Technical Manager

Technical Manager – Metals Manufacturing / Process Engineering

Location: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
Salary: Negotiable, dependent on experience
Working Hours: 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday, with flexibility to support a 24/7 manufacturing operation
Contract: Permanent, full-time

The Opportunity

Are you an experienced Technical Manager, Process Engineering Manager or Metallurgical Engineer with a background in metals manufacturing or advanced materials?

Are you looking for an opportunity to lead a technical team while playing a hands-on role in improving manufacturing performance, developing processes and supporting industrial expansion?

We are recruiting on behalf of our client, a specialist metals manufacturing business, for a Technical Manager to lead its technical function at its Ellesmere Port facility.

This is a key leadership position, combining technical team management, manufacturing process optimisation, problem-solving and research and development.

You will be responsible for ensuring manufacturing processes operate safely, consistently and efficiently, while helping translate new technologies and processes developed through R&D into reliable full-scale production.

Working closely with Production, Engineering, Quality, Laboratory and HSE teams, you will be the primary technical point of contact for manufacturing process issues and play an important role in supporting the business's expansion and transition to a 24/7 operation.

The Role

Reporting to the Director of Research & Development, you will lead and develop the technical team, providing day-to-day technical leadership and ensuring manufacturing processes are optimised, controlled and continuously improved.

This is a hands-on technical management position, requiring someone who can balance immediate production challenges with longer-term process development, improvement projects and manufacturing scale-up.

Key responsibilities will include:

Technical Leadership & Manufacturing Support

• Lead, manage and develop the technical team, including engineers, scientists and technical personnel.
• Set team priorities, objectives and performance expectations, providing regular guidance and development.
• Act as the primary technical point of contact for manufacturing process issues across the production operation.
• Lead root-cause investigations using structured problem-solving techniques such as 8D and 5 Whys.
• Establish and maintain critical process parameters, operating windows and manufacturing control plans.
• Work closely with Production to improve manufacturing yield, metal recovery, throughput and equipment availability.
• Monitor technical KPIs, identify operational risks and report progress to the Director of R&D.

Process Safety & Quality

• Lead and support technical risk assessments, HAZOP studies and Management of Change (MOC) activities.
• Ensure process hazards associated with high temperatures, vacuum systems, molten salts and reactive metals are appropriately managed.
• Work with Process Safety Engineers and HSE to maintain safe and controlled manufacturing operations.
• Take responsibility for technical operating procedures, process specifications and technical sign-offs.
• Work with Quality and Laboratory teams to investigate non-conformances, customer complaints and product consistency issues.
• Support customer audits, product qualifications and technical enquiries.

Process Development & Industrialisation

• Translate R&D developments into documented, repeatable and reliable production processes.
• Plan and oversee process trials from laboratory and pilot scale through to full-scale manufacturing.
• Apply structured experimental methods to process development and optimisation.
• Provide technical engineering input into capital projects and manufacturing capacity expansion.
• Ensure production teams are trained and operationally prepared before new processes are introduced.
• Support the commissioning and introduction of new manufacturing technologies and equipment.

Continuous Improvement

• Use manufacturing and process data to identify and deliver improvements.
• Drive improvements in production yield, scrap reduction, rework, energy consumption and process consistency.
• Reduce unplanned downtime and improve manufacturing reliability.
• Support automation, process monitoring and data collection initiatives.
• Establish and share best practice across production shifts and technical teams.

Manufacturing Processes

The successful candidate will support a range of specialist metals manufacturing and processing technologies, including:

• Molten salt electrolysis for rare earth metal production.
• Metallothermic reduction, including calciothermic reduction.
• Vacuum induction melting and vacuum refining.
• Sublimation and distillation processes.
• Rare earth alloy melting, casting and strip casting.

You do not need direct experience across every process listed. A strong background in industrial process engineering, metallurgy or advanced materials manufacturing, combined with the ability to apply engineering principles across different technologies, is more important.

About You

You will be an experienced technical or process engineering professional with a background in metals manufacturing, metallurgy, materials science or advanced materials production.

You will have experience leading technical teams and a proven ability to resolve complex manufacturing problems, improve process performance and support the introduction of new technologies into production.

You will be comfortable operating at both a strategic and hands-on level, working closely with production teams while leading technical development and continuous improvement activities.

Essential experience and qualifications:

• Degree or PhD in Metallurgy, Materials Science or a closely related engineering or scientific discipline.
• Experience within metals manufacturing, metallurgy or advanced materials production.
• At least two years' experience leading engineers, scientists, technicians or other technical personnel.
• Proven experience resolving manufacturing process problems and delivering measurable improvements in areas such as yield, quality, productivity or cost.
• Good understanding of process safety, risk assessments, Management of Change and quality management systems.
• Experience using manufacturing and process data to drive technical decisions and improvements.
• Strong problem-solving and root-cause analysis skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical information effectively to production operators, management and customers.
• Ability to balance immediate manufacturing support requirements with longer-term technical projects and development.

Desirable experience:

• Experience within rare earth metals, specialist alloys, reactive metals or advanced materials manufacturing.
• Exposure to molten salt electrolysis, metallothermic reduction or other high-temperature metallurgical processes.
• Experience with vacuum furnaces, vacuum induction melting, refining, casting or strip casting.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma or continuous improvement qualifications.
• Experience with Statistical Process Control (SPC), Design of Experiments (DOE) or structured process optimisation.
• Experience supporting R&D projects, industrial process scale-up and new technology introduction.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

• Join a specialist metals manufacturing business investing in production capacity and advanced manufacturing technologies.
• Take ownership of an important technical function within the business.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary technical team.
• Play a key role in improving manufacturing performance, process reliability and product quality.
• Work across specialist metallurgical and high-temperature manufacturing processes.
• Influence the introduction of new technologies and the transition towards a 24/7 manufacturing operation.
• Combine technical leadership with hands-on involvement in manufacturing improvement and development.

If you are an experienced Technical Manager, Process Engineering Manager or Metallurgical Engineer looking for a challenging leadership opportunity within specialist manufacturing, we would welcome your application.

Your CV will be forwarded to Jonathan Lee Recruitment, a leading engineering and manufacturing recruitment consultancy established in 1978. The services advertised by Jonathan Lee Recruitment are those of an Employment Agency.
In order for your CV to be processed effectively, please ensure your name, email address, phone number and location (post code OR town OR county, as a minimum) are included.

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