Business Area Manager - Canning

Area Operations Manager - Packaging

Location: Marshalls Road, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Contract: Permanent

Closing Date: 8th October 2025

Our Guinness packaging site at Marshalls Road, east Belfast, is a 12-acre facility with over 130 colleagues, running 24/7 and producing more than 100 SKUs across 20+ brands. It's here we're looking for our next Area Operations Manager - a proven leader to drive world-class performance across safety, quality, service, performance and cost.

At Diageo, we're home to some of the world's most iconic brands - Guinness, Baileys, Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker - produced and enjoyed in over 180 markets. Every year, we source, produce and deliver 6.5 billion litres of product across the globe. To do this at scale and with excellence, we need exceptional people leading our operations.

As Area Operations Manager, you'll:

• Lead Tier 1 operations within your area, delivering against the balanced scorecard and driving standards
• Champion governance, compliance and continuous improvement, ensuring conformance with health, safety, environment, quality and regulatory standards (ISO, HACCP, CARM).
• Drive the Manufacturing Excellence Programme (TRACC) in partnership with site leadership, embedding best practice in performance, standards, capability and asset care.
• Provide outstanding leadership and coaching to your team, building capability, accountability and a culture of high performance.
• Actively spend time on the shop floor, role modelling problem-solving, systemic root cause analysis and breakthrough thinking.
• Manage budgets, resources and capital planning to align with site and company strategy.
• Build strong cross-functional relationships with Engineering, Manufacturing Excellence, and other key partners to deliver site ambitions.

• A degree (or equivalent experience) ideally in engineering or a science / technical-related field.
• NEBOSH qualification.
• At least 5 years' proven leadership experience in a world-class FMCG manufacturing environment.
• Strong technical understanding of packaging, processing and plant technologies.
• A track record of embedding manufacturing excellence, setting clear standards and coaching teams to exceed them.
• Financial acumen and the ability to deliver against budgets and long-term planning goals.
• Excellent communication, engagement and problem-solving skills.