{"id":1366876,"url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion","title":"Focused Improvement Technician (Conversion)","company":{"id":1795137,"name":"DS Smith","domain":"dssmith.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/dssmith-com","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":34,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.794,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":41,"computed_at":"2026-10-13T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Field & Service","role_family":"Field & Service","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Burscough, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":35000,"max_usd":65000,"period":"year","method":"role_country_seniority_unknown","sample_n":1096},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-23T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T00:59:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":21,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":21},"description":"Improvement Engineer\nBurscough\nMonday - Friday (40 hours per week)\n£57,500\nAs a Improvement Engineer you will play a key role in improving the reliability, performance and efficiency of our production assets. Working within the Conversion area, you will use your technical expertise and problem-solving skills to identify recurring issues, reduce downtime and deliver sustainable improvements.\nYou will be responsible for the maintenance and optimisation of high-speed finishing equipment downstream from the corrugator, including Flexo Folder Gluers (FFGs), Rotary Die Cutters and Flatbed Die Cutters. Your focus will be on keeping equipment running safely and efficiently while ensuring the accuracy, quality and consistency of finished products.\nWorking closely with Production and Maintenance teams, you will help identify chronic losses, resolve recurring equipment issues and deliver improvements that increase uptime and reduce waste.\nThe salary package includes compensation for undertaking up to 20 night and weekend holiday cover shifts annually. Any holiday cover hours worked in excess of the employee's standard weekly contracted hours will be paid at the applicable overtime rate.\nYour responsibilities will include\nDelivering planned, preventative and corrective maintenance across the Conversion area.\nActing as the technical subject matter expert for your assigned assets and equipment.\nDiagnosing and resolving mechanical, electrical, pneumatic and automation faults quickly and effectively.\nMaintaining and troubleshooting high-speed converting equipment from manufacturers such as Bobst, Martin/FFG, Tanabe, Gopfert and Sun Automation.\nCalibrating and maintaining print cylinders, registration systems, anilox rolls, doctor blade assemblies and rotary die-cutting cylinders to ensure precise product quality.\nMaintaining high-speed feed systems, vacuum transfer tables, folder-gluer belts and associated equipment to minimise jams and production stoppages.\nMaintaining, flushing and calibrating automated hot-melt and cold-glue systems and associated inspection sensors.\nTroubleshooting multi-axis servo drives, encoders, PLCs and automated control systems responsible for machine timing and synchronisation.\nSupporting quick changeovers by improving machine setup, recipes and adjustment processes to minimise downtime between product changes.\nIdentifying and eliminating chronic equipment losses and recurring failures.\nSupporting root-cause analysis and implementing sustainable corrective actions.\nReviewing and optimising maintenance routines to improve equipment reliability and performance.\nWorking closely with Production colleagues to build strong relationships and minimise disruption to manufacturing.\nAccurately recording maintenance activity, findings, spare parts and corrective actions within the CMMS.\nSupporting continuous improvement, Maintenance Excellence and reliability-focused projects.\nEnsuring all maintenance activities are carried out safely and in line with site procedures and engineering standards.\nPerson Specification\nWe are looking for a technically skilled and proactive engineering professional who enjoys working with complex, high-speed machinery and solving problems in a fast-paced production environment.\nYou will ideally have:\nA recognised engineering qualification such as an apprenticeship, NVQ Level 3/4 or equivalent in Mechanical, Electrical, Mechatronics or Maintenance Engineering.\nExperience maintaining high-speed converting, printing, packaging or similar multi-station production machinery.\nStrong mechanical and electrical engineering skills, with experience of servo motors, precision gearboxes, pneumatic actuators and electronic sensors.\nExperience troubleshooting automated machinery involving multiple axes, drives, PLCs and machine-control systems.\nThe ability to read and interpret electrical schematics, pneumatic diagrams and mechanical drawings.\nExperience with precision mechanical adjustment and alignment, using tools such as dial indicators, calipers and gauges.\nAn understanding of machine timing, synchronisation and registration within high-speed production equipment.\nExperience working with industrial networks such as EtherNet/IP or Profibus would be advantageous.\nExperience with PLCs and HMI systems, with Siemens, Rockwell/Allen-Bradley or similar platforms desirable.\nExperience maintaining or troubleshooting automated strapping, bundling or palletising equipment would be beneficial.\nExperience using a CMMS to manage preventative maintenance, work orders and spare parts.\nA strong focus on safety, quality and continuous improvement.\nA proactive approach to problem-solving, with the ability to identify the root cause of issues rather than simply fixing the immediate problem.\nThe ability to work effectively with both Maintenance and Production teams.\nThis is an opportunity to use your engineering expertise to make a real difference to the performance of our Conversion operation. You will play a key role in reducing downtime, improving machine reliability and ensuring our high-speed finishing equipment delivers the quality and output our customers expect.\nWhat we can offer you:\nCompetitive salary\nQualifying Sick Pay scheme\nPension scheme & Life insurance\nShare Save scheme\nIncome Protection\n25 days holiday plus Bank Holidays\nEmployee Assistance Programme\nVirtual GP, Occupational Health & free Flu vaccine\nCycle to Work and shopping discounts\nWe are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 65,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us!\nOur people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria.”","description_format":"text","description_chars":6394,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Life insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Manufacturing","Packaging & Labeling","Packaging Design"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-28T02:34:29Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":47,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.526,"p_room":0.9,"age_days":20,"expected_fill_days":41,"reasons":["conf:5","stale_co","velocity","win:mid","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-13T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/ds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T02:58:00Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":4589,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1795137},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1795137"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/ds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fds-smith-focused-improvement-technician-conversion"}]}