Production Cell Manager

Job Title:                     Production Cell Manager

Location:                     Plymouth, Devon

Compensation:            £44,600 - £55,800 Depending on Experience + Benefits

Role Type:                   Full time / Permanent

Role ID:                       SF74436

Lead production excellence that powers national defence capability

At Babcock we’re working to create a safe and secure world, together, and if you join us, you can play your part as a Production Cell Manager at our Devonport Royal Dockyard site.

The role

As a Production Cell Manager, you’ll lead a production cell within our Factory Group, ensuring the safe, efficient and cost-effective delivery of machining and manufacturing outputs that support critical defence operations. You’ll be responsible for managing people, processes and performance, driving productivity, quality and continuous improvement across your area.

Day-to-day, you’ll have a great opportunity to take ownership of a key production function within a complex and highly regulated environment. Your leadership will directly contribute to the delivery of essential dockyard and defence programmes, while supporting your own progression in operational management and manufacturing leadership.

• Leading and managing production teams, including supervisors, staff and facilities to deliver operational outputs


• Delivering work safely and efficiently in line with quality, cost and schedule requirements


• Planning and controlling workloads, capacity and production schedules to meet demand


• Driving continuous improvement across productivity, quality and performance standards


• Managing budgets, resources and workforce capability to optimise operational delivery

This role is full time, 35 hours per week and is based on site at Devonport Royal Dockyard.

Essential experience of the Production Cell Manager

• Demonstrable experience in a machine shop environment including Computer Numerical Control and manual machining


• Proven leadership and supervisory experience within a production or manufacturing setting


• Strong understanding of production planning, workflow and scheduling


• Experience managing performance, productivity and quality standards


• Knowledge of quality systems such as ISO 9001 is desirable

Qualifications for the Production Cell Manager

• Higher National Certificate or equivalent experience in a machining or manufacturing discipline

• Degree or broader technical qualification - Desirable


• Leadership qualification such as Chartered Management Institute or Institute of Leadership and Management Level 5 - Desirable

Security Clearance

The successful candidate must be able to achieve and maintain Security Check (SC) security clearance for this role.

Many of the positions within our company are subject to national security clearance and Trade Control restrictions. This means that your eligibility for certain roles may be affected by your place of birth, nationality, current or former citizenship, and any residency you hold or have held. Further details are available at United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

What we offer

• Generous holiday allowance


• Matched contribution pension scheme, with life assurance


• Access to a Digital GP, annual health check, and nutritional consultations through Aviva DigiCare+


• Employee shopping savings portal


• Payment of Professional Fees


• Reservists in the armed forces receive 10-days special paid leave


• Holiday Trading is a benefit that allows UK Babcock employees to buy additional leave or to sell up to one working week of annual leave from their annual entitlement. This Window opens February through to March annually.


• ‘Be Kind Day’ enables employees to take one working day's paid leave a year (or equivalent hours) to undertake volunteering work with their chosen organisation or registered charity

Babcock

We’re Babcock — a global FTSE 100 organisation with over 26,000 people working together to make a difference.

Here, you’ll be part of something bigger. From initial design to final decommissioning, your work will contribute to products and services that are essential to national security and public infrastructure. Together, we’re building a future that lasts — not just through the impact we make, but through meaningful careers that respect your work-life balance.

We call that lifetime engineering.

Join us and see how far we can go, together.

We are a disability confident committed employer. If you have a disability or need any reasonable adjustments during the application and selection stages, please email [email protected] with the subject header ‘Reasonable adjustments requirement’. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone’s free to thrive. We are happy to talk about flexible working – please ask about alternative patterns of work at interview.

Closing date: 30/06/2026

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