Technical Customer Co-ordinator in Leeds

We are seeking an experienced and commercially aware Cluster Technical Manager to build and lead a newly established Cluster Technical function within our Design & Innovation (D&I) team. Reporting to the Retail D&I Manager, you will lead a team of four Cluster Technical Specialists providing customer-facing technical expertise, complaint prevention, technical intelligence, and continuous improvement support. Each Specialist is aligned to specific sites and works on a hybrid basis, so you will be leading a geographically dispersed team - connecting the cluster picture, driving consistency, and ensuring the function's preventative purpose is protected. This is a strategic leadership role combining technical excellence, customer engagement, data-driven decision-making, and people leadership. You will shape and deploy the cluster technical strategy while ensuring a proactive approach to technical risk, customer performance, and operational consistency. You will act as the key technical escalation point for significant, recurring, or cross-site issues, whilst maintaining clear ownership boundaries whereby site quality issues remain the responsibility of local Quality and Production teams. Define and deploy the cluster technical strategy, aligned to D&I, Quality and Packaging Division priorities. Own customer technical governance, establishing structured technical reviews with key customers that complement rather than duplicate existing Innovation and Quality processes. Own the function's KPI framework, monthly performance reviews and cluster-level trend reporting to D&I, Operations and Sales leadership. own resource planning, site and customer allocation, and workload balancing. Customer & Stakeholder Management Build strong relationships with customers, Cluster Director and MDs, Site General Managers, Site Quality Managers, Innovation and Sales leadership. Ensure clean, documented handoffs between the Technical team and site Quality and Production, with ownership boundaries respected and issue status visible to all parties. Aggregate cross-site and cross-customer trend analysis, converting recurring themes into structured prevention and improvement programmes. Ensure the team's involvement in the internal and customer trials programme is planned and prioritised, providing technical insight and data to support it; ownership of trial execution and product conformance remains with site Production and Quality teams. Ensure structured technical feedback loops into Design, Innovation and Quality strategy. Champion circular design principles and sustainable packaging solutions. Promote a right-first-time culture that reduces waste, rework and manufacturing inefficiency. Extensive experience (typically 8+ years) in corrugated or packaging manufacturing across production, quality, technical or design disciplines. Proven leadership experience, ideally including geographically dispersed or field-based teams. Track record of delivering measurable performance improvement in customer-facing technical, quality or continuous improvement roles. Strong customer-facing and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at senior level in a matrix organisation. Experience using structured problem-solving tools such as 8D and Root Cause Analysis (RCA). Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn technical data into insight that drives decisions. Degree in Packaging Technology, Engineering, Materials Science, Manufacturing, Chemistry or a related discipline - or equivalent vocational experience. Working knowledge of ISO 9001 and BRCGS Packaging Materials and their application in a packaging environment. Experience in Technical, Quality, Design or Innovation roles within packaging. Understanding of print, tooling and packaging production technologies. Experience supporting product development, trials and material implementation. Familiarity with ERP, QMS and CRM systems. Location and travel Field-based, managing a team covering the cluster's nine UK sites - Devizes, Fordham, Louth, Belper, Featherstone, Burscough, Neath, Lockerbie and Livingston - and key customer locations. Travel is expected to be approximately 40-50% of your time, including overnight stays, with home-based working in between. Hours: Monday to Friday, full time. Full UK driving licence required. Given the geographic spread of the cluster, a central location would be advantageous, though we welcome applications from candidates across the UK who are comfortable with regular national travel. Competitive salary ~ Pension scheme, life assurance and income protection ~ Employee Assistance Programme ~25 days' holiday plus bank holidays ~ Cycle to work scheme ~ Employee discounts Together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 65,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. To fulfil our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, we aim to build a diverse, motivated and engaged workforce. Our goal is to create a culture of inclusion where everyone is treated fairly, differences are valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know and we will be happy to support you. #