The Opportunity

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.

The Business

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.

The Role

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:

• This is a 60 headcount business, you will lead 30 headcount across manufacturing and logistics
• You will have 3x direct reports - Production, Warehouse and Procurement
• Building and implementing a clear operational strategy and framework
• Driving productivity, automation and AI adoption across production and back-office processes
• Managing global procurement and resourcing alongside local supply chain and warehouse operations
• Driving equipment and systems upgrades, including improvements to ERP usage
• Reviewing and improving workforce planning, including casual labour usage and overtime allocation
• Building genuine, visible relationships with the team on the floor while leading them in a new direction

About You

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.

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