Head of Production

Overview

In this senior role, you will lead end-to-end production operations, driving safety, quality and cost performance in a high-tech setting. You’ll align Production, Stores and Dispatch with strategic priorities, scaling manufacturing capability to support growth. You’ll champion continuous improvement and develop leadership across multi-disciplinary teams, partnering with engineering, quality and supply chain. This is a chance to shape the operations playbook and deliver world-class performance in a fast-moving market.

Pay / Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 25 days holiday + half-day Fridays
• Private healthcare
• Share incentive plan
• Pension and flexible benefits
• Structured career development

Responsibilities

• Lead Production, Stores and Dispatch with clear priorities and visible leadership
• Own production planning and execution to meet monthly and annual delivery commitments
• Maintain a safe working environment with full HSE compliance
• Build, coach and develop high-performing teams; identify capability gaps and plan succession
• Drive lean manufacturing and CI initiatives to improve flow, efficiency and scalability
• Reduce waste and enable high-volume manufacturing readiness across materials, processes and systems
• Use SQCDP metrics and data insights to prioritise improvement initiatives
• Deliver margin improvement by controlling labour, rework, scrap, overtime and WIP
• Standardise processes to drive consistency and efficiency
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain and Commercial teams
• Support NPI, ensuring manufacturability and production readiness
• Lead pre-production builds and manage smooth transition to full-scale manufacture

Key requirements

• Proven experience leading production or operations teams at scale in a complex, high-technology environment
• Strong Lean manufacturing, problem solving and continuous improvement background
• Experience developing leaders and building high-performing, multi-disciplinary teams
• Commercially aware with ability to balance cost, quality, delivery and long-term performance
• Data-driven with experience using ERP and production systems to inform decisions
• Confident decision-maker in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Collaborative and influential with cross-functional alignment skills
• Experience in semiconductor, precision engineering, vacuum, plasma or capital equipment manufacturing (advantageous)

• collaborative
• influential
• data-driven decision-making
• lean manufacturing
• continuous improvement
• SQCDP metrics

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