Operations Manager
Lead the Operation. Develop the People. Shape What Comes Next.
EPC is a specialist coatings business based in Cardiff and part of the STS Group, a growing global organisation. Across the Group, we bring together expertise in engineered coatings, thermal spray equipment and consumables, medical coatings and technical support. We work with customers across industries including aerospace, energy and medical to develop solutions that improve the performance and lifespan of critical components.
It's an exciting time to join us. As we continue to grow, we're bringing our coatings operations together and looking for an Operations Manager to lead the next stage of their development.
This is a broad operational leadership role with people and technical capability at its heart. We're looking for someone who believes great performance comes from creating clarity, developing people and building teams that take ownership and continuously improve.
What's the Opportunity?
You'll lead across Engineering, Production and Maintenance, working through your team to create a safe, high-performing and continually improving operation.
A key part of the role will be helping Engineering and Production to work effectively together, while developing the technical capability needed for future growth.
You'll have responsibility for delivering against safety, quality, delivery and cost, but we don't want someone who simply steps in and solves every problem themselves. We want you to build capability in others. You'll coach and develop your team, create clear expectations and accountability, and give people the confidence and space to contribute ideas, solve problems and make things better.
This role will see you playing an important role in bringing our teams and operations together as EPC continues to grow and evolve.
What Will I Be Doing?
You'll be responsible for the overall performance of our Cardiff operation, working with your team to:
- Create clear priorities across Engineering, Production and Maintenance and translate them into action
- Enable Engineering and Production to work effectively together to support customer delivery, technical problem solving and continuous improvement.
- Coach, develop and support managers and teams to perform at their best
- Deliver strong performance across safety, quality, delivery and cost
- Use data to understand performance, solve problems and drive continuous improvement
- Make sound operational decisions by balancing customer requirements, capacity and resources
- Create space for engineering and technical development alongside today's operational requirements
- Build strong relationships across EPC and the wider STS Group
- Create an environment where people feel able to contribute, challenge and take ownership
- Maintain strong operational control within our highly regulated environment
As part of the wider STS Group, you'll work with colleagues across our businesses, sharing knowledge, solving problems and helping us develop how we operate as we continue to grow.
What Are You Looking For?
First and foremost, we're looking for a people-focused operational leader who is equally comfortable working with engineering and production teams. Someone who enjoys developing others, builds trust and understands that their role isn't to have all the answers but to create the conditions for their team to succeed.
You'll ideally bring:
- Experience leading operational teams within a manufacturing or engineering environment
- Experience working across both engineering and production, with an understanding of the different contribution each makes to operational performance
- A strong track record of coaching and developing managers, technical specialists and operational teams
- A good understanding of how Engineering supports manufacturing performance through technical problem solving, process improvement and technical development
- The ability to create clarity, set expectations and hold people appropriately accountable
- Experience using operational data and KPIs to improve performance
- The ability to balance immediate customer and production requirements with longer-term improvement and technical priorities
- Strong communication and relationship-building skills
- A collaborative approach and the ability to work effectively across a wider Group or matrix structure
- A genuine passion for continuous improvement
Experience in a highly regulated environment such as aerospace, medical devices or defence would be a real advantage, as would knowledge of thermal spray or surface engineering.
You don't need to tick every box. We're interested in the experience you bring, but equally in how you lead, how you develop people and what you can help us build next. If you're an operational leader who gets as much satisfaction from seeing your people develop as you do from seeing the numbers improve, we'd love to hear from you.
Pay: £65,000.00-£75,000.00 per year
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Rumney CF3 2EW: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
