Manufacturing Manager

The Sterling Choice; North East; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

The Sterling Choice is recruiting a Manufacturing Manager for a large, fast-paced food manufacturing site in County Durham. You’ll report to the Site Lead and manage seven direct reports across multiple production and packing lines.

You will own safety, quality, service, cost and efficiency targets, drive waste reduction, improve machine performance and ensure the production plan is delivered consistently while developing Shift Managers and building a high‑performance culture.

Qualifications

• Significant leadership experience in a fast-paced food manufacturing environment.
• Experience reviewing costs and performance data to drive decisions.
• Ability to develop Shift Managers and create a high‑performance culture.
• Strong communication and collaboration across functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead seven direct reports and a wider team across multiple manufacturing and packing lines.
• Own safety, food quality, service, cost and efficiency targets.
• Improve labour and material control, reduce waste and increase machine performance.
• Ensure the production plan is delivered consistently.
• Promote KPI visibility on the factory floor and challenge the status quo.

Job description

Manufacturing Manager

Food Manufacturing

County Durham

£70,000 - £72,000

There are Manufacturing Manager roles where the operation is already polished and your job is to keep it that way.

This isn’t one of them.

This is a large, fast-paced food manufacturing site entering a significant period of change.

Investment is coming, new talent is joining the business and expectations around performance, leadership and accountability are increasing.

The opportunity is to help shape what happens next.

Reporting to the Site Lead, you’ll take responsibility for a sizeable production operation, leading seven direct reports and a wider team across multiple manufacturing and packing lines.

You’ll own performance across safety, food quality, service, cost and efficiency. That means improving labour and material control, reducing waste, increasing machine performance and ensuring the production plan is delivered consistently.

But the numbers are only part of it.

The business needs someone who can develop its Shift Managers, raise expectations and create a genuine high-performance culture. You’ll need to make KPIs meaningful on the factory floor, tackle recurring problems at their root cause and ensure people understand what is expected of them and why it matters.

There will be long-standing ways of working to challenge, technical interruptions to manage and departments that need to work together more effectively. You’ll have the authority to make operational decisions and the backing to improve the structure, capability and culture within manufacturing.

You’ll need significant leadership experience from a fast-paced food manufacturing environment, ideally within a complex, high-volume operation. You should be equally comfortable reviewing costs and performance data, walking the factory floor and having direct conversations when standards aren’t where they need to be.

This will suit someone who wants more than responsibility for today’s production plan. It’s an opportunity to join during a genuine period of investment and help build a stronger, more capable manufacturing operation for the future.