Lift Engineer & HoD – Maintenance (Accra Ghana)

To lead the Lift Maintenance Department in ensuring the safe, reliable and statutorily compliant operation of all type of lifts, and to take overall accountability for the related electrical, mechanical and civil assets with particular emphasis on maintaining the lifts to comply with the highest safety standards. Key Responsibilities A. Lift & Vertical Transportation Plan and supervise preventive and corrective maintenance on all passenger lifts, goods lifts, escalators and dumbwaiters on site. Diagnose and rectify faults in traction and hydraulic systems: controllers, VVVF drives, door operators, landing interlocks, safety gears, overspeed governors, ropes, buffers. Manage entrapment response: maintain a roster of trained releasers available 24/7, publish the emergency release procedure, and hold to a defined response-time target (recommend ≤ 20 minutes on site). Grid-resilience duties (critical): ensure every lift has a functioning Automatic Rescue Device (ARD) or battery-backed homing, verify that the standby generator and ATS are sized and configured to bring lifts to a landing on power loss, and protect controllers with AVRs/stabilisers against ECG voltage fluctuation and surges. Environmental

Duties

• Manage Harmattan dust ingress into machine rooms, controllers and shaft equipment; monitor and treat corrosion of ropes, guide rails, contacts and shaft steelwork caused by Accra's humid, salt-laden coastal air
• Set filter, cleaning and lubrication intervals accordingly
• High-rise duties (20+ floors): Manage multi-zone lift banks and sky-lobby transfers; supervise group control and destination dispatch systems; maintain high-speed traction lifts (2.5 m/s and above) including compensating ropes and chains, rope tension equalisation, rope stretch monitoring and re-shortening; manage guide rail alignment and ride quality over long travel; account for building sway and stack effect on door operation and shaft pressure; maintain fireman's lifts, shaft and lobby pressurisation interfaces, and phased evacuation procedures for a tall building
• Maintain lift logbooks, examination reports, load test certificates and the general register
• Coordinate statutory examination and certification with Ghana Standard Authority (GSA) and with the OEM Contractor
• Lead lift modernisation, retrofit and replacement projects - scoping, tendering, technical evaluation, supervision and commissioning
• Track lift performance data (call-outs, entrapments, MTBF, MTTR) and drive improvement
• B. General Maintenance & Building Services Own the planned preventive maintenance (PPM) schedule for HVAC/chillers, LV distribution and switchgear, standby generators, UPS, fire detection and suppression, water treatment, pumps, plumbing and building fabric
• Power: manage the ECG supply interface, standby generation, fuel management, changeover systems and load-shedding response; minimise downtime during outages
• Run the work order / helpdesk system and close reactive jobs within agreed SLAs
• Maintain the asset register, equipment history cards, drawings, O&M manuals and warranty records
• C. Team Building & Leadership Build the maintenance team from the ground up - Define the establishment and skill mix, write role profiles, participate in recruitment and technical testing of technicians, and set the department's standards and working culture
• Own the preventive maintenance regime end to end - Design the PPM schedules, checklists, task frequencies and job cards rather than inheriting them, and audit that the work is actually being done to standard on the shop floor
• Lead, roster and supervise the maintenance team; set objectives and run performance reviews
• Build technical capability through toolbox talks, structured training and OEM certification pathways
• Manage shift coverage, overtime, leave and succession planning for critical roles
• Represent the department in management meetings and owner/board reporting
• D. Health, Safety & Statutory Compliance Ensure lifts undergo thorough examination by a competent person at the statutory interval (six months for people-carrying equipment under the Act 328 framework), with reports properly filed and entered in the general register
• Maintain compliance with Ghana National Fire Service fire certification requirements, including fireman's lift operation and evacuation procedures
• Apply relevant Ghana Standards Authority standards and the design codes to which the installed lifts were built (typically EN 81 or ASME A17.1)
• Enforce permit-to-work, lockout/tagout, working-at-height and confined-space procedures; conduct risk assessments, safety audits and incident investigations
• E. Commercial, Budget & Procurement Prepare and control the annual maintenance OPEX budget and CAPEX replacement plan
• Manage AMC and service contracts (lifts, HVAC, gensets, fire systems) - scope, SLAs, performance reviews and renewals
• Desired Candidate Profile 4
• Key Performance Indicators Lift availability / uptime: target ≥ 99% Number of entrapments and average release response time PPM completion rate against schedule: target ≥ 95% MTTR and repeat-fault rate 100% valid statutory certificates Zero lost-time injuries Maintenance budget variance and generator fuel cost per operating hour Critical-spares availability (stock-out incidents) Internal customer / tenant / guest satisfaction on maintenance response 5
• Qualifications & Experience Essential Degree / Diploma in Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical, Mechatronics or Electromechanical Engineering from a recognised institution 7 to 10 years in building services / facilities maintenance, with substantial hands-on lift and escalator maintenance within that period
• Mandatory: demonstrable experience maintaining lifts in high-rise towers of 20 floors and above
• Applicants must name the building(s), the number of floors served, the lift configuration and the period of responsibility
• Applications without this detail will not be shortlisted
• Mandatory: Hands-on working knowledge of Elevators thyssenkrupp, Otis and Fuji lift systems - controllers, drives, door operators and diagnostic tools
• Experience across all three is preferred; experience on at least two, with proven ability to cross-train on the third, will be considered
• Very strong technical depth and a genuinely preventive mindset - able to diagnose from first principles rather than swapping parts, and able to demonstrate a measurable shift from reactive to planned maintenance in a previous role
• Proven ability to create, staff and lead a maintenance team - recruiting and technically testing technicians, designing PPM schedules and job cards, and holding the team to them
• Minimum 4 to 5 years supervising a technical team
• Experience gained with an OEM, an OEM local agent or a major AMC service provider
• HSE certification (NEBOSH IGC, IOSH Managing Safely) and current first aid
• Experience in hotel / high-rise residential / office tower environments
• CMMS/CAFM and BMS exposure; AutoCAD literacy. 6
• Technical Skills Brand-specific competence on TK Elevator thyssenkrupp, Otis and Fuji: controller families, service tools/handheld diagnostics, parameter setting and fault code interpretation High-rise systems: group/duplex control, destination dispatch, zoning and sky-lobby traffic, high-speed traction machines, compensating ropes and governor tensioning Traffic analysis and handling capacity: interval, waiting time, round-trip time Lift electrical schematics, controller fault diagnostics and safety-circuit tracing Traction machines, ropes, sheaves, brakes; hydraulic power units, valves and cylinders Door operators, interlocks, governor and safety-gear testing, load testing ARD/battery homing systems, ATS, AVR and surge protection LV distribution, motor control, VFDs, switchgear, earthing and power factor correction Standby generators, HVAC and chillers, pumps, fire protection systems Technical drawings, wiring diagrams and O&M manuals CMMS and MS Excel; maintenance and budget reporting 7
• Competencies & Attributes Exceptional technical depth: diagnoses from first principles and understands why a component failed, not just which one to replace A preventive rather than reactive instinct: fixes the schedule, not just the fault Builder of teams: can recruit, train and hold standards with technicians who may arrive under-skilled Safety-first judgement, including the confidence to take a lift out of service and hold that decision under commercial pressure Calm and decisive during entrapments, outages and emergencies Structured root-cause analysis rather than repeat quick fixes Clear communication with technicians, management, contractors and regulators Budget discipline and procurement integrity — this role certifies contractor invoices Reliability and genuine availability for call-outs Ability to develop and retain scarce technical talent Employment Type Full-time

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