Production Leader

Wabtec Corporation; Burton upon Trent; Remote; GBP 42,000 - 62,000; Full time

Job summary

Wabtec Corp. in Burton upon Trent (DE13 8EN) is seeking a Production Leader to coordinate day-to-day production activities, drive safety, and deliver right-first-time quality while meeting customer requirements. The role is onsite, 37 hours per week, permanent and full-time.

You will lead teams, ensure compliance with health and safety regulations, maintain ISO standards, and collaborate with middle management to optimise attendance, reduce costs, and implement continuous improvements.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead production teams and coordinate cross-functional activities.
• Strong understanding of health, safety and environmental requirements.
• Experience with ISO 9001/14001/45001 or similar standards is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead all production activities within a process area.
• Ensure compliance with statutory and company regulations.
• Maintain a safe working environment and health & safety requirements.
• Oversee daily team activities at hold points and review workmanship quality.
• Own workshop daily requirements for all customer-deliverable products.
• Drive down production costs and pursue continuous improvement opportunities.
• Communicate effectively and demonstrate company values.

Skills

Leadership

Safety compliance

Continuous improvement

Job description

Company Description

We are seeking a proactive and motivated leader with the ability to coordinate production activities, maintain high standards of safety and quality, and support continuous improvement initiatives. The successful candidate will be an effective communicator who can engage teams, drive performance, and ensure customer requirements are consistently met.

This is an excellent opportunity for an individual who is passionate about operational excellence and committed to creating a safe, efficient, and high-performing working environment.

Role: Production Leader

Salary: £Competitive

Location: Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, (DE13 8EN) – (Onsite)

Hours:37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Job Description

About the Role

Lead, coordinate, and continuously improve day‑to‑day production activities across allocated cells/lines to deliver safe operations, right‑first‑time quality, adherence to standard hours, and on‑time delivery to customer requirements. Ensure teams work to defined methods, procedures, and standards, optimise attendance and sickness performance, and maintain smooth interfaces with middle management and support functions.

• Lead all aspects of production within a process area
• Ensure all Production team employees comply with statutory and company regulations
• Maintain a safe working environment and comply with all Health & Safety requirements.
• providing a regular oversight of work carried out by individuals in the team at appropriate hold points reviewing the quality of workmanship and formally identifying defects
• Own and manage workshop daily requirements for all customer deliverable products
• Actively drive down production costs and seek efficiency through continuous improvements
• Communicate effectively and demonstrate the company values

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Safety

• Lead Safety as a non-negotiable: deliver daily safety briefs, toolbox talks, and Point of Work risk assessments.
• Ensure strict compliance with:
  • Conduct safety inspections, rectify hazards, and elevate HSE concerns immediately.
  • Lead incident/near miss reporting, investigations, corrective actions, and verification of effectiveness.
  • Ensure housekeeping standards (5S) are achieved and sustained.
  • Ensure own health and safety and that of others and promote a positive health and safety culture within the workplace (R)
  • Ensure all Health and safety obligations are met, and company policies are adhered to (including SHE regulations, COSHH, Risk Assessments, 2MW’s etc) (A)

• Report any safety concerns, hazard observations, accidents and incidents to allow full investigation and prevent re-occurrence (R)
• Conduct safety briefings and ensure PPE compliance (R)
• Ensure all personnel within department are informed, trained and competent to undertake their roles (R)
• New Starter / Employee Transfer H & S Inductions (R)
• Ensure compliance of local departmental safety processes (R)
• Communicate Safe systems of work within area of control (R)
• Monitor, govern and exemplify safe working practices daily (R)
• Investigate incidents and events in line with company communication protocols (A/R)
• In the event of an accident/incident, make safe then preserve the scene and gather initial evidence i.e. Photos, SWPs, training records, witness statements (R)

Quality

• Ensure activities and associated actions and measures taken do not endanger but assist with the upkeep and maintaining the company’s ISO (9001, 14001 and 45001) standards and certification (A)
• Ensure all personnel within department are trained and competent to carry out their tasks with full recognition of quality and SoTR (R)
• Participate in the deployment of Wabtec Quality Systems in the manufacturing/ delivery of products/services across their process area (R)
• Work with the Quality Engineer to investigate any NCR`s raised (including customer complaints, internal or external audits, `Quality red flags` raised etc) and take ownership of the corrective actions to prevent a further recurrence