Manufacturing Team Lead

Sportable is a leading sports technology company on a mission to solve the hardest problems in elite sports using cutting edge technology. From bare metal to cloud Sportable is a multidisciplinary mecca for sports and technology enthusiasts. If you're a data scientist, computer scientist, physicist, sports scientist, engineer, business graduate, graphic designer, mechanical designer, creative or just passionate about the intersection of elite sports and bleeding edge technology then Sportable is your place.

The demand for Sportable’s services has vastly exceeded expectations and that is why we’re hiring! Hardware production volumes are rapidly increasing and so we are looking for a passionate and diligent individual who can support our UK-based manufacturing partners and our R&D team through this learning curve.

Sportable is currently in an exciting growth stage, moving away from a purely R&D and proof-of-concept business towards a scaled business geared for growth. This new stage in the business’s lifecycle brings new opportunities, as well as challenges in all aspects of the organization.

About the Role

We are now looking for a talented and experienced engineer to help Sportable scale it’s hardware manufacturing business unit in a sustainable and cost effective way, enabling us to:

• increase our production capacity;
• implement rigorous quality control procedures; and,
• run the industrialization projects for our new product (new product introduction).

You will work closely with the Head of Hardware and the design engineers (R&D) to ensure that any new product is designed for demand-driven production, and can be manufactured efficiently and at a reasonable cost. You will also be involved in designing and improving production processes, selecting and specifying equipment and tools, compliance, and developing work instructions and quality control procedures, with a constant focus on costs, and time to market. You will also support the supply chain manager with the development and implementation of production schedules, managing inventory levels, and optimizing logistics and supply chain management.

This is a great opportunity for you to become a central part of a talented multi-disciplinary engineering team (encompassing Electronics, RF, SW development all the way from embedded to web frontend, Mechanical or Data Science engineers) and a chance to step into a highly motivating environment where one can make a direct impact to our world class customer by solving complex technical problems.

Salary Range

£50,000 to £80,000 annual salary depending on relevant experience.

Place of Work

Our office is located at the StoneX Stadium in Hendon, North-West London. The role will require you to be at the office approximately 3 days a week on average. You will also need to travel to manufacturing partners regularly.

Responsibilities

• Lead complete Manufacturing projects, being in charge of all aspects of the manufacturing engineering and operations leading to Sportable’s custom hardware externalized production:
• New product introduction
• Quality assurance procedures
• Supply chain
• Assembly
• Production test
• Forecasting
• Responsible for communication across all relevant internal business functions (R&D, Client Delivery, Commercial, Finance, etc.) to make sure the Manufacturing projects objectives and deliverables are aligned with the business needs and strategy, identifying risks and opportunities where applicable.
• Represent the company in all high-stake communications with manufacturing partners ; setting up and fostering relationships, getting involved in resolving situations, as well as ensuring they also have enough information to respond to Sportable’s needs in time.Lead the internal team of engineers and coordinators responsible for the day to day Manufacturing activities. This includes line management duties, as well as being responsible for custom process and tools implementation and follow-up.

Technical Skills/Past Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in relevant industries and positions.
• Strong technical background and pedigree - ideally in Industrial-, Manufacturing-, Electronics- or Mechanical engineering.
• Track record interfacing with R&D teams and leading Design for Manufacturing (DfM) and Testing (DfT)
• Experience with implementation of quality assurance procedures
• Experience with new product industrialization
• Experience setting up complete new complex manufacturing solutions - either because of new technical requirements or cost optimization exercise.
• Experience with products embedding RF would be an advantage.
• “Hands-on” individual with ability to engage simultaneously across a wide range of topics and details (from Country of Origin determination, to adhesive curing time relationship with batch size, to panel-level PCB fixture caveats or purchase order approval process tweaks) - to make sure they can weigh in on the teams, member decision, using their experience and higher-level company context to inform best choices.
• Clear thinker who can lay out complex problems clearly to help collegial decision making.
• Experience in a smaller company or start-up environment where the portfolio of responsibilities tends to be broader.

Personal qualities

• Excellent time management
• Hands-on attitude / Technically curious
• Excellent communication skills
• Hunger to learn and for continuous improvement
• Long-term thinking
• Good at complex problem solving
• Quality orientated
• Ability to operate independent quickly
• Team leadership

Reporting to

• Head of Hardware

Directly interacting with

• Hardware project managers (R&D)
• Head of HW R&D
• Supply chain manager
• Suppliers: EMS, Distributors, BB Assembly house, 3PL, Fabricators

Perks:

• Cycle to work scheme
• Generous annual leave - 25 days holiday excluding. bank holidays
• Pension Salary Sacrifice
• Flexible working environment - remote working days
• Cake on your Birthday
• Perkbox after completing your probation
• Team Socials
• Free fruits and Snacks in the office
• Tax-Free Nursery Benefit after completing your probation

Diversity Statement

Sportable is a committed equal opportunities employer, and we welcome applications from disabled candidates, and those form minority ethnic backgrounds.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: £50,000.00-£80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Free parking
• On-site parking

Schedule:

• Flexitime
• Monday to Friday

Ability to commute/relocate:

• London: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)

Experience:

• relevant industries: 10 years (required)

Work authorisation:

• United Kingdom (required)

Work Location: In person