Head of Manufacturing Excellence in Preston

Location: Samlesbury

Salary: £89,300 dependent on skills and experience plus executive benefits

Responsibilities

• Driving a standardized and structured approach to manufacturing and reporting to achieve cost, schedule, and margin targets, launch products successfully, implement production system designs early, establish a Manufacturing Data & Analytics team, and integrate Build Line Support (BLS) and Product Intervention teams for seamless collaboration.
• Delivering the Manufacturing Operating System across all Life Cycle Management (LCM) elements with a standard, metric-based approach to influence bids, designs, processes, and supplier selection, drive continuous improvement, foster cross-functional collaboration, and transform manufacturing into a high-performing, trusted function that aligns with plans and expands margins.
• Driving a proactive Safety culture by ensuring personnel accountability, completing all SHE tasks, managing risks promptly, embedding responsibility at the team level, and monitoring metrics to achieve and improve business-level safety targets.
• Ensuring Transformation and BLS teams deliver projects on budget, manage capital effectively, implement process and efficiency improvements, drive cost reduction, and foster a culture of continuous improvement through a proactive and reactive manufacturing operating system.
• Ensuring proper Delegations of Authority, enabling team influence across the LCM, delivering world-class technical work, implementing the Manufacturing Operating System to improve quality, mitigate risks, and reduce COPQ.

Your skills and experiences

• Lean 6 Sigma Black Belt with experience of project delivery and designing production systems in a high technology environment.
• Experience of leading Continuous Improvement Teams in a high technology manufacturing environment.
• Ability to lead and manage change in cross functional complexity environments.
• Experience of establishing and delivering through partnerships, and ability to work collaboratively both internally and externally.
• Being adaptive and culturally aware to lead internationally and across industry sectors, with the ability to represent the company to external bodies.
• Creative and innovative thinking to challenge existing ways of working and bring in new ideas.
• Ability and credibility to influence customer and industrial stakeholders at a senior level.
• Degree level or equivalent, ideally with relevant chartered professional qualifications.

Benefits

As well as a competitive pension scheme, BAE Systems also offers employee share plans, an extensive range of flexible discounted health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits, including a green car scheme, private health plans and shopping discounts - you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The Air Manufacturing team

Come and shape the future of aviation by designing cutting-edge manufacturing processes for a 6th-generation fighter aircraft, building on 8 years of legacy work and impacting a program that will soar for the next 80 years.

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity of thought, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome people from all backgrounds and want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date: 23rd February 2026

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.