Head of Production

This is a senior leadership position with responsibility for Production, Stores and Dispatch. You will lead the continued development of manufacturing capability, improve operational performance and ensure the business is equipped to support sustained growth within a complex, high-value engineering environment.
Reporting to the Operations Director, you will be responsible for delivering safe, reliable, cost-effective and high-quality manufacturing performance across the operation.

Key Responsibilities

Provide visible leadership across Production, Stores and Dispatch.
Lead, coach and develop production leaders, technical specialists and multidisciplinary teams.
Ensure compliance with all health, safety and environmental policies and procedures.
Own production execution and resource deployment to achieve customer delivery and shipping commitments.
Forecast labour, skills and resource requirements in line with future production demand.
Improve productivity through effective leadership, coaching, cross-training and capability development.
Identify succession, recruitment and skills requirements across the manufacturing function.
Improve material flow, production readiness and manufacturing scalability.
Reduce build hours, rework, scrap, overtime, work-in-progress and cost of poor quality.
Standardise and improve operational systems and processes.
Use SQCDP data to identify and prioritise improvement opportunities.
Lead continuous improvement and operational excellence initiatives.
Work closely with Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Procurement, Planning and Commercial teams.
Support the successful introduction of new products, technologies and manufacturing processes.
Ensure new products are manufacturable, testable and ready for production.
Manage pre-production builds, production training, documentation and operational readiness.
Drive improvements in product quality through robust data analysis, root cause investigation and corrective action.

Key Performance Areas

Health, safety and environmental performance.
On-time delivery and achievement of shipping commitments.
Labour productivity, build hours and overtime reduction.
Reduction in scrap, rework, WIP and cost of poor quality.
Product quality and commissioning performance.
Delivery of continuous improvement and operational excellence objectives.

Experience and Qualifications

Degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt qualification or demonstrable continuous improvement experience.
Significant experience leading production, manufacturing or operations teams.
Experience working within a complex, high-technology manufacturing environment.
Proven experience managing and developing line managers and multidisciplinary teams.
Strong understanding of lean manufacturing, visual management, root cause analysis and structured problem-solving.
Experience improving safety, quality, cost, delivery and people performance.
Commercial awareness, with an understanding of margin, productivity, cost and customer delivery.
Experience using ERP, production planning or operational reporting systems.
Strong understanding of production planning, labour forecasting and manufacturing resource requirements.
Experience supporting NPI and the transition of products from development into production.
Experience within semiconductor, vacuum, plasma, precision equipment, capital equipment or another high-complexity engineering sector would be advantageous.

Personal Attributes

A credible and visible leader with a coaching management style.
Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
Commercially aware and comfortable using data to make decisions.
Collaborative, inclusive and able to build effective cross-functional relationships.
Resilient and comfortable working within a changing manufacturing environment.
Confident making difficult decisions and holding teams accountable.
Passionate about developing people and improving operational capability.
Positive, pragmatic and willing to challenge existing ways of working