🏭 Shift Manager
📍 Location: Bathford (near Bath)
💰 Salary: Competitive + Excellent Benefits
🕒 Hours: Full-time (Shift-based, including out-of-hours leadership responsibilities)
📄 Job Type: Permanent
🔐 Security Clearance: SC Clearance required
Lead operations at a site with over 300 years of manufacturing excellence
Portals is a global leader in the production of high-security paper, supplying trusted products to governments and institutions around the world. Based at our historic Bathford Paper Mill, we combine centuries of tradition with modern innovation — and we’re looking for a Shift Manager who can lead our manufacturing teams into the future.
As the Duty Shift Manager, you’ll be the most senior representative on site outside of office hours, overseeing safety, performance, quality, and incident response across all areas of production. You’ll be central to delivering daily results while driving continuous improvement, coaching high-performing teams, and maintaining our core values and operational standards.
🔧 What You'll Be Doing
1. Leading a High-Performing Team (HPT) on shift to meet production and performance targets
2. Acting as the first point of escalation for any operational, quality, HSE, or HR issues during your shift
3. Ensuring adherence to Health, Safety, Environment, Quality and Security standards
4. Leading emergency response as the Incident Commander when necessary (e.g. fire, flood, etc.)
5. Championing and applying Lean Manufacturing tools (Kaizen, PDCA, root cause analysis, etc.)
6. Supporting daily operations processes including WIP, over-makes, job planning, and production reviews
7. Participating in and leading key shift meetings (3C’s, Shift Safety, Operations reviews)
8. Acting as a customer advocate, ensuring quality standards are upheld and issues are escalated/resolved
9. Coaching, mentoring and developing your direct reports (6 per shift) through performance reviews and SMART objectives
10. Supporting safe systems of work: FMEAs, Risk Assessments, Control Plans, and SSOW
11. Collaborating with cross-functional departments (Planning, Quality, Engineering, etc.)
12. Driving OTIF (On-Time In-Full) production performance and accurate order cut-offs
✅ What We're Looking For
Essential:
13. Proven experience in a production or operations leadership role within a manufacturing environment
14. Previous experience in working 12-hour shifts
15. Strong knowledge of safety, quality, output and housekeeping procedures
16. Practical experience with Lean Manufacturing techniques
17. Clear understanding of HR processes including performance management
18. Excellent communication, coaching, and problem-solving skills
19. Confidence to lead during out-of-hours as the senior person on site
20. Computer literacy with experience in reporting, data tracking and shift management tools
21. Logical, results-driven, and able to positively influence team performance
Desirable (training can be provided):
22. NEBOSH qualification
23. First Aid at Work certificate
24. Boiler Operation Certificate
25. Experience working with secure or high-compliance environments
26. Familiarity with structured continuous improvement methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, etc.)
🎁 What You’ll Get in Return
27. Competitive salary
28. Pension scheme with up to 9% employer contribution
29. Life assurance (4x salary)
30. Private medical insurance
31. Access to a 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
32. Digital GP access through Aviva
33. Cycle to Work scheme
34. Free/on-site parking
35. Long service awards and recognition platform
36. EE phone discounts and Costco membership
37. Sick pay scheme and “Give as You Earn” charity donation scheme
38. Full training and development support
🚀 Why Join Portals?
At Portals, we deliver exceptional performance by combining innovation with heritage. Our people are at the heart of everything we do, and we invest in their development to drive the future of our business. If you’re a motivated and capable Shift Leader who thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys empowering teams to succeed — we want to hear from you.
📩 Apply Now
Ready to take the next step in your leadership career? Apply to be considered for this exciting opportunity.
If you have questions or would like to speak to our recruitment team, please get in touch.