Job Description

The Opportunity

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This is a rare chance to take full operational ownership of an established, well-resourced manufacturing site and genuinely take the team in a new direction. Reporting directly to the Managing Director and sitting on the leadership team, you'll be the driving force behind a clear operational strategy - leading innovation across productivity, automation and AI, and modernising a site that has run largely the same way for decades.

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The Business

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Our client is a long-standing manufacturer with a 60+ year history in Australia, now part of a major global manufacturing group. Operating from a single Western Sydney site for 40 years, the business produces a broad range of printed products for major national retail and corporate customers, with a growing focus on direct-to-consumer. The business is well established, financially stable, and entering a genuine period of transformation - new investment and a clear appetite for change.

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The Role

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You'll take full accountability for operations across Production, Warehouse & Logistics, and Procurement (including global/offshore resourcing), leading three direct reports with deep tenure and site knowledge. Key focus areas include:

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- This is a 60 headcount business, you will lead 30 headcount across manufacturing and logistics
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- You will have 3x direct reports - Production,



Warehouse and Procurement
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- Building and implementing a clear operational strategy and framework
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- Driving productivity, automation and AI adoption across production and back-office processes
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- Managing global procurement and resourcing alongside local supply chain and warehouse operations
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- Driving equipment and systems upgrades, including improvements to ERP usage
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- Reviewing and improving workforce planning, including casual labour usage and overtime allocation
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- Building genuine, visible relationships with the team on the floor while leading them in a new direction
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About You

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You're a commercially minded leader who can relate to and communicate with the shop floor, while genuinely driving change and innovation - not simply maintaining what's already in place. You bring strong, well-rounded experience across production, warehouse and procurement, ideally with exposure to global or offshore resourcing. You're an innovator at heart - someone who sees opportunities for automation and AI and knows how to bring a team along on that journey, rather than someone who has spent decades doing things one way.

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Ideal candidate will have previous experience in a manufacturing setting, with exposure to warehouse and procurement functions as well.

📌 Operations Manager (Hatfield)
🏢 Sharp & Carter
📍 Hatfield