Forward Deployed Operator - Production Engineering

About the role

Onodrim is building Europe's largest defence and industrial platform. We acquire specialist manufacturers in critical defence and dual-use supply chains, then invest behind their growth with capital, technology and operating know-how.

Forward Deployed Operators are Onodrim's people on the ground. You'll embed inside our platform’s production environments – plants, lines, warehouses and the offices that run them – to drive top-line growth.

This is not a slide-deck job. You'll diagnose why a line underperforms, design the fix with the people who run it, and stay until it sticks. One morning you'll be walking a line with a shift supervisor at 6am; that afternoon you'll be presenting the results to a plant director. Throughout you’ll be collaborating with our FDEs to unlock further growth.

The role spans the whole operation, not just the line. You'll spend as much time in the back office – planning, scheduling, procurement, finance – assessing the software and data that run the plant, because that's often where the biggest losses hide.

What you'll do

• Diagnose on the floor. Run rapid assessments of production operations – time studies, OEE and loss analysis, bottleneck and flow mapping – to find where value is being lost.
• Deploy and implement. Lead the rollout of Onodrim's solutions in live production environments, adapting them to each site's equipment, processes and constraints.
• Work shoulder to shoulder with operators. Earn the trust of line workers, shift leads and maintenance technicians; build changes with them, not over them.
• Coach and build capability. Train frontline teams and supervisors on new routines, daily performance management and problem-solving methods so improvements last when you step away.
• Translate between the floor and the boardroom. Turn what you see on the line into clear, numbers-backed recommendations for plant managers and executives.
• Own outcomes. Set targets with the client, track impact weekly, and stay accountable for hitting them – throughput, yield, cost, safety.
• Feed the product. Bring field insight back to Onodrim's product and engineering teams to shape what we build next.
• Assess the back office. Map how planning, scheduling, procurement, quality and finance actually work – the handoffs, approvals and workarounds – and find where they slow production or integration down.
• Evaluate the software stack. Audit a client's ERP, MES, planning and reporting tools: what's used, what's bypassed for spreadsheets, where data breaks between systems, and where Onodrim fits.
• Analyse the data. Pull, clean and model production, cost and transactional data to size opportunities, build baselines and prove impact.

Requirements

What you'll bring

• A degree in a technical discipline – engineering strongly preferred (mechanical, industrial, chemical, electrical, manufacturing or similar); applied physics or computer science also considered.
• At least 2–4 years' experience in operations improvement, manufacturing, or implementation-focused consulting – or an exceptional track record from a graduate programme, the military, or a production role.
• A structured, hands-on problem solver: comfortable with data and root-cause analysis, equally comfortable in safety boots on a noisy line.
• Credibility across the whole organisation – you can build rapport with a machine operator on night shift and hold your own with a plant director.
• Clear, direct communication in English, written and spoken.
• Willingness to travel extensively and spend extended periods on client sites across Europe.
• Right to work in the UK, Switzerland or the EU.
• Strong data analysis skills: advanced Excel as a minimum, and comfort working with large, messy datasets from operational systems.
• Ability to assess business software and processes – understand how a system is configured, how people really use it, and where it falls short.

Nice to have

• We operate our business in English but fluency in one or more additional European languages is hugely helpful – German or Italian especially valuable.
• Experience at an implementation-led operations consultancy, or in a lean/continuous-improvement role inside a manufacturer.
• Lean, Six Sigma or TPM certification, equivalent practical experience or strong opinions about any of them.
• Exposure to production software and data tooling: MES, ERP, SCADA, SQL, Python or BI tools.
• Some familiarity with financial accounting basics, such as reading a P&L or understanding product costs, so you can connect operational changes to the numbers. No formal finance background needed.
• Clearance in at least one of our operating countries.