Ford is recruiting 250 new employees as production operators for a new diesel engine production line being installed at the company’s Dagenham engine plant.

This next-generation 2.0-litre diesel engine family represents an investment of over £380 million, including support from the UK Government’s Regional Growth Fund. The engine has been designed and developed at Ford Dagenham and at the Ford Dunton Technical Centre in Essex.

The first engine will be produced at Dagenham towards the end of next year with production capacity reaching 350,000 units per annum. The new diesel engine will be installed in Ford vehicles from 2016.

The new recruits will join the existing staff of around 2,000 employed at Dagenham in engine production and engineering. The first wave of new employees, joining the company on a 23-month fixed-term contract, are planned to start in December this year and will be followed by further waves in the first half of 2015.

Ford says these new production positions will be part of the manufacturing team setting up and running the new engine production line, which will help maintain Dagenham’s overall production capacity at close to one million units per annum. Last year the Dagenham site produced 787,398 diesel engines with 85 per cent exported.

This latest diesel engine programme at Dagenham is part of a £1.5 billion investment by Ford in low-carbon engine and vehicle technology over five years. Ford’s total of direct employees in the UK now exceeds 13,500.

Ford currently produces engines at two locations in the UK, petrol engines from Ford Bridgend in Wales and diesel engines at Ford Dagenham to the east of London. Total production from the two plants exceeded 1.5 million engines in 2013.

Applications for the new jobs can be made online here.

Source: Ford

Tags: Dagenham Engine Plant, engine design, Ford, Ford Dunton Technical Centre, manufacturing, recruitment