Head of Automation & Engineering Kingsway

Join to apply for the role at JD Sports Fashion. Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms with our colleagues working in stores across several retail fascias in many markets around the world. JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019 and continues to grow in the UK and internationally. We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry. To be a part of this successful company and help us to achieve this you will have the desire to ingrain our strategic goals of being a people-led, innovative and customer-focused organisation which provides operational excellence whilst identifying new areas of growth as part of our day to day objectives.

Running a highly automated facility with more than 1,000,000 square feet, fully automated and with equipment from different suppliers: miniload, shuttle, GTP, Rotapick, sorter, conveyors. 24x7 hours operational. Delivering a volume of millions of units every month, and managing a global team of above 80 people. Responsible for the whole automation solution of the DC including actual status and future expansions, including electro mechanical and logic solution of the system, leading on the evolution and continuous improvements of the facility.

• Responsible for the Automation Solution in the facility leading the strategy of the department regarding expansion, maintenance, compliance, upgrades, renewal and efficiency increase projects.
• Manager of Engineering & Automation team with above 80 people, delivering the strategy, goals, objectives, progression and commitment for the team.
• Leading the execution of all automation and engineering projects to achieve goals established in time and budget, coordinating all internal and external teams involved in the solution.
• Develop the relation with main suppliers of automation and engineering collaborating in KW DC, holding regular meetings, goals, SLAs and drivers with them.
• Responsible for KPIs, SLAs and economical budget of Automation & Engineering area in the DC.
• Responsible for the application and success of all Health & Safety and Compliance protocols concerning the automation and engineering team.
• Responsible for identifying and presenting improvement projects, building accordingly business case required and follow-up on investment budget.
• Responsible for the logic of the automated system, including WCS process definition and PLC, control, messaging and communication knowledge to be able to drive improvement in operational performance.
• Responsible for the establishment and follow-up of automations and compliance indicators according to standard metrics used in the industry: OEE, ROI, ISO, FEM.

• High Level Degree in engineering.
• Experience of at least 8 years leading teams in high automated facilities.
• Required experience in automated intralogistics facilities for retail.
• High skills in team management.

Job location permanent in Kingsway facility. We know our colleagues work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits including staff discount on JD Group and other brands within the organisation and personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.