Plant Manager

Elevation Recruitment Group; Tewkesbury; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Elevation Recruitment Group has partnered with Trelleborg Sealing Solutions to appoint a Plant Manager at the Tewkesbury site. You will take full accountability for safety, quality, delivery, cost and people, reporting into the Site Leadership Team within a large, global group.

The role is hands-on with strong focus on on-time delivery, continuous improvement, and shaping operational strategy while balancing group requirements and local needs. Commutable from Tewkesbury and surrounding areas.

Qualifications

• Must have a degree in manufacturing, engineering, or operations management or related discipline.
• Lean Six Sigma training is advantageous.
• Senior operations leadership experience in a multi-accreditation environment.
• Hands-on leadership style with ability to work at detail level when required.

Responsibilities

• Lead site operations across safety, quality, delivery, cost, people and continuous improvement.
• Own production and capacity planning, scheduling, and S&OP alignment.

Skills

Lean Six Sigma

Operational leadership

Safety leadership

Financial acumen

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Degree in manufacturing/engineering/operations management

Job description

Elevation Recruitment Group are exclusively partnered with Trelleborg Sealing Solutions to appoint a Plant Manager at their Tewkesbury site, one of Trelleborg Group's prime European production and development facilities for O-rings, large diameter seals, engineered moulded parts, rubber-to-metal bonded components and Isolast perfluoroelastomer products. The site runs an ISO 5 cleanroom for semiconductor work and holds AS9100 and Nadcap aerospace accreditations, supplying aerospace, defence, oil & gas, pharmaceutical and semiconductor customers as part of a global group operating in 40 countries.

This is a genuinely hands-on role. Orders are strong and growing, so On Time Delivery is key. You'd carry full accountability for safety, quality, delivery, cost, maintenance and people as part of the Site Leadership Team, with genuine scope to shape operational strategy rather than execute someone else's plan, while staying mindful of the realities of reporting into a larger corporate group structure.

Duties of the Plant Manager will include:

• Leading site operations across safety, quality, delivery, cost, people and continuous improvement
• Owning production planning, capacity planning, schedule adherence, S&OP alignment and orderbook execution
• Visible, hands on safety leadership, including legal compliance, company standards and safe systems of work
• Managing operational budgets, labour utilisation, overtime, inventory performance and cost improvement
• Building strength across the operations team: developing leaders, capability, engagement, accountability and succession
• Owning operational strategy and driving change, transformation and Manufacturing Excellence
• Running daily management: tier reviews, KPI routines, escalation and follow-through
• Driving operational quality: process control, right-first-time manufacturing, root cause analysis and corrective action
• Maintenance execution, asset reliability, planned maintenance compliance, energy efficiency and capital improvements
• Working cross-functionally with Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Commercial, HR, Finance and Trelleborg's global operations network.

Requirements of the Plant Manager:

• Degree qualified, or equivalent experience, in manufacturing, engineering, operations management or a related discipline
• Lean, Six Sigma or Manufacturing Excellence training advantageous
• Senior operations leadership experience in a complex, multi-accreditation manufacturing environment
• A genuinely hands-on leadership style, comfortable getting into the detail rather than directing from a distance
• Proven delivery of OTD, quality, scrap, productivity, cost and operational improvement targets
• Experience developing operational strategy and leading change, transformation or continuous improvement programmes
• Strong people leadership, with a track record of building team capability from a limited starting base, and the patience to do it properly
• Financial acumen across budget control, productivity, labour efficiency, capital investment and cost management
• Technical understanding of maintenance execution, asset reliability, capacity planning and energy efficiency
• Comfortable operating within a larger corporate group structure, balancing site-level decision-making with group expectations

This role is commutable from: Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Worcester, Evesham, Stroud, Bristol, Swindon

Suited candidates previously hold roles such as: Plant Manager, General Manager, Operations Manager, Site Manager, Manufacturing Manager, Head of Manufacturing, Site Director, Operations Director