Lean Specialist – Dunman

The Company

Dale Farm is a leading dairy company, which manufactures an extensive range of consumer and food ingredient products. With an annual turnover in excess of £500m the Group exports globally to over 40 countries, with a particularly strong presence in the UK retail market. It is our mission to ensure that we exude the highest standards through our processes, products, and people. We believe our success is built on your people, and so as we continue on your ambitious journey we are looking to recruit for the following key position, based at our Dunman site in Cookstown.

As a Lean Specialist, you will be responsible for influencing and implementing the Group Lean Strategy, seeking to continually develop, implement and refine the core business processes; driving best-in-class results in customer satisfaction, quality, on-time delivery, customer value, sales operations, organic growth, and ultimately financial performance.

About The Job

Reporting to the Group Lean Manager, your role as Lean Specialist will include the following responsibilities:

• Participating in the development of Dale Farms Lean Strategy.
• Assisting in embedding a Lean Culture into the organisation.
• Performing and coordinating process studies to determine opportunities for waste reduction and improvement.
• Utilising appropriate Lean and Problem-Solving tools to drive all KPIs to best-in-class level.
• Leading Value Stream Mapping, Standard Work, Visual Management, Problem Solving and other Kaizen events to meet customer and site requirements.
• Providing leadership, mentoring and coaching in the implementation of Lean/Continuous Improvement methodologies.
• Creating and delivering training, coaching and mentoring for team members to learn to see lean opportunities and develop their skills within the Group.
• Assisting in the development of data driven thinking across the sites.
• Completing any training or certification as required.

This role is primarily based at our Dunman site in Cookstown, but the successful candidate will be required to be flexible to travel to our other sites, and our Head Office in Belfast as required.

About You

The Essential

Education/Experience

The successful candidate should be educated to degree level and will have 3+ years similar experience of leading, teaching and mentoring continuous improvement activities. Alternatively, in the absence of a degree, the successful candidate will have obtained 5+ years lean experience within a manufacturing business. You should also have working experience of Lean methodologies, continuous improvement and problem-solving tools, and be able to demonstrate experience in training program development and training delivery.

Key Skills

We are looking for a highly motivated and ambitious person who has the energy, determination and mindset to drive continuous improvement within an extremely challenging, dynamic, and competitive marketplace. The successful candidate will demonstrate an improvement mindset and application, and who be able to lead through influence, with strong interpersonal and leadership skills. The successful candidate will also hold the following key skills and attributes:

• Experience implementing and influencing organisational metrics.
• Be able to demonstrate experience in training program development and training delivery.
• Can demonstrate the ability to analyse and solve complex problems, and coaching teams to do the same.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to present information, status and issues in a clear and concise manner with the goal of driving decision-making.
• Strong critical thinking and leadership skills to effectively influence stakeholders and meet project requirements.
• Strong project management, interpersonal, negotiation, communication, documentation and problem-solving skills.
• Proficient in the use of PowerPoint, Excel and Word as well as other typical business productivity tools.
• Strong coaching and training skills.
• As travel between sites is required, a driving license and access to a car is essential.

The Desirable

The following criteria is not essential, but would be advantageous:

• Accredited to Black Belt level.
• Previous experience or knowledge of Dairy Science.

Why Dale Farm?

We have a lot to offer at Dale Farm, not only to our farmer members that we support but also to our employees, and we are committed to a learning and development journey for all. In addition to a competitive salary commensurate with the role and our standard benefits such as 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and contributary company pension, we also offer benefits such as Life Assurance, full wellbeing support through our Employee Assistance Programme, and enhanced Maternity and Paternity leave.

We are proud to promote an open and supportive culture which is based on our core values:

Teamwork | Positivity | Resolve | Ambition | Curiosity | Accountability

You can find out more about life at Dale Farm on our LinkedIn and Facebook Career pages, and on our company website.

To apply for this position please hit the apply button below.

The closing date for applications is Thursday 21st August 2025.

No unsolicited CVs from Agencies please.

We are an Equal Opportunities employer