Operational Excellence Site Lead in Wickford

Job Description

We are looking for an Operational Excellence Site Lead to join us at Leonardo in Basildon.

You will be part of the Integrated Sensing and Protection line of business, which is a leader in delivering defence electronics, mission critical systems for situational awareness, electronic warfare, communications and surveillance across the land, air and sea domains.

Your Impact

As an Operational Excellence Site Lead, you will have the opportunity to provide leadership and vision in the realm of process excellence, lean practices and advanced planning systems.

You will act as the focal point to support operational requirements and continuous improvements across the site.

This role requires a broad experience across the lifecycle phases of New Product Introduction (NPI), Delivery (sustaining), In-Service (customer), whilst coordinating & maintaining collaboration between the operations functional teams and a displaying strong individual knowledge of the business processes.

What you’ll bring

As Operational excellence site lead you will to lead, develop, and enhance people, processes, culture, safety and customer experience to enable world class production of Leonardo products, supporting sustained business growth.

• Typical accountabilities
• Collaborate to advance operational excellence maturity matrix, focusing on effective leadership, strategic planning, and clear communication of objectives.
• Embed into teams and to support the successful delivery of operational excellence improvement projects.
• Utilise a wide toolbox of operational excellence and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Ability to motivate, counsel, and constructively deal with people at all levels. Ability to influence and manage large teams and organization.
• Conduct site visits and performance reviews with Operations management to share best practices, improve staff performance, and achieve operating plan goals.
• Drive weekly business unit reviews to identify corrective actions for improving operations performance by ensuring sufficient process and behavior changes occur so that root cause analysis is followed up with rigorous closed loop corrective actions to ensure fault resolution.
• Identify and communicate any unresolved problems or possible timeline issues along with recommended actions for correction.
• Advocate continuous improvement of products and processes by soliciting new process improvement opportunities.
• Create, agree and deliver KPIs and maintain the defined operations KPIs to be used to review and inform decision making.
• Ensure the provision of operations expertise and capability to the business area projects.
• Ensure development of a capable operations team in line with developing business needs which will include proposal of training priorities to support the development of a high performing culture.
• Knowledge, Skills & Experience
• Successful track record of operational improvements in a high-tech, low to mid volume, high quality environment.
• Recognised as an expert in operations, operations framework, manufacturing, leadership principles and business processes.
• People management & leadership skills; including effective performance and change management skills (change agent).
• Expert in influencing and negotiating with others using facts, proposals, data and analysis to support line of reasoning.
• Communicate operations excellence at a leadership level in a non-technical influencing way.
• Ability to partner effectively with operations, project teams, customers and suppliers.
• Success in mentoring and coaching in order to grow operational excellence within the business.
• Ability to lead, without having reporting authority, large scale key focus area process improvement events and see through to successful implementation.
• Negotiating competing priorities both tactical and strategic.
• Experience defining and refining solutions that solve business problems.
• Commitment to quality and speed-to-market and passionate for innovation.
• A data-driven individual.
• Self-motivated with uncompromising attention to detail.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and change.
• Creative and keen to bring new ideas to the programme.
• A sense of urgency, drive and energy.
• Ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Comfortable with liaising and working with 3rd party consultants.

Qualifications

• Manufacturing or engineering related degree / qualification or relevant experience.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt (desirable).
• Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS).

An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

For more information and guidance please visit https://careers. uk. leonardo. com/gb/en/security-and-vetting

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do.

We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance.

Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your
• Wellbeing

Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).

• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and Linked In Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security.

Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK.

Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace.

We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers.

If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

• Primary Location
• GB - Basildon
• Contract Type
• Permanent
• Hybrid Working
• Onsite
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