Manufacturing Engineering Team Lead

Manufacturing Engineering Team Lead

(internally known as Industrial Process Engineering Team Lead)

Location: Templecombe, full-time (4 days/ week) onsite

Step into a leadership role where innovation meets impact - apply now to lead Industrial Process Engineering at Thales!

What The Role Has To Offer

• 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

Our Opportunity

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.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead a high‑performing team within a specialist manufacturing environment focused on sonar, sensors, and advanced electrical systems. The role sits in a low‑volume, high‑value production space, offering the chance to work on technically complex, highly utilised products that make a real impact.

We’re open to candidates from a range of industries who bring strong people skills, a passion for driving improvements, and the ability to influence positive change. You’ll play a key role in delivering cost savings, streamlining processes, reducing product repair times, and shaping a culture of continuous improvement.

Building a Future, we can all trust.

Industrial Process Engineering (IPE) is all about shaping how products come to life - from the design of tooling and processes to the skills and technology that keep them running smoothly throughout their lifecycle. It’s where efficiency meets innovation, ensuring every product, component, and repair is delivered to the highest standards.

What We Offer You

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package designed to support our employees’ wellbeing and professional growth, which includes:

• Pension – match like-for-like up to 7% of annual base salary
• Life Assurance – 2 x base salary minimum (8 x 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 hours per day
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
• 24 hours paid leave for volunteering activities
• Access to flexible benefits and discounts – dental insurance, buying & selling annual leave, cycle to work, and many more

Key Responsibilities And Tasks

• 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

About You

At Thales, we are committed to equal opportunities and welcome all talented individuals to consider joining our team. So 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. It will take all of us working together to deliver solutions to the world’s most critical challenges.

Essential

• 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

Desirable

• 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

Join Thales in Templecombe as a Team Lead - apply today and help build a future we can all trust!

Security Clearance Statement UKEO (UK Eyes Only)

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 would be advantageous if currently held, however, if not currently held, it is a requirement that the successful applicant undergo, achieve, and maintain SC Clearance prior to commencing employment. If approved by the MOD, a dual national from a non-ITAR country may be considered.

Please visit the UKSV website for further guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels

To be eligible for full SC, you generally need to have resided in the UK for the last 5 years. In some circumstances, a minimum of 3 years’ residence in the UK over the last 5 years may be accepted, with additional overseas checks.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!