Team Leader – Machine Shop

Location: WhitstableDepartment: Machine ShopReports to: Production Manager – Machine Shop

Are you an experienced leader with a strong background in manufacturing? Do you thrive in a fast-paced production environment where quality, efficiency and teamwork are essential? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

We are looking for a Team Leader to oversee daily operations within our clients' Machine Shop, ensuring our team delivers on-time, high-quality production while maintaining the highest standards of Health & Safety.

About the Role

As a Team Leader in our Machine Shop, you will play a key role in driving performance and maintaining smooth day-to-day operations. You’ll be responsible for coordinating a team of Operators, managing workloads, monitoring production output, and ensuring all tasks are completed efficiently, accurately and safely.

You’ll work closely with the Production Manager and Planning teams to meet KPI targets such as On-Time Delivery, Quality Performance, Scrap & Rework reduction, and arrears management. You’ll also ensure effective training, skill development and performance management across your team.

This is a hands-on supervisory role—perfect for someone who enjoys both leading people and contributing directly to production.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, motivate and coordinate a team of Machine Shop Operators.
• Plan and delegate daily tasks to meet production schedules and departmental KPIs.
• Carry out First Off and in-process inspections, identifying scrap, rework and NRFT issues.
• Monitor KPIs and complete daily performance metrics, communicating results to the team.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Previous experience in a manufacturing or production environment.
• Proven experience supervising or leading a team.
• Strong understanding of production planning, manufacturing processes and quality systems.
• Good Health & Safety awareness, including Risk Assessments and COSHH.
• Able to read CAD drawings and perform First Off inspections.

Why Join?

This is a fantastic opportunity to lead a skilled team in a key part of the business, driving improvements and contributing directly to their success. 

Please click Apply now!