Operations Director

Group Operations Director

Industrial Manufacturing | Aerospace & Defence | Precision Engineering

North of England

The Opportunity

We are retained on a confidential search to appoint a Group Operations Director into a highly ambitious engineering and manufacturing group operating within precision machining, specialist surface treatment and complex assembly environments.

This is a critical leadership appointment with a clear strategic mandate: to drive operational integration, improve performance and support significant scale-up growth over the next five years.

The group operates across highly regulated, high-specification sectors including aerospace & defence, energy and advanced engineering, with substantial investment already made across facilities, capability and infrastructure.

The platform for growth exists. The challenge now is operational execution and drive capacity.

The organisation has evolved through the integration of multiple specialist engineering businesses into a single operational footprint, creating a differentiated end-to-end manufacturing proposition spanning:

• Precision machining
• Specialist plating and surface treatment
• Complex assembly and finishing operations

The incoming Operations Director will be tasked with assessing the operation end-to-end, identifying where true constraints exist and converting existing investment into scalable operational output and commercial performance.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Driving machine shop efficiency and understanding true operational capacity
• Identifying and removing bottlenecks across machining, plating and assembly
• Improving operational flow, planning and on-time delivery performance
• Embedding lean manufacturing principles and productivity improvement initiatives
• Increasing operational output without disproportionate headcount growth
• Bringing greater commercial focus into operational decision-making
• Supporting customer delivery, operational scalability and margin improvement
• Developing stronger accountability, structure and leadership capability across the operational teams
• Supporting future integration activity and operational best practice across the wider group

We are seeking a commercially aware operational leader with deep manufacturing expertise and a strong background within machining-led engineering environments.

Candidates will likely have operated at Plant Director, Operations Director or General Manager level within precision engineering, aerospace, defence or complex industrial manufacturing businesses.

The successful individual will demonstrate the ability to:

• Assess operational performance quickly and objectively
• Drive structure, pace and accountability
• Improve productivity, flow and operational execution
• Connect operational performance directly to commercial outcomes
• Lead from the front and build credibility across both shop floor and boardroom environments
• Engage, develop and where necessary reshape leadership teams
• A strong understanding of machine shop operations, operational constraints and manufacturing flow is considered essential.
• Degree qualified in Engineering, Manufacturing or a related technical discipline, with a strong foundation in machining-led manufacturing and operational leadership.

What the organisation now requires is an operational leader capable of integrating the business properly, unlocking performance and helping deliver the next phase of growth.

For the right individual, this represents a genuine opportunity to shape a high-potential engineering group during a pivotal stage of its evolution.

Package

A highly competitive executive package is available, including performance-related incentives aligned to operational improvement and business growth.

Further details will be discussed on a confidential basis.