Senior Process Improvement Engineer

Synthomer is a leading supplier of high-performance, highly specialised polymers and ingredients that play vital roles in key sectors such as coatings, construction, adhesives, and health and protection – growing markets that serve billions of end users worldwide. Headquartered in London, UK and publicly listed there since 1971, we employ c.3,500 employees across our 5 innovation centres of excellence and more than 28 manufacturing sites across Europe, North America and Asia. Around 20% of our sales volumes are from new and patent protected products.

At our innovation centres of excellence in the UK, Germany, China, Malaysia and Ohio, USA we collaborate closely with our customers to develop new products and enhance existing ones tailored to their needs, with an increasing range of sustainability benefits. Since 2021, we have been proud holders of the London Stock Exchange Green Economy Mark, which recognises green technology businesses making a significant contribution to a more sustainable, low-carbon economy.

Purpose of the Job:

Operational Improvement team – driving the delivery of continuous process improvements to new and existing operations.  Through details analysis of the plant operational performance the candiate will be identify plant performance issues and performance improvement opportunities. Collect and analyse plant data to support troubleshooting, drive improvement and implement plant trials to validate solutions. The candidate should be able to identify suboptimal operation and work with a multidiscipline team to optimise the plant activities.

Ensure product recipes, quality and plant productivity is maintained.  Support plant modification with minor and moderate improvement projects including MOC, design, safety assessments, & testing.

Main Accountabilities:

Operational Improvement

• Ensure safety in the number one focus of all activities, ensuring full compliance with rules, best practice and regulations to deliver safe plant operation.
• Support plant operations in identifying plant performance issues and develop solutions
• Lead plant capacity and productivity studies
• Complete development trials to improve the process operation
• Identify opportunities and develop solutions for optimisation, in quality, yield, efficiency, profitability, customer service or compliance improvements.
• Lead new grade and raw material introduction to the facility
• Lead plant troubleshooting and problem root cause investigation 
• Develop process improvement proposals and projects
• Support the plant with SHE and process safety assessments
• Support delivery on MOC, minor and moderate modification projects, ensuring they delivered safely within time, to budget and to the required quality.
• Lead the development of conceptual designs with respect to process, technology and key equipment working with internal and external specialists
• Support the development of Process basis of design and concepts, ensure compliance with local and international standards
• Developed and validated plant simulation models to analyze production flow, identify bottlenecks, and optimize manufacturing performance
• Test and prepare documentation for plant operating trials and modification commissioning to demonstrate the plant performance.
• Ensures all engineering work meets the required company standards and statutory compliance.
• Supporting and mentoring the development of Junior engineers
• Training and coaching of operations personal in the plant design basis.

🌍 Global Benefits Overview

• 💰 Competitive, market-aligned compensation

• 🎯 Discretionary global bonus scheme

• 📈 Discretionary Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP) – for senior positions

• 🚗 Company car or car allowance – varies by region and role

• 🩺 Healthcare – tailored to regional locations

• 👶 Parental leave and family support – maternity, paternity, adoption (aligned with regional policies)

• 🏡 Working options – flexibility where it matters, based on role and business needs

• 📚 Learning & development opportunities – training, online platforms, buddy/mentorship programs, Internal Synthomer University with L&D offers

• 💙 Wellbeing support – employee assistance program (EAP), mental health resources, wellbeing initiatives

• 🌱 Retirement / pension contributions – plans vary by country

• 🤝 Culture of Inclusion – where everyone can thrive

• 🏆 Performance culture, global reward & recognition programmes