Navantia UK is a new force in British industry, supporting the UK’s defence, security and energy transition ambitions. We’re doing this by creating state-of-the-art sovereign defence capabilities, investing in the UK to modernise industrial facilities, and bolstering the nation's energy security. Established in 2022, Navantia UK is a subsidiary of Navantia SA, a Spanish state-owned company with over 300 years of naval shipbuilding history. In January 2025, Navantia UK completed the acquisition of Harland & Wolff and its four historic facilities in Belfast, Appledore, Methil, and Arnish. By combining Harland & Wolff’s proud heritage and facilities with Navantia’s global expertise, Navantia UK is well-positioned to strengthen Britain’s defence, maritime and energy industrial capabilities, supporting jobs and economic growth across the UK.
Job Description
The Production Optimisation Engineer supports the successful execution of operational improvement and transformation initiatives across multiple sites. The role focuses on monitoring project progress, facilitating change adoption, and ensuring alignment between local operations and strategic transformation goals. This position plays a key role in documentation, communication, and stakeholder engagement to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
The Role
* Monitor and follow up on operational improvement initiatives across different sites, ensuring timely progress and issue resolution.
* Assist in documenting and tracking milestones, deliverables, and deviations in transformation projects.
* Collaborate closely with local teams to encourage adoption of new processes, tools, and best practices.
* Help identify cultural and behavioural barriers to change and support mitigation and engagement strategies.
* Provide analytical support in preparing business cases related to process improvement initiatives.
* Contribute to internal communication activities that promote awareness and participation in transformation programs.
* Participate in workshops, training sessions, and feedback forums to support improvement and change initiatives.
* Document and share best practices, lessons learned, and improvement case studies.
* Maintain accurate and up-to-date records of all improvement and transformation activities.
* Prepare clear, structured presentations and progress reports for internal stakeholders and management.
Qualifications
* Bachelor’s degree in Technical Engineering, Industrial Management, Business Administration, or a related field (desirable)
* Demonstrated experience working in industrial environments, project support roles, or organisational transformation settings.
* Solid understanding of continuous improvement and change management methodologies (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, or similar).
* Ability to collect and organise information in a structured way.
* Ability to work collaboratively across departments and levels.
* Familiarity with tools for project tracking and reporting (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint).
Additional Information
Why Join Us?
* The chance to work on complex, cutting-edge naval projects
* Competitive salary
* Company pension
* Learning & development opportunities to keep building your career.
* A collaborative and supportive working environment.
Equal Opportunity: We are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. To ensure equal opportunities for all candidates, we commit to a fair and unbiased recruitment process at every stage. This includes ensuring hiring managers are aware of legislation, providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities, and actively seeking to eliminate any form of discrimination based on race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic. Our goal is to create a recruitment environment where every candidate feels valued and has an equal chance to succeed.
If you experience difficulties or are unable to apply for a role on-line please contact us at people.skills@harland-wolff.com and one of the team will be in contact to help you.