Manufacturing Area Lead

Agratas – A Tata Enterprise; Bridgwater; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 78,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private healthcare

Company bonus

Enhanced parental leave policy

Cash allowance for benefits

Job summary

Agratas – A Tata Enterprise seeks an Area Lead to own a defined manufacturing zone, ensuring safe, efficient operations and achievement of performance targets. You will oversee shift delivery, manage throughput, yield and uptime, and drive immediate countermeasures on the shop floor.

You will lead and develop Team Leaders, collaborate across Engineering, Maintenance, Quality and Logistics, and drive continuous improvement using lean tools and data-driven decision making.

Qualifications

• Experience leading in high-volume automated manufacturing.
• Strong understanding of process control, quality standards, and shop floor operations.
• Able to coach, develop Team Leaders and drive accountability.

Responsibilities

• Owns defined manufacturing zone operations to meet safety, quality, delivery and cost targets.
• Oversees shift-level delivery and responds to shop floor issues with countermeasures.
• Leads continuous improvement, embedding lean practices and structured problem-solving.
• Acts as SME in selected area and supports training of others.

Skills

Production leadership

People development

Problem-solving

LEAN/continuous improvement

Data-driven decisions

Tools

MES

ERP

SPC

CAPA tools

Job description

What you'll do...

As Area Lead, you’ll take operational ownership of a defined manufacturing zone, ensuring production lines run safely, efficiently and in line with performance targets. You’ll oversee shift-level delivery across safety, quality, delivery and cost, managing throughput, yield and uptime while responding quickly to issues on the shop floor.

You’ll lead daily operations by ensuring pre-shift readiness, monitoring real-time performance data and driving immediate countermeasures where required. Acting as the first escalation point beyond Team Leaders, you’ll coordinate with Engineering, Maintenance, Quality and Logistics to resolve challenges and maintain flow.

This role is a hands on technical production role, working on the shop floor in the clean and dry room environments and becoming a SME in your selected area, working towards becoming the master trainer for your area.

Alongside this, you’ll play a key role in continuous improvement leading structured problem-solving, driving process adherence and embedding lean practices to improve performance across your area.

The team you'll join...

You’ll be part of a fast-paced, high-tech manufacturing operation, working within a specific production zone such as Assembly, Electrode or Formation & Aging. You’ll lead Team Leaders and operators while working cross-functionally with support teams to deliver consistent, high-quality output.

What you'll bring...

• You’ll bring experience in a production leadership role within high-volume, automated manufacturing, with a strong understanding of process control, quality standards and shop floor operations.
• You’ll be confident leading people and developing Team Leaders, with the ability to coach, drive accountability and maintain high performance standards. Strong problem-solving capability is essential, alongside experience using tools such as 5-Why, 8D or CAPA.
• A strong technical knowhow and ability to understand complex manufacturing machery is essential.
• You’ll also be comfortable working with manufacturing systems (MES, ERP, SPC) and using data to inform decisions, with a proactive mindset focused on continuous improvement.

What you'll get...

• As a new company, our reward scheme is constantly evolving. We continue to review the market to deliver a competitive benefits package, which currently includes private healthcare, company bonus, enhanced parental leave policy and a cash allowance to boost your benefits. We are a flexible business that is committed to promoting work-life balance, partnering with Yulife to provide our team members with total wellbeing support.
• You’ll work in a rapidly scaling-up environment as a subsidiary of the multinational corporation, Tata Sons, to help build the UK’s biggest battery manufacturing facility and make your mark in a new organisation.

Agratas is a place to be authentically you.

At Agratas we strongly believe that people are at their best when they feel supported and happy in their workplace. To that end we continue to cultivate a diverse workforce which protects the individuality of each team member. We therefore warmly welcome applicants from any race, gender, sexuality, and ability. Should you have a preference in how your suitability is assessed for this role or require any reasonable adjustments please let the Talent Acquisition team know.