Operations Leader

Our Ochils site is our Highland Spring brand bottling plant in Blackford. Operationally, the site employs over 250 people, operates up to 8 production lines on a 24 x 7 shift pattern, and bottles over 500 million litres of water per year.

Following significant growth and investment, the site is stabilising and ready to take advantage of recent investments in people, equipment, and processes to grow further.

To drive this growth, the site requires an operational leader who will lead the operations leadership team through a significant period of growth and change.

The site leader is accountable for the site's operations and all operational SQDCME measures. The role's scope includes all operational activities, from the receipt of raw materials to the local storage and dispatch of finished products. The leader has five direct reports.

The operations leader will have a thorough knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, having previously led lean and cultural transformations. The right leader will drive change through best people practices, champion our Highland Spring values, and have a track record of delivering double-digit year-on-year OEE improvement, a history of driving culture change, and an unwavering focus on safety. 

Previous bottling/industry experience is secondary to the leadership skills required to drive overall operational effectiveness at the site.

Desirable skills and experience include:

• Implementing people-centred lean transformations,
• ·Championing behavioural safety, with a formally recognised IOSH or NEBOSH qualification and championing zero harm and zero defects.
• Leading organisation design change, effective recruitment and accelerated training.
• Driving performance improvement across all SQDCME measures.
• Influencing in a matrix organisation where areas of accountability are not directly owned.
• ·Fluency in lean sigma techniques, including Value Stream Mapping, SIM/SIC, Standard work, run to target and adopting DMAIC principles.

This is a hands-on site-based role reporting to the Operations Director. The role holder will represent the site as part of the Highland Spring Senior Management Team.

If you could be our next Operations Leader, please apply today.