Hays
Operation Excellence/ Manufacturing Engineer
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Your New Company
A leading manufacturing organisation with a strong international presence is seeking an Operations Excellence / Manufacturing Engineer to join its continuous improvement team. With a focus on operational excellence, innovation, and sustainable growth, the business is investing heavily in process improvement initiatives across multiple manufacturing sites. This is an excellent opportunity to play a key role in driving efficiency, reducing waste, and embedding a culture of continuous improvement across the organisation.
Your New Role
As Operations Excellence / Manufacturing Engineer, you will be responsible for developing and embedding a structured continuous improvement framework across manufacturing operations. Working closely with production, engineering, quality, and supply chain teams, you will identify operational waste, deliver improvement projects, and drive measurable business benefits.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Designing and implementing a structured Continuous Improvement (CI) programme across manufacturing operations.
- Identifying waste and improvement opportunities through analysis of scrap, downtime, variance reporting, customer complaints, and operational KPIs.
- Developing and maintaining a pipeline of CI and operational excellence projects aligned to business objectives.
- Leading and supporting Lean, Six Sigma, and problem-solving initiatives across multiple sites.
- Creating visual management systems, dashboards, and performance reporting tools.
- Delivering training and coaching in continuous improvement methodologies including DMAIC, PDCA, Root Cause Analysis, A3 Problem Solving, and Value Stream Mapping.
- Supporting cross-functional teams to identify root causes, implement corrective actions, and sustain improvements.
- Tracking project savings, operational benefits, and overall project performance.
- Facilitating the sharing of best practice across manufacturing sites.
- Supporting the development of standard work, SOPs, and visual controls to improve operational consistency.
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What You'll Need to Succeed
To be considered for this role, you will ideally have:
- Proven experience driving operational excellence, manufacturing improvement, or continuous improvement projects within a manufacturing environment.
- Experience leading Lean Manufacturing, Operational Excellence, or OPEX initiatives.
- Six Sigma Green Belt qualification or higher.
- Strong understanding of manufacturing processes and engineering operations.
- Experience analysing operational and ERP data to identify improvement opportunities.
- Knowledge of Lean tools and structured problem-solving methodologies.
- Strong project management and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Experience working collaboratively across Production, Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain functions.
- Excellent communication, coaching, and training delivery skills.
- Knowledge of injection moulding or compression moulding processes would be advantageous.
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What You'll Get in Return
In return, you will receive:
- Salary up to £45,000.
- Company pension scheme.
- Healthcare benefits package.
- Generous annual leave entitlement including festive shutdown.
- Enhanced family-friendly benefits.
- Employee wellbeing initiatives and engagement programmes.
- Employee referral scheme.
- Access to ongoing training and career development opportunities within a large, international manufacturing group.
- The opportunity to make a significant impact on business performance and operational excellence strategy.
What you need to do now
If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.
If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.
Desired Skills and Experience
- manufacturing engineer
- operations manager
- lean manufacturing
- six sigma
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