Composite Production Manager

Electus Recruitment Solutions

Composite Production Manager – UAV Airframes London / UK & European Supplier Network | Advanced Composites | Aerospace & Defence

We are recruiting a Composite Production Manager for a rapidly growing autonomous systems business manufacturing advanced UAV platforms for international defence customers.

This is a specialist composites manufacturing position with responsibility for the end-to-end production and delivery of composite airframes across a network of UK and European manufacturing partners.

We are specifically looking for someone with significant practical experience of composite component and structural manufacture.

This is not a general Production Manager position. Candidates need a strong technical understanding of advanced composites manufacturing processes.

The role You will take ownership of the production of composite airframes from tooling and raw material availability through component manufacture, finishing, bonding and final structural assembly.

You'll work closely with engineering, supply chain and quality while managing specialist external composite manufacturers.

Key responsibilities will include:

  • Managing end-to-end production of composite UAV airframes

  • Coordinating multiple composite components and structural assemblies against aircraft build requirements

  • Managing specialist composite subcontractors across the UK and Europe

  • Ensuring mould tools, jigs and fixtures are production-ready

  • Coordinating raw material availability against manufacturing schedules

  • Monitoring composite lay-up and laminate manufacture

  • Managing cure and post-cure processes

  • Overseeing trimming, drilling, machining and finishing operations

  • Coordinating bonded and mechanically fastened structural assemblies

  • Managing final airframe assembly and delivery

  • Reviewing manufacturing drawings, laminate specifications, BOMs and work instructions

  • Working with engineering teams to improve Design for Manufacture and Assembly

  • Managing manufacturing changes and their impact on tooling and production

  • Investigating manufacturing defects and non-conformances

  • Driving root-cause analysis and corrective action

  • Improving manufacturing yield, repeatability and cycle times

  • Monitoring supplier capacity, quality and delivery performance

  • Developing recovery plans where production falls behind schedule

  • Supporting industrialisation and production scale-up

Essential composites experience Candidates should have substantial experience within advanced composite manufacturing and a strong working knowledge of several of the following:

  • CFRP / carbon fibre composite manufacture

  • Prepreg materials

  • Composite lay-up

  • Ply orientation and laminate schedules

  • Vacuum bagging

  • Autoclave processing

  • Out-of-autoclave processing

  • Cure and post-cure cycles

  • Resin systems

  • Core materials

  • Honeycomb / sandwich structures

  • Composite mould tools

  • Tool preparation and release systems

  • Structural adhesives

  • Bonded composite assemblies

  • Trimming and machining composite components

  • Drilling and fastening composite structures

  • Jigs and fixtures

  • Dimensional inspection

  • Composite repair/rework

  • Final structural assembly

You should understand the manufacturing process behind a composite component, rather than simply having managed a business that happens to manufacture composites.

Production & quality experience You should also have strong manufacturing control experience, ideally covering:

  • Production planning and scheduling

  • Manufacturing Bills of Materials

  • Route cards / production travellers

  • Manufacturing instructions

  • Material traceability

  • Batch control

  • Prepreg shelf-life and freezer-life management

  • Cure-cycle records

  • Process control

  • First Article manufacture / inspection

  • Non-Conformance Reports

  • Concessions and deviations

  • Root Cause Analysis

  • Corrective and Preventive Action

  • Engineering change control

  • Configuration control

  • Quality documentation

  • Supplier quality and performance

  • Production readiness

  • Industrialisation / NPI

Supplier management A major part of this position involves managing external manufacturing partners.

You must therefore have experience working directly with composite suppliers or subcontract manufacturers, rather than solely managing an internal production team.

You'll need to be capable of visiting a supplier and technically assessing:

  • whether tooling is ready

  • whether materials are available

  • whether manufacturing processes are being followed

  • whether production capacity is sufficient

  • why components are being rejected

  • whether defects are process or design related

  • whether recovery plans are achievable

  • what is genuinely preventing delivery

You'll work closely with suppliers to solve those issues rather than simply monitor their KPIs.

Backgrounds of particular interest We are particularly interested in candidates from:

UAV / UAS | Aerospace | Formula 1 | Motorsport | Defence | Advanced Automotive | High-Performance Marine Composites

Potential backgrounds could include:

  • Composite Production Manager

  • Composite Manufacturing Manager

  • Senior Composite Manufacturing Engineer

  • Composite Engineering Manager

  • Manufacturing Engineering Manager

  • Composite Operations Manager

  • Composite Industrialisation Manager

  • Production Engineering Manager

Candidates from Formula 1 and motorsport are particularly relevant where they have managed carbon composite structures from tooling and laminate manufacture through to completed structural assemblies.

What we don't need This role is unlikely to suit a general manufacturing or operations manager without substantial composites experience.

Likewise, a purely design-focused composites engineer may not have the production ownership required.

We need someone who understands the practical realities of turning composite designs into repeatable, conforming physical structures against a production schedule.

The opportunity The company is moving from relatively low-volume manufacture towards considerably greater production.

You'll therefore have significant influence over:

tooling | materials | manufacturing processes | supplier capability | quality | production planning | industrialisation | scalability

If you have built your career around manufacturing high-quality composite structures and want responsibility for delivering complete UAV airframes, we'd like to hear from you.

This role is Permanent and Travel is required 3-4 days per week either London or the subcontractor facility.

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