Group Industrial Director

An international manufacturing group is hiring for an experienced technical Group Industrial Excellence Director. This role will be responsible for improving performance, reliability and cost of the parts the group machines today, by rebuilding the process base and turning person-dependent practice into documented, repeatable standards. And building the capability to industrialise the new parts that Sales is winning in new markets.

Role responsibilities:

• Act as the group's highest technical authority on the machining of Inconel and other hard superalloys. Arbitrate machining strategies, cutting conditions, tooling choices and machine allocation; solve the recurring technical problems
• Own the continuous improvement of what the group already machines: cycle times, cutting conditions, tooling life and cost, scrap and rework. Overhaul operating routings and machining sequences, replacing person-dependent practice with documented, repeatable standards, and validate standard times against real shop-floor performance

• Build product/process matrices linking each part family to its preferred machine routing and standard times, and a costing logic per part family so true production cost, and real margin, are known when a quote is issued

• Raise the methods departments from a reactive function to the driving force of industrialisation across the group
• Make a practice proven on one site the standard for all: common methods, routing structures, machining standards and technical KPIs

Candidate requirements:

• A machining expert first: deep, hands-on mastery of the machining of Inconel and other hard superalloys - cutting conditions, tooling, sequences, machine capability, scrap and cycle-time reduction
• Minimum 10 years in methods, industrialisation or industrial excellence in precision machining; time spent in a methods or process engineering function is essential
• Proven track record of industrialising new parts from drawing to first good part, and of improving the cost and reliability of existing production
• Able to build and challenge a routing, a standard time and a cost per part family, and to hold his ground technically with a methods engineer or a shop-floor lead
• Comfortable deploying standards across several sites and cultures through technical credibility rather than hierarchy - this is an expert role, not a people-management role
• Fluent English mandatory. Additional French or Arabic Prefered