Manufacturing Engineering Team Lead

(internally known as Industrial Process Engineering Team Lead)

Location:
Templecombe, full‑time (4 days/ week) onsite

Step into a leadership role where innovation meets impact – apply now to lead Industrial Process Engineering at Thales!

• Take charge of a high‑performing team, driving innovation and shaping smarter manufacturing processes that deliver excellence across the product lifecycle
• Join a global organisation that invests in your development with world‑class training, mentoring, and clear progression opportunities
• Benefit from a competitive package, compressed 4‑day week, and flexible working designed to support your wellbeing and work‑life balance

Reporting to the Head of Industrial Process Engineering, you’ll lead a high‑performing team within our Autonomous Production & Repair Unit (APRU). Balancing leadership with hands‑on delivery, you’ll drive industrialisation and sustainment across new and legacy products, embedding Design for Manufacturing principles and smarter ways of working. Your role is pivotal – guiding engineers, eliminating waste, and ensuring processes and products perform to the highest standards.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead a high‑performing team within a specialist manufacturing environment focused on sonar, sensors, and advanced electrical systems. The role sits in a low‑volume, high‑value production space, offering the chance to work on technically complex, highly utilised products that make a real impact.

We’re open to candidates from a range of industries who bring strong people skills, a passion for driving improvements, and the ability to influence positive change. You’ll play a key role in delivering cost savings, streamlining processes, reducing product repair times, and shaping a culture of continuous improvement.

Building a Future, we can all trust.

Industrial Process Engineering (IPE) is all about shaping how products come to life – from the design of tooling and processes to the skills and technology that keep them running smoothly throughout their lifecycle. It’s where efficiency meets innovation, ensuring every product, component, and repair is delivered to the highest standards.

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package designed to support our employees’ wellbeing and professional growth, which includes:

• Pension – match like‑for‑like up to 7% of annual base salary
• Life Assurance – 2 x base salary minimum (8 x salary if part of the pension scheme)
• Income Protection – 50% of salary less state benefits for 5 years
• Annual Leave – 201 hours, bank holidays, plus 1 company day
• Private Medical Insurance – Couples cover
• 4 day working week – 9.25 hours per day
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
• 24 hours paid leave for volunteering activities
• Access to flexible benefits and discounts – dental insurance, buying & selling annual leave, cycle to work, and many more

• Drive best‑practice IPE strategy, processes, and innovation to improve performance, reduce costs, and streamline workflows
• Ensure team capability meets current and future project needs while managing workloads, KPIs, and compliance standards
• Lead, coach, and develop a high‑performing team, overseeing recruitment, training, appraisals, and daily productivity
• Own industrial process maturity assessments, guide design for manufacture, and optimise tooling, documentation, and workflows
• Resolve production issues using data‑driven problem‑solving and root cause analysis, embedding lessons learned
• Build strong stakeholder relationships and foster effective cross‑department collaboration to support delivery

At Thales, we are committed to equal opportunities and welcome all talented individuals to consider joining our team. So even if you don’t match every statement below but feel you have some of the experience, knowledge or skills needed for this role, we encourage you to apply. It will take all of us working together to deliver solutions to the world’s most critical challenges.

• Degree in engineering or manufacturing discipline
• Significant senior‑level experience in manufacturing, ideally within engineering
• Proven leadership of…