Manufacturing Engineer – Paint (Series Production)

We are recruiting Paint Manufacturing Engineers for Series Production to join our Manufacturing Engineering department in Woking.

In this role, you will support the day-to-day performance, stability, and continuous improvement of Paint processes within a live production environment, while contributing to quality, cost, delivery, safety, and efficiency objectives.

You will work closely with Manufacturing, Quality, Production, Maintenance, Materials, and Operations teams to resolve process issues, improve first-time quality, maintain process capability, and support robust series production performance.

Responsibilities

• Provide manufacturing engineering support to Paint series production areas, ensuring processes remain stable, capable, safe, and efficient.
• Investigate and resolve production, quality, and process-related concerns, applying structured problem-solving methods to identify root cause and implement robust corrective actions.
• Monitor process performance, identify trends, and drive continuous improvement activities to improve first-time quality, throughput, rework levels, and operational efficiency.
• Support Paint Shop readiness for daily production requirements, including process availability, tooling, fixtures, jigs, consumables, and standard operating conditions.
• Maintain and improve paint application methods, process parameters, work instructions, and standardised ways of working.
• Lead or support PFMEA reviews, control plan updates, risk reduction activities, and process change management within the series production environment.
• Work with Production, Quality, and Maintenance teams to reduce downtime, improve repeatability, and ensure timely resolution of process issues.
• Support facility, layout, and capacity improvement activities to optimise flow, efficiency, and operational performance within Paint.
• Generate, analyse, and report Hours Per Car and other operational performance data to support efficiency tracking, cost reduction, and continuous improvement.
• Support part quality maturation, concern containment, escalation, and long-term corrective action to protect customer quality and production delivery.

Requirements

• You will ideally hold a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, or a related discipline, or bring equivalent experience gained in a similar manufacturing engineering role.
• Experience in one or more of the following areas would be advantageous:
• Manufacturing engineering support within a live series production environment.
• Paint application processes, process control, defect reduction, and quality improvement activities.
• Root cause analysis and structured problem-solving methods, such as 5 Why, Ishikawa, 8D, or similar approaches.
• PFMEA, control plans, process change control, standard operating procedures, and work instruction development.
• Specification, maintenance, and improvement of paint jigs, fixtures, tooling, and process equipment.
• Vehicle assembly processes, end-of-line vehicle processing, finishing, rework, or rectification environments.
• Continuous improvement, lean manufacturing, cost reduction, throughput improvement, and safe working practices within a manufacturing or production environment.

Benefits

• Structured career development framework
• 25 days’ holiday, plus bank holiday. Annual buy & sell up to five days
• Enhanced company pension scheme
• Discretionary annual bonus award
• Private medical insurance and health cash plan
• Life assurance benefit
• Ability to apply for a sabbatical of up to one year after only two years’ service
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• Generous parental leave policies
• A range of wellbeing initiatives, such as employee assistance programme and free financial & mortgage advice