Leader, Cluster Technical & Packaging Excellence

DS Smith Europe; Purston Jaglin; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Pension scheme, life assurance and收入保护

Employee Assistance Programme

25 days’ holiday plus bank holidays

Cycle to work scheme

Employee discounts

Job summary

DS Smith is seeking an experienced Cluster Technical Manager to build and lead a new cluster technical function within the Design & Innovation team across nine UK sites. You will shape strategy, governance and improvement programmes while engaging customers and leading a field-based team.

Reporting to the Retail D&I Manager, you will drive proactive technical risk management, build capability, and ensure clear ownership boundaries with local Quality and Production teams.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in corrugated or packaging manufacturing across production, quality, technical or design disciplines (8+ years).
• Deep understanding of corrugated manufacturing processes for both corrugator and conversion.
• Proven leadership with geographically dispersed or field-based teams and customer-facing impact.
• Track record of measurable performance improvement in technical or quality roles.
• Strong stakeholder management and ability to influence at senior levels.

Responsibilities

• Define and deploy the cluster technical strategy aligned to D&I and divisional priorities.
• Own customer technical governance with structured reviews and escalation framework.
• Lead four specialists, including resource planning and workload balancing across sites.
• Aggregate cross-site trends to drive prevention, improvement programmes and standardisation.
• Champion sustainability and drive right-first-time culture across the cluster.

Skills

Leadership

Customer engagement

Technical leadership

Problem solving

Data analysis

Cross-site coordination

Education

Packaging/Materials degree

Tools

ERP systems

QMS/CRM systems

ISO 9001 knowledge

Job description

DS Smith is seeking an experienced Cluster Technical Manager to build and lead a new cluster technical function within the Design & Innovation team across nine UK sites. You will shape strategy, governance and improvement programmes while engaging customers and leading a field-based team.

Reporting to the Retail D&I Manager, you will drive proactive technical risk management, build capability, and ensure clear ownership boundaries with local Quality and Production teams.