Operations Manager

Porvair Filtration Group; Fareham; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading manufacturing firm in Fareham is seeking a Production Manager to lead their production function with a focus on continuous improvement, safety, and quality standards. The ideal candidate will have a degree in Manufacturing or Mechanical Engineering, along with relevant leadership experience in a manufacturing environment. This role offers a competitive salary of up to £85k based on experience.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of relevant experience in production management and leadership.
• 2-3 years’ experience in aerospace or similar manufacturing environment.
• Recognised H&S qualification (e.g. IOSH, NEBOSH) is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Lead production function and coordinate manufacturing activities.
• Promote safety-first culture and ensure compliance with quality standards.
• Support sales and operations planning to align manufacturing with business demand.

Skills

Leadership in manufacturing

Lean manufacturing

Data management and analytics

Team motivation

Education

Degree or equivalent in Manufacturing or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

ERP systems (e.g. SYSPRO)

MS Office 365

Job description

Closing date for applications: 30 Nov 2025
Salary: Up to £85k based on experience
Location: Porvair Filtration Group, Segensworth, Fareham

Main purpose of job role:

Responsible for leadership and management of production function – Porvair Advanced Machining and Production – Final assembly operations. Coordination, training, facilitation and execution of direct manufacturing operational activities and continuous improvement projects. To create a safety and learning culture through growth leadership and investment in employee development; driving a continuous improvement environment employing lean principles and methodology to drive elimination of hazards, waste and KPI improvement (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, People). Define strategic investment opportunities for production, support business case preparation for board approval and coordination of capital expenditure and commission.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support the SLT in providing leadership and vision to the whole business
• Provide monthly reports to the SLT, supporting company KPI and representing the site to Customers, Porvair Group and Porvair PLC
• Promote a safety-first culture, encourage value driven behaviours, maintain a vision of excellence and integrity
• Challenge the status quo, bring new ideas to the team and stimulate discussion
• Act as an ambassador of the Company and protect company IP in line with agreed policies
• Sustains and promotes adherence to quality policies, procedures and governance controls

Head of Department Responsibilities

Leadership

• Ensure safe working practices and conditions exist within the production environment
• Develop and deploy a business operating system to drive accountability culture across division
• Employ short cycle review and escalation for accelerated response to deviations to meet or exceed performance targets
• Define strategic plan for investment across machining and processing operations, establishing improvement schedules and designs for space layout and infrastructure development
• Assess, define and deploy future state organisational design to support strategic growth and scaling of division
• Deploy robust employee development planning process as foundation for succession planning and management of resource talent and availability
• Prioritise resources to ensure that business goals are met
• Prepare team budgets and manage costs in line with these
• Active participation and promotion of daily Tiered Accountability for escalation and support
• Promote adoption of lean methodologies and CI culture across manufacturing teams to optimise operational performance and establish a kaizen culture
• Monitor and report key performance metrics to team and site leadership
• Provide day-to-day management of the team, including attendance and performance oversight

Safety and Environmental

• Ensure that all Health, Safety and Environmental policies and procedures are adhered to
• Maintenance and completion of process risk assessments
• Promote and drive visual factory, elevates operating standards and processes to highest levels of visual clarity
• Promote and support Layered Process Auditing (LPA) including implementation and maintenance of 5S

Quality

• Supports definition and deployment of strategic quality initiatives, strongly collaborates with Quality Manager
• Ensure Quality standards are achieved, costs minimised and within defined targets
• Promotes Material Review Board (MRB) process and functional contribution and engagement
• Embed RCCA methodology – promote A3 culture to drive rapid resolution of deviations
• Sustains and promotes adherence to quality policies, procedures and governance controls
• Support statutory, customer, regulatory and corporate reporting/audit requirements as necessary
• Support internal audit plan, conducting duties effectively and addressing non-conformity observations timely

Delivery

• Support enhanced Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning (SIOP) process deployment working in close alliance with Master Production Scheduler to exceed performance targets
• Ensure adherence to MRP schedule, collaborating with MPS function to optimise delivery attainment
• Drive proactive actions to mitigate any risks to On-Time-Delivery (OTD)
• Support Sales, Inventory and Operations Planning (SIOP) process to ensure manufacturing capability is aligned to forecasted business demand
• Escalate on roll throughput yield and capacity constraints, collaborate with peers to drive rapid and robust resolution and mitigate OTD risk

Cost

• Promote a continuous improvement and learning culture to deliver incremental improvement across labour efficiency, process improvement and cost reduction
• Implement advanced lean tools and methodology to optimise manufacturing performance
• Facilitate and conduct regular kaizen events to drive KPI and strategic advancement
• Manage direct production COS inputs within budget i.e. labour/material variance, recoveries, variable overhead

Other Duties

• Support and drive company initiatives to reinforce our Company Values
• Perform other tasks as required

Essential Qualifications:

• Degree or equivalent in Manufacturing, Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline

Desirable Qualifications:

• Recognised H&S qualification e.g. IOSH, NEBOSH

Skills & Knowledge Required:

• Relevant experience leading high performing work teams in a precision manufacturing assembly environment
• Ability to motivate teams and lead change at all levels of the organization, influencing 360
• Competent with data management and analytics to drive and inform strategic and tactical decision
• Execution and application of tiered accountability for daily management operating system
• Lean manufacturing – experience and direct delivery of business operational transformation activities
• Experience leading and delivering CI events, training, coaching, mentoring (VSM / Kaizen)
• Experience using ERP systems (e.g. SYSPRO) and engineering data (cycle times, yields etc.)
• Performance management, learning and development
• Understanding and working knowledge of AS9100 requirements or alternatively IATF 16949 or ISO9001
• MS Office – 365, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio
• Management and/or technical leadership in high precision machine shop environment – expertise with CNC lathes, multi-axis machining centres and other advanced manufacturing equipment
• Experience leading and deploying operational CI strategy within a manufacturing environment

Experience Required:

• 3-5 years’ relevant experience in production management and leadership
• 2-3 years’ experience within aerospace or similar high mix, low volume manufacturing environment

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