Manufacturing Director

Caudwell Marine; Coventry; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Caudwell Marine, based onsite in Coventry, seeks a Manufacturing & Safety Director to define and lead the organisation's manufacturing and safety strategy. You will drive scalable, safe, and cost-effective operations, from NPI readiness to full series production, reporting to the CEO.

You will provide strategic leadership to the Head of Manufacturing and cross-functional teams, ensuring alignment with growth objectives and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Strategic leadership for manufacturing and safety across the organisation.
• Proven ability to scale manufacturing from prototype to mass production.
• Strong knowledge of Lean, quality systems and production operations.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead manufacturing and safety strategy.
• Guide Head of Manufacturing and broader operations teams.
• Lead manufacturing readiness for new product introductions (NPI).
• Develop processes, tooling, and production controls for series production.
• Expand facilities and production capabilities.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Leadership

Problem-solving

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering/Manufacturing/Operations

Job description

Caudwell Marine is a pioneering UK marine engineering company, backed by entrepreneur and philanthropist John Caudwell. We are redefining marine propulsion through the development of a diesel outboard system built for uncompromising performance, reliability and control in all conditions, with a global product launch planned for 2026. As a growing and ambitious business, we are focused on delivering cutting-edge technology designed for the toughest marine environments and turning innovation into real-world impact.

At Caudwell Marine, every team member plays an important role in shaping the future of the company. Our approach is built around being confident, committed and consistent in everything we do. Driven by endurance and powered by people, we are building a team that sets high standards and is helping redefine the future of marine propulsion.

Role & Responsibilities

The Manufacturing & Safety Director will report to the CEO and is responsible for defining and leading the organisation's manufacturing and safety strategy, ensuring the development of a scalable, safe, and cost-effective manufacturing capability. The role provides leadership and governance across manufacturing operations, health and safety, facility expansion, and operational excellence, ensuring the business can meet both current production requirements and future growth objectives. This role is responsible for leading the industrialisation and manufacturing readiness programme for the AX300 product family, ensuring a successful transition from development and validation into repeatable series production.

The Manufacturing Director provides strategic leadership to the Head of Manufacturing and wider operational teams, ensuring manufacturing performance, safety standards, and operational capability are aligned with the company's long-term objectives.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop and lead the manufacturing and safety strategy aligned with company goals, growth plans, and product launch timelines.
• Provide leadership and direction to the Head of Manufacturing and wider operational teams, ensuring safe, efficient, and scalable manufacturing operations.
• Lead all manufacturing readiness activities for new product introduction (NPI) ensuring successful launch, quality, cost and delivery performance.
• Establish manufacturing processes, tooling, equipment, production controls and quality systems necessary to support series production
• Lead the build-out, development, and expansion of manufacturing facilities and production capabilities.
• Act as the executive sponsor for Health, Safety and Environmental performance across all operational activities, ensuring a zero-harm culture and full regulatory compliance
• Establish and maintain manufacturing and safety governance frameworks, policies, standards, and performance metrics.
• Drive a strong safety-first culture, ensuring proactive risk management and continuous improvement across all operations.
• Oversee manufacturing capacity planning, capital investment, and major equipment procurement to support business growth.
• Monitor manufacturing performance, including safety, quality, cost, delivery, and productivity, ensuring targets are achieved.
• operational excellence initiatives, including Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement programmes.
• Own manufacturing cost performance including labour productivity, conversion cost, overhead efficiency and manufacturing cost reduction initiatives
• Collaborate with Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Commercial teams to ensure manufacturing readiness, operational efficiency, and successful product delivery.
• Lead manufacturing engineering activities including process design, assembly strategy, line balancing, tooling development and process optimisation.
• Work closely with Procurement, Supply Chain and Quality to ensure supplier readiness, capacity planning and material availability for production ramp-up
• Define and execute production ramp-up plans, ensuring operational capability supports business growth and customer demand
• Lead manufacturing risk management, business continuity planning, and operational resilience initiatives.
• Develop organisational capability within manufacturing through leadership development, succession planning, and team growth.
• Report manufacturing and safety performance, risks, and strategic initiatives to the CEO and senior leadership team.

Accountable for establishing and monitoring KPIs for:

• Safety performance
• Production output
• Manufacturing cost
• Productivity
• Quality performance
• OEE
• Launch readiness
• Delivery performance

Required Skills & Experience

This role requires strong strategic thinking, deep technical manufacturing expertise, and senior leadership capability to deliver safe, scalable, and high-performing operations.

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, or related field
• Experience within automotive, marine, aerospace, defence, powertrain, heavy equipment or similarly regulated environments
• Significant senior leadership experience within manufacturing, industrialisation or operations environments
• Proven track record of scaling manufacturing from prototype to full production
• Strong knowledge of manufacturing processes, quality systems, and production operation
• Experience leading HSE and embedding safety within manufacturing environments
• Background in Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement
• Strong understanding of supply chain, vendor management, and logistics integration
• Proven ability to lead high-performing operational teams in fast-paced environments
• Strong strategic, analytical, and problem-solving capability with a hands-on approach
• Excellent communication skills across operational and executive levels

Personal Attributes

• Consistent, confident, and committed approach to work.
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence across all levels of the organisation
• Highly committed to safety, quality, and operational excellence
• Strategic thinker with strong attention to detail and execution focus
• Calm and effective under pressure, particularly in scaling or high-demand environments
• Proactive, solution-oriented, and continuously improvement driven
• Strong communicator and collaborator across cross-functional teams
• Hands-on, practical leadership style with strong site engagement

Additional Information

This role is an onsite role based in Coventry, 5 days per week Monday to Friday.

Disclaimer

Caudwell Marine operates a Preferred Supplier List (PSL) for recruitment agencies, which is currently not under review. Agencies not on our PSL are kindly requested to refrain from submitting speculative CVs or contacting our hiring managers or employees directly regarding recruitment matters.

Please note that any CVs submitted by non-PSL agencies, whether speculative or otherwise, will be treated as unsolicited.