Job Description

Location: Templecombe, United Kingdom
Thales people provide armed forces customers with operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defence mission systems solutions at land, sea, and air. Our platforms extend across the battlespace including Above and Sonar, Electronic Combat, and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance systems.
Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that's why we offer you the flexibility to do what's important to you; whether that's part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.
Senior Manufacturing Engineer - R0266861
Location - Templecombe
4 Day Week (Monday-Thursday)
An immediate and exciting vacancy for an experienced Manufacturing Engineer to join an established team at our facility in Templecombe. Working in a Design for Manufacture environment you will provide product lifecycle support from design to manufacture. The nature of manufacturing consists of mechanical and electronic build/assembly.
This is a full time role offered over 4 days (Mon - Thurs), with some flexibility on start times.
Our Opportunity
To contribute to the definition, implementation, and maintenance of the Industrial Strategy for existing products (work cell embedded) and new products (transverse activity extending between upstream/downstream) through day-to-day technical support to the onsite industrial footprint. He/she also plays a key role within the wider Industrial footprint for key products, driving the right behaviours in Design for Manufacture within Engineering and Projects. He/she supports Procurement as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Industry to ensure that our supply chain deliveries robust products.
The following details the expected criteria for the successful conductance of the above stated role:

• Preparing all data for and running Production Readiness Reviews (PRRs) on behalf of industry.
• Identify opportunities for manufacturing equipment capital purchases with financial assessment (Cost-Benefit Analysis & ROI's) completed in order to drive business competitiveness.
• Assessing the Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of products by reviewing the product maturity with project teams to identify and minimise risks manufacturing risks.
• Is accountable for the definition, setup, preparation and optimisation of manufacturing processes and tooling for a defined area, or product line, i.e. defining and agreeing layout and infrastructure for a product line, or manufacturing area.
• Contributes to compliance of the production process with all Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) applicable regulations.
• Defines and optimises manufacturing documentation, tools, workflows for manufacturing and inspection based on the information supplied by upstream R&D engineering departments and guarantees the production data (ERP).
• Contributes to the technological innovation to reduce costs and workflows, whilst guaranteeing the feasibility and reproducibility of the process.
• Attending Material Review Boards (MRBs) and Configuration Control Boards (CCBs) on behalf of manufacturing. Actively managing failures and changes.
• Defining, managing, and setting up the entire manufacturing process from a high level set of design requirements
• Ensuring that product manufacturability is considered throughout the design lifecycle and that opportunities to reduce product and project cost are identified, reported, and realised wherever possible
• Leading product DFM/A (design for manufacture/assembly) reviews
• Leading product and process FMEA (failure modes effects analysis) reviews
• Actively managing and driving design change to improve manufacturability
• Mentoring junior members of the team and other engineering disciplines in DFM/A and lean manufacturing techniques to drive progress and instil industry best practice
• Liaising with designers, researchers, engineering and industry consultants to ensure that latest industry and equipment advances are identified to provide new and innovative solutions for current and future products
• Defining and implementing manufacturing and process controls in a production environment to ensure that high level design requirements are achieved
• Driving the assembly and proving of initial development and pre-production units to ensure that design and manufacturing lessons learnt are gathered and built into the final product solution
• Designing the layout of the manufacturing facility including the identification of new capital equipment and tooling requirements
• Defining and setting up new manufacturing lines using lean principles such as 5S, Kanban, SMED, 6 sigma, VSM (value stream mapping)

About You
You will either have proven experience as a Manufacturing Engineer, ideally from a time-served background and with a Mechanical or Electronic assembly background.
Attributes include:

• Significant Engineering experience within a low to medium volume, light mechanical / electro-mechanical production environment.
• Awareness and use of continuous improvement techniques and implementation of lean manufacturing
• Experience of manufacturing systems, including routings, BOM`s, Concessions, Change Requests etc.
• Broad process knowledge including machining, assembly (both mechanical and electronic) and test
• The holder of the role is also expected to have the ability to communicate clearly and freely as well as to have the ability to produce high standard documentation for project and external use.
• Must be able to manage your own time with respect to customer needs and demands

Thales Benefits

• 4 day working week
• Annual performance bonus 8-10%=
• 28 days annual leave (Plus Bank Holidays)
• Pension contributions up to 7%
• Healthcare Cash Plan
• Life insurance
• Stock options (SharingThales) every 2 years
• Enhanced maternity and parental leave.
• Generous training budget and allowance to attend conferences/workshops.
• Gym and well-being memberships, Cycle to Work
• Discounts on major retail outlets
• 24/7 Employee Assistance Program and access to mental wellbeing app

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.
At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.
Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact for mid to senior roles, or the for graduate and apprentice roles.
Great journeys start here, apply now!

Skills Required