Technical and Quality Manager (polymers)

About The Role

At AO Recycling, we are committed to extracting as much value as possible from the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) that is thrown away by UK households every year. Like the rest of the AO Group, we are a very exciting and enthusiastic company to work for. The role will be located at our innovative plastics recycling plant in Telford, Shropshire, which uses state of the art technology and is able to create high quality recycled plastics for reuse in new products.

We are growing rapidly and so with that, opportunities to develop and try new approaches become aplenty. Quality is at the centre of what we do and is critical to us delivering our strategic objects and Super North Star. This is where you come in!

Working for the Plant Manager as part of the site operations management team, with a matrix structure including Engineering, SHEQ, HR, and Finance, you are fully accountable for delivering consistent quality of our products and helping us grow through NPI, product development and further certification.

The role has been expanded as we progress, at AO speed, towards our Super North Star.

We are part of a bigger group and with that backing comes stability and continued investment in our business and growth aspirations.
At the AO Plastics Recycling Plant, we are focused on creating industry leading product streams for our customers. We succeed through teamwork, facing adversity in a logical and pragmatic way and taking accountability for what we do.

Here's What You Can Expect To Be Doing

• Take ownership for projects to create new and improved products, working with customers and other stakeholders to deliver within specifications (colour, mechanical properties, external standards such as food grade/toy grade/EL standards).
• Lead root cause analysis, quickly determining non-conformance, managing customer complaints and implementing corrective and preventative actions, whilst understanding the commercial and operational implications.
• Monitor and report failure analysis trends, erosion of quality or product performance and liaise with relevant teams to determine corrective actions.
• Leading process improvements utilising Statistical Process Control and Lean techniques to improve production efficiency, reduce output inconsistencies and waste/reprocessing.
• First line manager for a team of 3 laboratory technicians running a fully equipped operational laboratory testing 24 hours a day, 5 days per week.
• Ensuring all products meet technical specifications driven by internal targets or customer specifications, including mechanical properties and colour.
• Training and developing your teams, upskilling where required, ensuring all holidays and absences are managed to ensure your department always delivers against KPI’S and fostering a sense of collective responsibility.
• Providing technical and laboratory support for the wider AO Recycling business, including testing other (non-plastic) outputs using key laboratory equipment to ensure regulatory compliance and accurate classification.
• Develop and maintain written/technical instructions and procedures, ensuring consistent departmental outputs, with these meeting business and external audit requirements.
• Attending daily operational review meetings, providing updates on quality performance, live defects, and ongoing improvement work.

Additional Responsibilities
• Provide holiday and sickness cover for the Plant Manager, being confident and able to guide the supervisor community to deliver daily operational tasks.

A Few Things About You

• Minimum 3 years’ experience in a senior quality or technical role, with people management responsibilities. Plastics experience preferred.
• Laboratory experience (working and managing).
• Deep technical understanding of polymer science, moulding and product development desirable.
• Knowledge and experience of ISO and relevant regulatory standards desirable.
• Degree in Polymer Sciences or a related technical field.
• Experience in using SPC and Lean Six Sigma required.
• Flexible and responsive approach with pragmatic and logical thinking required for the role.
• Be able to prioritise what is critical and manage daily tasks, whilst solving complex problems and delivering R&D.