Head of Operations - Optical Manufacturing - Morecambe

Head of Operations – Optical Manufacturing
Morecambe, Lancashire
Full Time | Salary starting at £65,000 DOE
Employee Owned Optical Manufacturer

Zest Optical are working in partnership with an established, employee owned optical manufacturer to recruit a Head of Operations for their lens manufacturing facility based in Morecambe.

This is a senior leadership position, reporting directly to the Managing Director and forming part of the wider leadership team. The role carries full responsibility for the performance, scalability, and day to day effectiveness of the manufacturing operation at a key stage of growth.

The Head of Operations will lead a multi layered team across lens manufacturing and support functions, with a strong focus on operational excellence, people leadership, and building a future ready operation that can scale sustainably.

The Role

• The Head of Operations will take ownership of all operational activity across the site, ensuring production runs safely, efficiently, and in line with customer demand, quality standards, and long term business objectives.
• Overall leadership of lens manufacturing operations including Order Entry, Surfacing, Coating, Tinting, Glazing, Quality, and Final Dispatch
• End to end ownership of material flow, covering inbound supply, work in progress, and outbound logistics
• Direct leadership of an experienced management and team leader structure, with responsibility for a wider operational workforce of circa 50 people
• Accountability for daily delivery performance alongside longer term capacity planning, cost control, and operational scalability
• Ownership of the operations budget, ensuring financial control while supporting productivity and investment decisions
• Working closely with Quality, HR, SHE, Commercial, and Finance teams to ensure a joined up and people focused operation
• Driving operational projects linked to process optimisation, layout changes, equipment investment, systems improvement, and future growth
• Leading continuous improvement initiatives using structured methodologies such as Lean, with a strong emphasis on sustainable, people led change
• Senior accountability for quality, safety, compliance, and audit readiness including ISO standards
• Oversight of facilities, maintenance strategy, and asset care to support uptime, safety, and product quality
• Championing the values and behaviours of an employee owned business, fostering ownership, collaboration, and pride across the operation

Candidate Profile

• This role would suit a senior operations leader with experience running complex, quality critical manufacturing environments and leading change at scale.
• Proven experience operating at senior leadership or director level within manufacturing or operations
• Background in optics is highly relevant, though experience from other regulated or precision manufacturing sectors such as medical devices, advanced engineering, or pharmaceuticals will also be considered
• Strong people leadership capability, including managing managers and leading sizeable operational teams
• Experience owning operational budgets, capacity planning, and delivery performance
• A quality focused mindset, with exposure to ISO standards and regulated operating environments
• Experience leading operational change, continuous improvement programmes, and cross functional projects
• Commercial awareness and the ability to balance operational performance with cost, productivity, and customer outcomes

Package and Benefits

• Salary starting at £65,000 depending on experience
• Bonus linked to business and operational performance
• Private healthcare following successful completion of probation
• 4% pension contribution
• Employee Benefits Scheme
• Learning and development investment, with support for further training and development opportunities
• Becomes an Employee Owner after 6 months of service
• Free on site parking
• Free tea and coffee
• Free fruit

If you are an experienced operations leader looking for a senior role with real responsibility, influence, and long term opportunity within an employee owned manufacturing business, we would be keen to hear from you.

Send us a message on Whatsapp!

Contact: Rebecca Wood
Email: rebecca.wood@zestoptical.com
Telephone: 0114 238 1726