Industrial Process Engineering Team Lead - Cheadle

Industrial Process Engineering Team Lead – Cheadle

Full‑time (4 days a week), onsite at our Cheadle site.

Lead a high‑performing Industrial Process Engineering (IPE) team within Thales UK’s Autonomous Production & Repair Unit (APRU). Drive industrialisation, sustainment, and efficiency across new and legacy products, embedding Design for Manufacturing principles, and ensuring processes and products meet the highest standards.

• Take charge of a high‑performing team, driving innovation and shaping smarter manufacturing processes that deliver excellence across the product lifecycle.
• Join a global organisation that invests in your development with world‑class training, mentoring, and clear progression opportunities.
• Benefit from a competitive package, compressed 4‑day week, and flexible working designed to support your wellbeing and work‑life balance.

Reporting to the Head of Industrial Process Engineering, you'll lead a high‑performing team within our Autonomous Production & Repair Unit (APRU). Balancing leadership with hands‑on delivery, you'll drive industrialisation and sustainment across new and legacy products, embedding Design for Manufacturing principles and smarter ways of working. Your role is pivotal – guiding engineers, eliminating waste, and ensuring processes and products perform to the highest standards.

• Pension match up to 7% of annual base salary.
• Life Assurance 2 × base salary minimum (8 × salary if part of the pension scheme).
• Income Protection 50 % of salary less state benefits for 5 years.
• Annual leave 201 hours, bank holidays, plus 1 company day.
• Private medical insurance – couples cover.
• 4‑day working week (9.25 h per day).
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme.
• 24 h paid leave for volunteering activities.
• Access to flexible benefits and discounts, dental insurance, buying & selling annual leave, cycle‑to‑work, and many more.

• Drive best‑practice IPE strategy, processes, and innovation to improve performance, reduce costs, and streamline workflows.
• Ensure team capability meets current and future project needs while managing workloads, KPIs, and compliance standards.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high‑performing team, overseeing recruitment, training, appraisals, and daily productivity.
• Own industrial process maturity assessments, guide design for manufacture, and optimise tooling, documentation, and workflows.
• Resolve production issues using data‑driven problem‑solving and root cause analysis, embedding lessons learned.
• Build strong stakeholder relationships and foster effective cross‑department collaboration to support delivery.

At Thales, we are committed to equal opportunities and welcome all talented individuals. Even if you don't match every statement below but feel you have some of the experience, knowledge or skills needed for this role, we encourage you to apply.

• Degree in engineering or manufacturing discipline.
• Significant senior‑level experience in manufacturing, ideally within engineering.
• Proven leadership of complex, multi‑disciplinary teams.
• Deep knowledge of advanced manufacturing environments and supply chain operations.
• Skilled in MRP, ERP, MES, and related industrial systems.
• Track record of driving innovation in industrial processes.
• Demonstrated experience of developing and supporting team growth and capability.
• Proven ability to engage effectively across all organisational levels with integrity and ambition.
• Established communication skills, able to influence and align diverse stakeholders.
• Adept at building productive stakeholder relationships while aligning and prioritising multiple demands.

• Experience across the full product lifecycle (bid, design, development, production, delivery, service).
• Background in world‑class industrial operations.
• Familiarity with military manufacturing across varying production volumes.

Due to the nature of the work that we do at Thales, many of our roles are subject to security restrictions. This role requires you to be a UK National and achieve Security Clearance (SC) without any caveats. It…