fast-paced organisation. If you're ready to contribute to groundbreaking work in a supportive environment, we'd love to meet you.

Please fill in the form below to apply.


Read More