Manufacturing Engineering Lead

Overview

In this leadership role, you will oversee Manufacturing Engineering and Tooling for an iCOMAT plant, driving hands-on ME work and building high-performing teams. You’ll align manufacturing plans with Operations and Engineering, support design for manufacturability, and enable rapid scale-up of production. You’ll advance quality and process standards while collaborating across sites to standardise ME practices. This is a practical, impact-driven role at a fast-growing, innovation-focused company.

Pay / Benefits

• private healthcare
• pension scheme
• stock options
• career growth opportunities
• innovation-focused culture
• global impact

Responsibilities

• Lead the plant ME and Tooling teams: set objectives, develop capability, plan workload
• Own the Manufacturing Engineering delivery plan for the plant, align with Operations and Engineering
• Deliver hands-on ME work content in addition to team leadership
• Support BD with quotations: manufacturing methodology, tooling requirements, and costings
• Support product design for manufacture as required
• Create routings and BoMs for production and tooling activities
• Develop Methods of Manufacture (MoMs) with manufacturing steps, safety, tooling, materials, and cure cycles
• Ensure customer specs, quality approvals, and compliance requirements are identified
• Develop and implement quality control procedures and inspection plans
• Assist Tooling Design team with tooling concepts, fixtures, and equipment
• Lead APQP on NPI: process flow, PFMEA, control plan, PPAP/Fair
• Transition build-to-print components from Design Engineering to production, managing risks and quality
• Own local manufacturing readiness for new products/processes, including training and documentation
• Review production data and drive quality/efficiency improvements
• Lead structured problem solving using root cause analysis and corrective actions
• Develop plant capability through training, SMEs, and standardised processes
• Support procurement with technical guidance on materials, tooling, and packaging
• Promote lean, AS9100-aligned quality, and continuous improvement across the plant
• Collaborate across sites to share best practice and standardise ME ways of working across iCOMAT sites

Key requirements

• Minimum 5 years’ industrial experience in Manufacturing Engineering in production/NPI/industrialisation
• Minimum 3 years’ experience supervising or leading a technical team
• Practical knowledge of composite manufacture and processing
• Strong understanding of composite materials and their behaviour
• Understanding of AS9100 and quality control in aerospace/advanced manufacturing
• CAD proficiency (SolidWorks and Composer) and MS Word/Excel
• Proven leadership of ME/Tooling or production support in an industrial environment
• Hands-on ability to deliver technical work content as well as lead others
• Knowledge of manufacturing process development, routings, BoMs, MoMs, work instructions
• Experience with PFMEA, structured problem solving, RCA, and continuous improvement
• Analytical thinking, problem-solving and creativity
• Knowledge of lean manufacturing
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Ability to plan workload, set objectives, manage priorities, and communicate with Operations, Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain
• Comfortable in a fast-moving scale-up with ongoing standardisation and improvement
• Advantageous: experience in composite manufacturing and metallic machining/tooling; NPI/APQP involvement; Six Sigma belts; degree in related field

• communication
• team collaboration
• problem-solving
• SolidWorks
• Composer
• PFMEA

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