Operational Excellence Lead

Your new company Hays are partnering with a leading international manufacturing organisation to recruit an Operational Excellence Lead. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Continuous Improvement professional to drive operational excellence across multiple manufacturing sites, embedding a culture of lean thinking, process optimisation, and sustainable business improvement. Your new role Reporting to the Head of Projects & Assets, the successful candidate will play a key role in identifying operational waste, delivering improvement projects, developing CI capability across the business, and strengthening the systems used to drive operational role would suit an ambitious Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing, or Process Improvement professional who enjoys influencing change, leading cross-functional projects, and delivering measurable business results.

As Operational Excellence Lead, you will establish, develop, and sustain a structured Continuous Improvement framework across manufacturing operations. Using operational and engineering data, you will identify inefficiencies, drive problem-solving initiatives, and ensure improvements deliver both financial and operational closely with Operations, Engineering, Quality, and Procurement teams, you will champion Lean and Six Sigma methodologies while supporting the development of a high-performance, continuous improvement culture.

Design, implement and maintain a structured Continuous Improvement framework across manufacturing operations. Develop and manage a pipeline of improvement opportunities aligned to business objectives. Identify operational waste through analysis of KPI performance, scrap, customer claims, downtime and variance reporting. Lead and deliver Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement projects across multiple sites. Establish visual management tools, reporting systems and performance dashboards.

Analyse manufacturing and engineering data to identify trends and recurring operational losses. Deliver training and coaching in Continuous Improvement and problem-solving methodologies, including Lean and Six Sigma tools. Facilitate root cause analysis activities and support the implementation of corrective actions. Develop governance, standardisation and reporting processes for OPEX project delivery. Track project benefits, savings, cost avoidance and operational improvements. Support the development of standard work procedures, SOPs and visual controls.

Promote knowledge sharing and best practice across manufacturing locations. Present project performance, risks and improvement opportunities to senior leadership teams. Work closely with Engineering teams to ensure larger improvement opportunities are captured within future capital investment plans. What you'll need to succeed

Essential Criteria Proven experience in an Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing, Process Improvement or Manufacturing Excellence role. Strong background in manufacturing and engineering improvement within a multi-site manufacturing environment. Demonstrated success delivering Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement projects. Six Sigma Green Belt qualification or higher. Strong analytical skills with experience using manufacturing and operational data to drive improvements. Experience developing and implementing Continuous Improvement frameworks, systems and governance processes.

Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills. Strong project management, planning and organisational abilities. Experience working collaboratively with Operations, Engineering, Quality and Procurement teams. Knowledge and experience of ERP systems. Desirable Criteria Knowledge of compression and injection moulding processes. Lean Manufacturing certification.

Experience with in a high-volume manufacturing environment. Experience working within an international manufacturing business. Understanding of OEE, OOE and manufacturing performance metrics. What you'll get in return Competitive pension contribution. Healthcare benefits. Generous holiday allowance, including Christmas shutdown.…