Group Leader Engineering - Production & Manufacturing

AWE; Reading; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading defense engineering firm in Reading is seeking a Group Leader in Engineering for Production & Manufacturing. This role focuses on managing a team of around 500 engineers and driving change within the production process. The ideal candidate will have a chartered engineering status and a proven track record in delivering improvements and managing cross-functional teams. The position offers a competitive salary, a strong pension scheme, and generous holidays, providing an exceptional work-life balance.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Market-leading pension scheme

Generous holiday entitlement

Every other Friday off

Qualifications

• Chartered professional status in an appropriate professional institution.
• Experience of managing high performing and multidisciplinary technical teams.
• Strong interpersonal, negotiation, and organizational skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of Production and Manufacturing capabilities.
• Attract and retain world-class talent within the engineering team.
• Drive a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

Skills

Chartered professional status

Delivery and continuous improvement

Managing multidisciplinary teams

Interpersonal skills

Decision making

Financial awareness

Education

Relevant engineering degree

Job description

There has never been a more exciting time to be an engineer at AWE. We are at the start of a once-in-a-generation programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We are also managing one of the most important and challenging infrastructure programmes delivering a cutting‑edge, sustainable environment for the future; introducing a new digital backbone to transform how our engineers will work in the future as well as effectively maintaining an estate that spans over 1,000 acres.

Engineering leadership is key to us achieving our goals, especially given the complexity of the products we make and the environment we operate in.

We are currently recruiting for a key leadership role, tasked with leading the development of our Production and Manufacturing capability across our current and future manufacturing processes and facilities. This role is strongly focused on people management ~500 engineers.

Group Leader Engineering - Production & Manufacturing

Location: Reading

Closing date: 12th May 2024

Salary: AWE offers a competitive salary, market‑leading contributory pension scheme and generous holiday entitlement as well as a working pattern that gives you every other Friday off and a host of benefits that fits this senior leadership role.

Reporting to the Production and Assets Director, Marc Stewart, this role would suit an experienced people leader who is passionate about developing capability and supporting our wider teams. The role will define and develop our Production/Manufacturing Engineering Capability to enable us to transition from how we operate today and into the new product and infrastructure programmes of tomorrow.

We have much to do and we would love to hear from you if you are up for the challenge of delivering change, being part of an exceptional engineering team and are committed to:

• Attracting, nurturing, developing and retaining world class talent
• Driving a culture of innovation and continuous improvement
• Developing our engineering capabilities to deliver sound engineering solutions that are safe and secure
• Simplifying how we work
• Focusing on delivery and issue resolution
• Translating strategy into operational output

Key Skills, Qualifications, Experience, for the role

• Chartered professional status in an appropriate professional institution
• Proven track record of driving delivery, continuous improvement and sustained performance focusing on the engineering strategy, technical direction and overall capability including people, process and technology within a manufacturing environment
• Experience of managing high performing and multidisciplinary technical teams and programmes
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiation and organisational skills
• Ability to steer people through transformation and change
• Lead by example with regards to positive behaviours and safety culture
• Financial awareness and management of budgets
• Excellent decision making and problem‑solving abilities
• Understanding compliance ideally with nuclear or high hazard facilities (desirable not essential)
• Ability to champion ED&I, promoting diversity of and innovation in thought and approach

AWE cares about doing things right, valuing its people and understanding the importance of a truly engaged workforce.

If you want to work in a unique and innovative environment, where people are at the heart of the business, then AWE is the perfect place for you.

Please contact for additional information.

All candidates must be willing and able to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role, be prepared to travel in both UK and abroad and be willing and able to work in all required areas of AWE. We will consider candidates looking for part-time or full-time opportunities.