File · SRX-2607 / United Arab Emirates (GCC) · Open

Factory Production Manager — Advanced Battery Systems

High-volume cell and pack manufacturing · Dubai hub

A line owner, not a shift administrator. This mandate is for the manufacturing leader who takes an automated battery line from unstable yield to sustained output, and can prove it with numbers.

Discipline
Advanced Manufacturing
Seniority
Senior · 7+ years in automated manufacturing
Languages
English
Work mode
On-site — United Arab Emirates
Employment
Full-time · Permanent
Listed
17 Aug 2026

How to approach this mandate

No application form. No CV portal. Read the position brief, then speak with Priyanka directly, under confidence.

The client is not named here. On an engaged mandate the client's hiring intent is commercially sensitive — particularly in a competitive Gulf industrial market — so the organisation is identified to you under confidence in the first partner conversation.

The remit

Why this role exists now. And what it carries.

Energy storage has moved from an import line item to a Gulf industrial policy objective. Battery cell and pack capacity is being built in the UAE and the wider GCC on timelines set by sovereign programmes rather than by ordinary capital cycles, and the equipment is being specified at the same automation grade as European and East Asian plants.

The scarce input is not the machinery. It is the production leadership that can hold precision at volume: dry-room discipline, formation and aging behaviour, first-pass yield through a process transfer, and the data fluency to see a bottleneck in MES telemetry before it shows up in a monthly variance report. That profile exists in a small number of plants worldwide, and almost none of them are in the region yet.

The client is scaling automated battery manufacturing from the UAE and needs the production manager the plant defers to — accountable for output, yield, safety and the industrialisation of new cell and pack variants.

What the role carries

  • Own weekly and monthly production targets across volume, takt time and throughput, and deliver step-change improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness on prioritised lines.
  • Drive scrap and rework down through structured root-cause analysis and closed-loop corrective action, with yield improvement held to a defined target.
  • Lead the operational industrialisation of new cell chemistries, pack architectures and assembly processes, coordinating R&D, process engineering, quality and supply chain to first-pass success.
  • Enforce dry-room, high-voltage, EHS and chemical-handling protocols with zero tolerance for critical defects or safety deviations, and own the CAPA lifecycle.
  • Run the plant on evidence: MES, SCADA and real-time telemetry feeding KPIs, dashboards and a shift, weekly and executive review cadence.
  • Embed Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen and 5S across shifts, sponsoring cross-functional A3 problem-solving that lands measurable results.
  • Lead and develop multi-shift teams of supervisors, technicians and operators, with competency matrices and a real succession pipeline.
  • Manage the operating budget, capital handovers for automation upgrades, and equipment OEM and vendor relationships.

The brief

The challenge, the mandate, and the impact.

The challenge

The plant has the automation and the volume commitment; it does not yet have the production leadership to hold yield while output scales. Every week of unstable first-pass yield on an automated battery line converts directly into scrap cost and missed delivery, and the profile that fixes it is thin on the ground in the region.

The mandate

Reports to the Plant Director / VP Manufacturing. Full accountability for production output, yield, scrap, EHS compliance and the industrialisation of new cell and pack variants across multi-shift operations, with budget ownership, capital-handover authority and direct OEM relationships.

The impact

6 months
Target volumes met, an OEE baseline established and improving, scrap trending down against a measured starting point, and no critical safety deviations.
12 months
Defined yield-improvement target achieved, at least one new cell or pack variant industrialised into sustained production, and a review cadence the executive team trusts because the data holds.

35

Median days to shortlist

Category norm: 84–120 days

8 in 10

12-month retention

Category norm: ~60% at 18 months

90 days

Replacement guarantee

With backfill

1

Partner, start to close

Never delegated

Index reading

The market reading behind the brief.

This mandate is not written from a job description. It is written from our own quarterly reading of how these roles are being eliminated, redefined and created in this corridor.

Where this mandate sits in the market

Current Q3 displacement intensity in the sectors that frame this search. Higher intensity means more leadership turnover and sharper talent scarcity.

  • WorkforceExposed · 7/9
  • AI EngineeringDisplaced · 9/9
  • Data CentreDisplaced · 9/9

Read the full Displacement Index — 7 sectors across APAC, EMEA and the GCC.

The profile

Who closes this. And on what terms.

Critical

  • Yield held at volume

    A product transferred into high-volume production and yield sustained afterwards — the second half is the rare part.

  • Clean-environment automation

    Battery, semiconductor, pharmaceutical or Tier-1 automotive. Dry-room and high-voltage discipline is assumed, not taught.

  • MES and SCADA fluency

    You find the bottleneck in the telemetry, not in the monthly report, and you can build the dashboard yourself.

  • Continuous improvement with receipts

    Green or Black Belt, plus A3 and Kaizen projects with quantified outcomes you can walk through.

  • Multi-shift people leadership

    Supervisors and operators developed into a bench, with accountability that survives the night shift.

Differentiators

  • Formation and aging process experience, or dry-room management at scale.
  • Familiarity with IEC/UL standards, battery safety testing and regulatory filing.
  • Greenfield plant scale-up or multi-site rollout experience.
  • Python, R or SQL for ad-hoc interrogation and automation of routine analysis.

What the client offers

  • Ownership of the production function in a plant scaling next-generation energy storage, not a caretaker role on a mature line.
  • Direct line to plant leadership: the reporting distance between a floor decision and an executive decision is short.
  • Capital already committed to automation, with the mandate to specify what the line needs next.
  • A GCC package benchmarked to senior industrial leadership, with relocation support where applicable.
  • On-site work in the United Arab Emirates, inside a manufacturing base being built rather than maintained.
Reports to
Plant Director / VP Manufacturing
Span of control
Multi-shift: supervisors, technicians, operators
Primary metrics
OEE · first-pass yield · scrap · zero critical safety incidents
First-year proof
One new cell or pack variant industrialised into sustained production

The approach

How this mandate runs. Partner-led, end to end.

01 · Day 0–1

Approach

You reach out — through this page, the Dubai line, or a confidential booking. No application form, no CV upload to a portal. The first conversation is about fit, not paperwork.

02 · Days 2–7

Partner conversation

Priyanka Chaudhary, the partner who signed this mandate, speaks with you directly from the Dubai hub. The conversation tests whether your operating record and the plant's requirement genuinely meet before anyone invests further.

03 · Days 8–21

Client introduction

If the fit holds, Priyanka introduces you to the hiring client under confidence — including a site conversation with plant leadership. The client sees a short, serious shortlist, not a pile of CVs.

04 · Days 22–35

Decision

The client decides. On a yes, Priyanka works the offer and relocation terms with both sides. On a no, you get a direct debrief, not silence.

Your partner on this mandate

Priyanka Chaudhary
Priyanka Chaudhary

Partner · Dubai Hub

Engaged mandates from the Dubai hub — C-suite and VP-grade leaders across the MENA and APAC corridors, worked personally from brief to signed offer.

Book a confidential call

Where this mandate connects

The full register