Production Manager

Production Manager - Heavy Manufacturing
Derbyshire | Circa £65,000 + 8% Bonus + Private Healthcare + Excellent Benefits
Are you a technically minded Production Manager or operational leader looking for the opportunity to take ownership of a substantial manufacturing operation and progress your career?

SF Recruitment is partnering with a major UK manufacturing business to recruit a Production Manager for a large-scale, continuous-process manufacturing facility in Derbyshire. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys the pace and complexity of heavy industry, understands how to turn raw materials into finished products, and wants to develop their career within a well-established business that can offer genuine long-term progression.

We're not necessarily looking for someone who has spent years in a Plant Manager position. We're interested in ambitious, capable individuals who have built strong operational experience, can lead teams effectively and are ready to take on broader responsibility. You'll have the support of an experienced senior leader who has previously undertaken this position, giving you the opportunity to build on your existing experience while developing your commercial, strategic, and operational capabilities.

The Opportunity
You'll take responsibility for a critical area of a large manufacturing facility, overseeing the journey from raw material availability and processing through to finished product storage, packing and dispatch. You'll need to be comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-volume manufacturing environment where operational reliability, safety and customer delivery are essential. You'll have responsibility for an established team of approximately 30 employees, working through experienced managers and supervisors across production, maintenance, and warehousing. This is a varied position combining hands-on operational leadership with forward planning, cost management, continuous improvement, and cross-functional collaboration.

Key Responsibilities
- Lead the safe and efficient operation of manufacturing, processing, packing, and dispatch activities.
- Manage and develop a team of managers, supervisors, and operational employees, building a positive, accountable, and safety-focused culture.
- Ensure raw material availability, production capacity and operational resources are aligned with customer demand.
- Monitor and improve operational KPIs, including production efficiency, reliability, downtime, costs, and performance.
- Work closely with maintenance teams to coordinate planned maintenance, shutdowns, and plant improvements.
- Collaborate with procurement, supply chain, logistics and commercial teams to improve planning, supplier performance, and operational delivery.
- Identify opportunities to reduce costs, improve efficiencies, and strengthen overall plant performance.
- Develop greater ownership of departmental budgets, forecasting, and commercial decision-making.
- Drive continuous improvement, employee development, and operational best practice.

What We're Looking For
We're particularly interested in individuals who have developed their careers within heavy manufacturing, continuous-process production, or industrial processing environments. Experience within cement manufacturing would be highly advantageous, but we would also welcome applications from candidates working in sectors such as:

- Steel, metals, and foundry manufacturing
- Cement, lime, aggregates, and minerals processing
- Chemical and industrial process manufacturing
- Other high-volume, continuous-process production environments

Ideally, you'll bring:
- An engineering degree or relevant technical qualification, ideally within mechanical, chemical, manufacturing, or process engineering.
- Experience leading production or operational teams within a heavy industrial manufacturing environment.
- A strong understanding of manufacturing processes, plant performance, maintenance, and operational efficiency.
- The ability to manage people, solve problems and make effective decisions in a demanding environment.
- A good understanding of health and safety within an industrial setting.
- Commercial awareness, including exposure to budgets, cost improvement, or operational forecasting.
- Strong communication skills and the confidence to work across production, engineering, logistics and commercial functions.
- Experience using SAP or a similar ERP system would be beneficial.

Above all, we're looking for someone with the right attitude, technical understanding, and ambition to develop. You might already be a Production Manager or Operations Manager looking for a larger, more complex operation. Equally, you could be an experienced manufacturing leader ready to take the next step into a broader plant management role.

What's On Offer?
- Salary: Circa £65,000, dependent on experience
- Bonus: 8% annual bonus
- Private healthcare: BUPA cover from day one
- Pension: 8% employer contribution
- Holidays: 25 days plus bank holidays, with additional holiday purchase options
- Working hours: 37.5 hour contract, with flexibility required
- Career development: Opportunity to develop your commercial and operational leadership capabilities within a major manufacturing business

This is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of a substantial operation, make a visible impact and develop your career with the support of an experienced leadership team. If you're an ambitious manufacturing professional looking for your next challenge, we'd be keen to hear from you