Technical Specialist

*** Help Shape the Future of Technical Excellence at DS Smith
*** At DS Smith, we're redefining how we support our customers through innovation, collaboration and operational excellence. We are establishing a brand-new Technical Specialist team that will play a critical role in supporting our packaging operations, enhancing customer performance and driving continuous improvement across our network.  This is an exciting opportunity to be part of something new. As a Cluster Technical Specialist, you will help develop and shape a key role within the business, working across nine packaging sites while acting as the trusted technical partner for our customers.  

If you thrive on solving complex manufacturing challenges, building strong customer relationships and influencing positive change, we'd love to hear from you.  
** About the Role
** The
** Cluster Technical Specialist
** is a highly visible customer-facing role responsible for supporting customers and manufacturing sites by providing expert technical guidance, identifying risks before they become issues and coordinating effective solutions when challenges arise.  Working remotely and travelling extensively across your allocated sites and customers, you will become the technical bridge between our customers and manufacturing operations, helping to ensure product performance, quality and customer confidence remain at the highest level.  

Operating to the principle of:  "Own the technical relationship, influence the resolution."You will work closely with Quality, Operations, Design, Sales and Innovation teams to proactively address technical challenges while helping to build a culture of continuous improvement across the business.  
** What You’ll be doing*
* *** Customer Technical Support**
* * Act as the first technical point of contact for customer product performance, quality and manufacturing concerns.
* Conduct technical investigations and root cause analysis using structured methodologies such as 8D and RCA.
* Visit customer sites to identify and mitigate technical risks before they develop into customer complaints.
* Build trusted relationships with customer operations, engineering and quality teams.
* Deliver technical guidance and practical training to support customer packaging line performance.
* Support new product introductions and customer onboarding activities.
* Maintain accurate records of customer visits, actions, technical findings and risk assessments.  
*** Operational Improvement**
* * Drive improvements in product consistency, quality and manufacturing performance.
* Lead and support customer trials. – Support customer trials as required (operations/quality own production trials)
* Identify trends, recurring issues and improvement opportunities across multiple sites.
* Provide design-for-runnability feedback to Design and Manufacturing teams.
* Work with external suppliers including tooling, print plate and form manufacturers to improve product performance.  
*** Technical Intelligence & Continuous Improvement**
* * Gather technical insight from customers, operations, quality, design and sales teams.
* Identify emerging technical risks and share learnings across the network.
* Track technical issues through to resolution while maintaining clear customer communication.
* Support product simplification and standardisation initiatives.
* Contribute to a proactive, preventative approach to quality and technical performance.  
*** Collaboration**
* * Partner with Innovation Specialists on customer development opportunities.
* Work closely with Sales, Design, Production and Quality teams.
* Share best practice across the wider technical community.
* Maintain a proactive balance of approximately 60% preventative activity and 40% reactive…