Location
Seaham, England - occasional travel to Sherburn

Hours
Full-time

Salary
Negotiable, dependent on experience

About the Role
We are seeking an experienced and commercially focused General Manager to take full responsibility for the safe, profitable, and effective operation of our PET recycling facility. This senior site leadership role includes ownership of the site's P&L, operational performance, people management, quality, compliance, and continuous improvement.
The General Manager will lead the site management team and be accountable for delivering the agreed business plan, operating budget, and performance targets.
The facility operates an integrated PET recycling process, so a strong understanding of the relationship between feedstock quality and cost, bale composition, process yield, entitlement, throughput, flake, and pellet extrusion is essential.
This role operates within a complex and evolving regulatory and commercial environment. Knowledge of the UK PET recycling market and relevant packaging and waste legislation is important, including PRNs/PERNs, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), environmental permitting, Plastic Packaging Tax, Deposit Return Scheme developments, and food-contact requirements associated with recycled PET.
The successful candidate will have significant operational and financial responsibility experience within recycling, plastics, polymer processing, or a closely related manufacturing business and will be comfortable reporting directly to senior executives and a Board of Directors.

Experience
- Significant senior management experience within PET recycling, plastics recycling, polymer processing, or a closely related manufacturing environment.
- Proven P&L responsibility, including budgeting, forecasting, and delivery of financial and operational targets.
- Strong understanding of PET recycling processes including feedstock/bale quality, sorting and washing, flake production, and conversion of flake into pellet.
- Strong commercial understanding of the relationship between feedstock cost, PRN value, yield, throughput, quality, and profitability.
- Proven ability to lead and develop management teams and foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
- Experience improving safety, quality, yield, throughput, reliability, and operating cost within a complex manufacturing operation.
- Good understanding of the regulatory environment affecting recycling and waste-processing operations.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
- Experience reporting operational and financial performance to Boards or senior executive teams.
- Strong communication skills with confidence to raise concerns, challenge performance, and take responsibility for site decisions.

About You
Commercially minded, results-driven leader with a passion for operational excellence and sustainability. You will be proactive, accountable, and able to inspire and develop your team to achieve high performance.
You will have a strong safety mindset and a commitment to compliance and continuous improvement.

Qualifications
- Desirable: Direct experience within bottle-to-bottle PET or food-grade rPET recycling.
- Experience with Starlinger extrusion and SSP equipment or comparable PET processing technology.
- Detailed knowledge of PRNs/PERNs, EPR, Plastic Packaging Tax, Deposit Return Scheme, and environmental permitting.
- Relevant degree, HND, or professional qualification in Engineering, Manufacturing, Polymer Science, or Operations Management.
- NEBOSH/IOSH, Lean Six Sigma, or similar relevant qualifications.

Benefits
Competitive salary dependent on experience
Company pension
Free on-site parking
Training and professional development opportunities