Cluster Technical Manager - Packaging Innovation & Strategy

DS Smith; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension scheme

Life assurance and income protection

Employee Assistance Programme

25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays

Cycle to work scheme

Employee discounts

Job summary

DS Smith is seeking a seasoned Cluster Technical Manager to build and lead a new cluster technical function within Design & Innovation. You will define the strategy, govern customer engagements, and drive improvement across nine UK sites while coordinating a dispersed team of four specialists.

The role combines technical leadership with customer interaction, data-driven decision-making and programme delivery.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience (8+ years) in corrugated or packaging manufacturing across production, quality, technical or design disciplines.
• Deep understanding of corrugated manufacturing processes, covering both corrugator and conversion.
• Proven leadership experience with geographically dispersed or field-based teams.
• Track record of delivering measurable performance improvement in customer-facing technical, quality or continuous improvement roles.

Responsibilities

• Define and deploy the cluster technical strategy aligned to D&I, Quality and Packaging Division priorities.
• Own customer technical governance with structured reviews and escalation pathways.
• Lead and develop four Cluster Technical Specialists across a dispersed cluster; manage resource planning and workload balancing.
• Aggregate cross-site and cross-customer trends to drive prevention and improvement programmes.
• Embed 8D, RCA and structured problem-solving standards and build technical capability.
• Maintain proactive risk management and ensure clean handoffs to site Quality and Production teams.

Skills

Leadership

Technical strategy

Stakeholder management

Data analysis

Problem solving

Education

Packaging Technology degree

Six Sigma Green/Black Belt

ISO 9001 knowledge

ERP/QMS/CRM knowledge

Tools

ERP systems

CRM software

QMS software

Data analytics tools

Job description

DS Smith is seeking a seasoned Cluster Technical Manager to build and lead a new cluster technical function within Design & Innovation. You will define the strategy, govern customer engagements, and drive improvement across nine UK sites while coordinating a dispersed team of four specialists.

The role combines technical leadership with customer interaction, data-driven decision-making and programme delivery.