Manufacturing Lead

Overview

Manufacturing Lead

Location: Querétaro, Mexico At Morgan, we help make air travel safer and more efficient. Our turbine engine components play a key role in modern aerospace engines, combining advanced materials with high-volume manufacturing processes.This role sits at the heart of that operation. You'll lead the Process Engineering team, improve how manufacturing runs day to day, and make sure our processes are safe, capable, efficient, and ready to support future growth. It's a hands-on leadership role for someone who enjoys solving problems, then building systems so those problems don't come back.

The Role

As Manufacturing Lead, you'll be responsible for developing a high-performing engineering team while driving improvements across production, quality, capacity, cost, and performance.You'll work closely with Operations, Quality, Maintenance, and other functions to remove bottlenecks, improve process stability, and ensure manufacturing systems consistently meet customer requirements. Some days you'll be leading improvement projects, other days you'll be coaching engineers or validating equipment performance after maintenance interventions.

Morgan Advanced Materials is a business rich in history and innovation. Founded in the UK in 1856, we have grown into a global organisation with 70 sites in 18 countries. Our model to serve our customers where they need us has led to a diversified product range using our unparalleled expertise in ceramic and carbon materials, which we exploit to solve difficult problems for our customers across a diverse range of markets.

We are a purpose driven organisation. Our purpose is to use advanced materials to make the world more sustainable and to improve the quality of life. We deliver on that purpose through the products that we make, and the way that we make them.

The Technical Ceramics business of Morgan Advanced Materials engineers high performance functional and structural ceramic materials, components and sub-assemblies to address customer-specific technical challenges.

Key Figures: Revenue £1,100.7m (2024), ~8,000 employees, manufacturing in 20+ countries, and a global customer portfolio. A UK PLC with head office located in Windsor, Berkshire UK. Listed on London Stock Exchange; Member of the FTSE 250 Index.

Responsibilities

What You'll Do

• Lead, coach, and develop the Process Engineering team.
• Set priorities, objectives, and work plans to support business goals.
• Evaluate manufacturing capacity and identify opportunities to support current production and future transfers.
• Balance and optimise equipment utilisation across work centres.
• Improve process consistency, capability, and overall equipment performance.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement solutions to improve throughput and flow.
• Validate equipment performance following maintenance activities.
• Lead projects focused on scrap reduction, cost savings, cycle time reduction, and productivity improvements.
• Design and implement process controls that ensure products meet customer and quality requirements.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives related to safety, ergonomics, risk reduction, and operational excellence.
• Manage process changes and ensure compliance with Quality Management System requirements.
• Develop and implement corrective and preventive actions to improve KPI performance.
• Support new product introductions, APQP, PPAP, process validation, and standardisation activities.
• Facilitate PFMEAs, Control Plans, and structured problem-solving activities.
• Prepare and justify Capital Expenditure requests when equipment or process investments are needed.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to improve safety, quality, delivery, and cost performance.

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Qualifications

About You

We're looking for someone who combines strong manufacturing engineering expertise with proven leadership experience.You'll likely bring:

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Materials, Mechanical-Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• At least 7 years of experience in a manufacturing environment.
• Previous leadership experience managing a team of engineers, ideally seven or more.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification with a track record of delivering measurable improvements.
• Strong knowledge of Lean Manufacturing tools such as SMED, VSM, TPM, 6S, and JIT.
• Experience using Minitab and statistical analysis tools, including process capability studies, hypothesis testing, and DOE.
• Hands-on experience with structured problem-solving methods such as 8D, A3, PDCA, Pareto, and Ishikawa.
• Knowledge of quality systems such as ISO 9001 and/or AS9100.
• Strong communication, planning, and stakeholder management skills.
• Professional English communication skills, both written and spoken.
• A practical, continuous-improvement mindset focused on fixing root causes, not just ticking boxes.

Nice to Have

• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification.
• Experience with injection moulding processes.
• Experience within ceramic manufacturing environments.
• Aerospace manufacturing experience.

What You'll Get

• Opportunity to lead a skilled engineering team in a highly technical manufacturing environment.
• Direct involvement in strategic projects that improve safety, quality, productivity, and capacity.
• Exposure to aerospace manufacturing and advanced production technologies.
• A culture that values continuous improvement, practical problem-solving, and teamwork.
• Competitive salary and benefits package in line with experience and qualifications.

Interested to Learn More?

If this sounds like your next challenge, we'd love to hear from you.

Morgan Advanced Materials is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. Ind-1