APRU Team Leader - Weekend

Thales is a global technology leader with more than 83,000 employees on five continents. With over 7,500 people in the UK, operating across defence, space, aerospace, and digital security, we help build a future we can all trust. Thales supports the security and stability of our nation by providing extraordinary technology to our customers, as well as delivering social value to the UK with our products and services.

Team Leader - Production & Repair – Weekend shift - Fri, Sat, Sun

Lead, Support, and Inspire a High-Performing Team

We're looking for a collaborative and proactive Team Leader to help guide our Production and Repair team. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who enjoys combining hands-on technical expertise with people-focused leadership, helping others succeed while ensuring the delivery of high-quality products and services.

In this role, you will work closely with the Activity Manager to coordinate daily priorities, support team performance, and foster a positive, inclusive, and continuous improvement culture. While this is not a line management position, you will play a key role in coaching, supporting, and influencing colleagues across the cell.

The position combines approximately 80% hands-on production and repair work with 20% team leadership and coordination responsibilities.

What You'll Be Doing

As a Team Leader, you'll be at the heart of our operation, helping the team achieve its goals while maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety, and customer satisfaction.

Key Responsibilities

• Champion a strong culture of Health, Safety and Environmental (HS&E) awareness and ensure appropriate PPE is available and used.

• Partner with the Activity Manager to coordinate workloads, support delivery plans, and maintain smooth workflow between assembly, test, inspection, and repair activities.

• Help the team overcome challenges, identify solutions, and escalate issues when required.

• Ensure processes, work instructions, routing, tooling, and material flow practices are consistently followed.

• Lead daily SIM meetings and contribute to performance reviews and improvement initiatives.

• Support the collection and analysis of operational performance metrics to drive continuous improvement.

• Promote compliance with quality and governance processes, including route cards, timesheets, and non-conformance reporting.

• Act as a key point of contact for process-related questions, providing guidance and support to colleagues.

• Maintain excellent workplace organisation through 5S principles.

• Encourage new ideas and empower team members to suggest and implement improvements.

• Take ownership of project and product deliveries, monitoring progress against planned routing times.

• Help maintain effective material flow and address any issues impacting productivity.

• Build strong relationships across manufacturing, engineering, planning, quality, and support teams.

• Contribute to estimating activities for new builds and repairs.

• Support the identification of training and development opportunities for team members.

• Assist with load and capacity planning to ensure resources are aligned with business needs.

• Execute TPM activities and ensure equipment and tooling remain available and calibrated.

• Foster a supportive, respectful, and high-performing team environment where everyone can thrive.

• Prior experience of working is TI Cameras is essential

About You

We're interested in people who bring both technical capability and a collaborative approach to leadership. If you enjoy supporting others, solving problems, and driving improvement, we'd love to hear from you.

Skills & Attributes

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships at all levels.

• Comfortable using Microsoft Office and other business systems.

• Strong attention to detail and commitment to quality.

• A positive and adaptable mindset with openness to change.

• A natural problem solver who takes initiative and seeks opportunities for improvement.

• Ability to work independently while supporting and motivating others.

• Experience leading by example in a fast-paced manufacturing environment.

• At least 3 years' experience within a manufacturing setting.

Knowledge & Experience

• Strong understanding of MRP and PDM system principles.

• Broad knowledge of manufacturing methods, processes, and best practices.

• Experience supporting operational performance, process improvement, or team coordination activities would be beneficial.

Qualifications

• Good standard of numeracy and literacy.

• Relevant professional qualifications are desirable; however, equivalent practical experience is equally valued.

• Minimum of 3 years' relevant industry experience.

We Encourage You to Apply

If you're excited about this opportunity and believe you have the skills and experience to make a positive impact, we'd love to hear from you.

Join us and help create an environment where quality, collaboration, and people can flourish. 🌟

At Thales, we ensure equal opportunities, pay and working conditions for all. The benefits we offer include private medical insurance, buying or selling annual leave, cycle to work schemes, employee discounts, paid volunteering day, stocks and shares, annual bonus and much more depending on the role. Read more about our benefits here.

We are committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued for who they are and the unique strengths they bring. Discover more about our programmes, employee networks, wellbeing policies, and inclusive features here.

If this role isn’t quite right for you, we encourage you to join our talent community where your details will be shared with our recruitment teams for other potential opportunities. Join the Talent Community here.

Join Thales in the UK – Innovate with us and shape the future!