Team Leader Production Resource

Atomic Weapons Establishment; Burghfield; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 42,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9‑day working fortnight

Pension scheme (contributory)

Maternity/Paternity leave

Life Assurance

Staff discounts

Volunteer time off

Job summary

Atomic Weapons Establishment is seeking a Team Leader Production Resource at Burghfield to manage the people and capability needed for safe and effective production delivery. You will oversee recruitment, development and succession planning while controlling workforce costs and ensuring SQEP and training are current.

You will work with Production and Training to align staffing with programme requirements, maintaining strong stakeholder relationships and delivering a high‑performing, inclusive

Qualifications

• Experience of line managing a team in a manufacturing or high‑hazard environment.
• Proven ability to recruit, onboard and develop staff.
• Experience coordinating training, development and succession planning.
• Knowledge of budgeting, cost booking and financial control for a functional area.
• Strong communication skills with managers and staff at all levels.
• Experience using ERP/HR systems for workforce planning and reporting.

Responsibilities

• Provide day‑to‑day line management with clear objectives and development support.
• Plan and balance current and future resource requirements to meet production demands.
• Lead recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and succession planning.
• Ensure training and SQEP competence are maintained and refreshed.
• Manage workforce costs and cost bookings with accurate reporting.
• Provide management information to support decision making and resource prioritisation.

Skills

Line management

Recruitment & onboarding

Training & development

Workforce planning

Cost awareness

Stakeholder communication

ERP/HR systems

Tools

ERP systems

HR systems

MS Office (Word/Excel)

Job description

Team Leader Production Resource Location: Burghfield Shift pattern: 2 weeks earlies (06:00–14:45), followed by 2 weeks lates (14:15–23:00). Salary range - £38000 - £41500

Develop People. Build Capability. Enable Delivery.

AWE is looking for a Team Leader Production Resource to manage and develop the people capability required to support our manufacturing operations and deliver critical production programmes safely, securely and effectively. This is a people and capability focused management role, with responsibility for the full employee lifecycle across an assigned workforce. You’ll provide effective line management, recruit and develop personnel, manage individual performance and ensure training and competence requirements are aligned to current and future production demand. Working closely with Production, Training and other key stakeholders, you’ll ensure the business has the right people, with the right skills and competence, available at the right time to meet programme requirements. You’ll also maintain effective oversight of workforce costs, including functional cost bookings, and provide clear visibility of resource risks, capability gaps and future recruitment and training requirements. If you’re an experienced people manager who enjoys developing others, building organisational capability and enabling operational delivery, we’d love to hear from you.

What you'll be doing As a Team Leader Production Resource, you’ll manage the people, capability and workforce requirements needed to enable successful production delivery. You’ll balance current operational needs with longer term recruitment, development, training and succession requirements to build a capable, resilient and high‑performing workforce.

Key Accountabilities

• Provide effective line management for assigned personnel, ensuring individuals receive clear objectives, regular feedback, appropriate support and development.
• Ensure sufficient resource capability and capacity is available to support current and future production programme requirements.
• Own and coordinate recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and succession planning within the assigned functional area.
• Ensure personnel maintain the required levels of training, competence and SQEP to undertake their roles safely and effectively.
• Drive individual and team performance, addressing areas of underperformance while recognising and developing high potential.
• Maintain effective control and oversight of functional workforce costs and cost bookings, ensuring resources are appropriately allocated and recorded.
• Maintain and promote high standards of environment, safety, health, security and quality.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide effective day to day line management, including objective setting, performance conversations, development planning, wellbeing support and employee engagement.
• Manage workforce requirements against the production programme, identifying capacity, capability and competence gaps and implementing appropriate recovery plans.
• Develop and maintain effective resource and capability plans, providing visibility of current workforce strength, future demand and potential shortfalls.
• Lead recruitment activity for the assigned area, ensuring vacancies and anticipated capability gaps are identified and progressed in sufficient time to support programme requirements.
• Support effective onboarding and deployment of new starters, ensuring individuals have clear development and training pathways.
• Coordinate and manage personnel training requirements, working with Production and Training stakeholders to prioritise demand against programme need.
• Monitor SQEP and competence levels, proactively addressing training expiry, capability gaps, single points of failure and future skills requirements.
• Build succession and development plans that strengthen workforce resilience and provide clear progression opportunities.
• Manage the performance management cycle, including regular check‑ins, objective setting, mid‑year/end‑of‑year reviews and appropriate management of underperformance.
• Coach and develop individuals, supporting career development and identifying opportunities to broaden capability and experience.
• Support talent and succession discussions, ensuring that individuals demonstrating potential are identified and provided with appropriate development opportunities.
• Monitor attendance, availability and workforce trends, taking appropriate action where issues could affect capability or delivery.
• Maintain appropriate oversight of functional cost bookings, ensuring personnel book accurately and costs are appropriately managed against agreed requirements.
• Provide management information on resource levels, recruitment, training, competence, performance and workforce risks to support effective decision making.
• Build strong relationships with Production Managers and operational leadership to ensure resource priorities remain aligned with programme requirements.
• Create a diverse and inclusive working environment where individuals are supported to contribute, develop and reach their potential.
• Champion employee engagement and visible leadership, ensuring personnel understand business priorities and have appropriate opportunities to raise issues, ideas and concerns.
• Demonstrate a “See It, Own It, Solve It” mindset by identifying workforce and capability barriers, taking ownership and driving practical solutions.
• Undertake other reasonable duties aligned with the position and business requirements.

Who are we looking for?

We’re looking for a confident and engaging people manager who can build strong relationships, develop individuals and translate programme requirements into effective workforce, recruitment and capability plans. You’ll be comfortable balancing immediate operational resource pressures with longer‑term capability needs and able to make informed decisions around recruitment, training, development, performance and deployment. You’ll also be confident using workforce and cost information to identify emerging risks and support effective management decisions.

Essential skills and experience

• Experience of line managing, developing and supporting people within an operational, manufacturing or similarly complex environment.
• Experience of managing individual performance, including objective setting, development planning, constructive feedback and performance conversations.
• Experience of workforce or resource planning, balancing available capability against business or programme demand.
• Experience supporting or managing recruitment and onboarding activities.
• Experience identifying and coordinating training, competence and development requirements.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple people and capability priorities.
• The ability to use workforce information and data to identify gaps, risks and priorities.
• Good understanding of cost management and financial control, including workforce or functional cost allocation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with employees, managers and senior stakeholders.
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Word and Excel.
• A demonstrable commitment to creating an inclusive, high‑performing and development‑focused working environment.

Desirable skills and experience

• Previous experience within a manufacturing, engineering or high hazard operational environment.
• Experience managing SQEP, competence matrices or skills‑based workforce planning.
• Experience developing workforce, succession or strategic capability plans.
• Experience managing recruitment campaigns or significant workforce growth.
• Experience working with learning and development functions to coordinate training pipelines.
• Experience of functional budgeting, labour cost management or cost booking processes.
• Experience using ERP, HR, workforce planning or learning management systems.
• Relevant leadership, management, HR or business qualification, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience handling sensitive or challenging situations.
• First Aid training.

Additional role requirements

• The successful candidate must also be prepared to travel within the UK and overseas when required, pass a pre‑employment medical and maintain the required medical fitness for designated high‑hazard environments.
• The role may require working different patterns, including shifts.
• Candidates must also be willing and able to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the role.

Why AWE?

At AWE, you'll have the opportunity to be part of an organisation delivering work of national importance while developing your own career within a complex and highly regulated environment.

Benefits

• 9‑day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave – 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave – 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

Working Pattern

AWE operates a 9‑day working fortnight, with every other Friday as a non‑working day. For this role, employees are required to work fully onsite. We support flexible working arrangements where possible. Please let us know if you would like us to consider an alternative working pattern as part of your application.

Additional Information

We encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes. You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE. The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV. We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process. Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants.

Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.

We are at the start of a once in a generation – possibly two generations – programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We will do this while continuing to deliver the Trident programme as well as managing ambitious state‑of‑the‑art capital and construction projects – some of which have never been done before.

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