Production Lead

Life tastes better with ice cream. With 19,000 expert ice cream colleagues and iconic brands like Wall’s, Cornetto and Ben & Jerry’s, loved in 76 countries, we are the world’s largest Ice Cream company leading the industry. We create iconic ice cream brands that are part of everyday life, bringing moments of joy to millions of people around the world. Everybody loves ice cream. And as the world’s biggest pure‑play ice cream company, we have the scale and ambition to make a real difference.

What truly sets us apart is how we work. We move fast and keep things simple. We turn ideas into action, trust people to take ownership, and work as one team to win together with integrity. Our culture is high‑performance, collaborative and focused on getting things done. We’re curious and ready for what’s next. We embrace digital, use data to make better decisions, and keep learning, including how AI can help us work smarter and serve consumers better.

The Role: The production leader is responsible for the organisation, planning & coordination of activities for a defined production unit within the factory. This includes action tracking on safety & quality, KPI capture & analysis, collaboratively creating production schedules with planning, recruitment, supporting labour planning & receiving projects & innovations.

• KPIs & KAIs: OEE, Waste, Cost of Quality, D-Incidents, Blocked Stock, Housekeeping & Hygiene Scores, Safety Leading Indicators

What you'll be responsible for:

• Technical / Functional: Production leaders need to have a strong background in manufacturing. They should have a firm grasp on the principles of production scheduling, continuous improvement, loss capture, safety standards, quality standards and incident management.
• Safety: Action Tracking – Collates information from all sources to generate the safety action plan, including but not limited to machinery safety, incident investigations, CSHEC minutes, SBO/DCAs, near misses, SHEPAR. Expected to drive these actions to completion through working with relevant colleagues. Audits – Expected to carry out and follow up safety audits in line with site requirements. Risk Assessments – tracks and drives the progress of risk assessment completion. Incident Investigations – carry out investigations for serious incidents that require coordination across shifts. KPI Collation – working with the safety teams to ensure that relevant KPIs & KAIs are collated and shared with the production teams.
• Quality: Action Tracking – Collates information from all sources to generate the quality action plan, including but not limited to housekeeping & hygiene, incident investigations. Expected to drive these actions to completion through working with relevant colleagues. Audits – Expected to carry out and follow up quality audits in line with site requirements. External Audit Support – first point of contact for their area for support on external audits. Incident Investigations – carry out investigations for serious incidents that require coordination across shifts. KPI Collation – working with the safety teams to ensure that relevant KPIs & KAIs are collated and shared with the production teams.
• Operational Activities: Daily Coordination – Ensures that relevant communication and execution plans & materials are in place for relevant members of the team. Attends morning meetings within the factory operating system & consolidates inputs into an action plan. Responds to any operational disruptions to reset plans where the impact spans across multiple shifts e.g., material shortages, production plan changes, etc. Weekend Planning – Ensures that the weekend plans are clearly communicated to all shift managers & that monitoring & measuring mechanisms are in place for review the following week. Weekly Coordination – Prepares the inputs for the weekly production meeting including updated actions, KPIs, production plans & projects. Production Planning – Responsible for agreeing the weekly production schedules in collaboration with the planning department. Must ensure this is robustly communicated along with any changes to the production teams. Labour Planning - ensures that the production, labour & activity plans are aligned and proactively works to address any areas of misalignment. Execution Support – Where required, supports shift managers on the shop floor to drive activities including briefs, changeovers, cleaning and projects. Rectification - works with the quality and production teams to develop & execute plans for the rectification or destruction of blocked stock. Detailed Activity Planning – responsible for preparing detailed activity plans for downtime. This includes scheduled cleaning, maintenance, projects, start-ups & shutdowns. In some cases, there will be an expectation to support in driving the execution of these activities.
• Projects: Receiving - The first point of contact for all projects landing in the production area, whether related to engineering, systems, innovations or processes. The expectation is for these to be properly coordinated and integrated into the team plans. Planning - Collaborating with planning teams to ensure seamless scheduling of project activities.
• People Management: Direct Reports - this role has no direct reports. Employee Relations – production leaders are expected to carry out disciplinary investigations/hearings and to hear grievances where required in their area. Continuous Improvement – Has knowledge and understanding of the key principles of continuous improvement and an awareness of the tools used to identify and prioritise time, cost and waste losses in the production area and eliminate them; role requires data collection. Works with process engineers, engineering technicians and operators to support CI activities in the area. Has formal accountability for the progress of the AM programme. Training & Recruitment – works closely with the site training team to ensure plans are coordinated properly with labour and production requirements. Expected to take a holistic view of skill level in their area (e.g. through grade distribution) and work with the operations manager, training teams and shift managers to set appropriate direction & to coordinate resources. Recruitment – works with the operations manager, labour planner & shift managers to agree & coordinate recruitment activities for the area.

We're looking for someone who:

• National school leaver qualifications in Reading and Comprehension, Writing and Mathematics. This will support recording of data, analysis of machine performance and general teamwork skills with an emphasis on good communication.
• It would be advantageous to hold a degree in a science or engineering background, but this is not an essential requirement for the role.
• Must have a strong understanding of the end-to-end manufacturing process. Has knowledge and understanding of national Safety and Environmental legislation and company policy, systems and practice relevant to the factory and the legal responsibility placed upon individuals.
• Strong servant leader, with significant demonstrable experience of achieving sustained success within a manufacturing environment.
• Has successfully led improvement projects and managed the change and transition process with teams of people.
• Strong continuous improvement knowledge.
• Excellent analytical skills.
• Excellent organisation & communication skills.
• Considerable ability to drive a strong safety culture.
• Good commercial acumen and understanding of financial concepts.
• Ability to deal with ever-changing fast-paced environment, making quick sound decisions, prioritising and driving changes to the operation in real time.
• Is curious about self-development, proactively and continuously develops self to be the best they can be.
• Should ideally have reasonable mechanical skills to address day to day issues.
• It would be advantageous but not essential to hold a degree in a chemical, science or engineering related discipline.

What you'll get:

• Alongside meaningful work and strong development, we offer a reward package that typically includes market-competitive pay and performance related rewards.
• Support for health, wellbeing and life outside of work.
• Time off to rest and recharge.
• Ongoing learning and development opportunities.
• Specific benefits vary by location.

Why join us? This is a place for people who are passionate about ice cream and are growth obsessed - both for the business and for themselves. People who act like an owner and drive our business end-to-end. People who are driven by success to deliver more than we ever thought we could! You’ll thrive here if you value an inclusive culture, with low ego and hierarchy - and if you’re excited to continuously learn and challenge how we work, using digital, data, and new thinking to push us forward.

• Roles with real accountability and visible impact.
• Free to move fast, experiment and challenge how things are done.
• Continuous learning and development as the business grows.
• Reward linked to performance and contribution.

Your career here is shaped by what you deliver, as you work across functions and markets and grow with the business. Ready to build the future of Ice Cream? If this sounds like the place where you'd thrive, we'd love to hear from you. Apply online and share your CV. We'll review your application and be in touch with the next steps.

If you are an individual with a disability and require assistance at any time during our recruitment process, please let your Talent Acquisition Partner know.

The Magnum Ice Cream Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment where everyone can do their best work regardless of age, disability, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic.