Production Manager

Tecna designs and delivers exhibition stands, brand activations and event environments for clients across the UK and Europe. As our business continues to grow, we’re looking for an experienced Production Manager to lead our production team at our Farnborough headquarters.

This is a genuine split role: roughly half management and half hands-on production. You'll lead our production team at our Farnborough headquarters while contributing directly to builds alongside an experienced and highly skilled team.

We have strong craft at the heart of our production operation. What we are looking to add is the layer around it: structured scheduling, effective workflow management, and a broader materials skill set. You will own the planning and people management, drive continuous improvement, and bring the knowledge and confidence to support the selection of the right materials and methods for each situation, rather than defaulting to the familiar.

We're looking for someone who is on trend with the industry, curious about new materials and methods, and ready to help us explore what's possible.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the production team day-to-day, allocating work, setting priorities, running 1-to-1s and performance reviews, and building a culture of quality and craft.
• Own production scheduling and workflow planning, working closely with the Head of Operations, Install Manager and Projects team to ensure everything is built, finished and dispatched on time.
• Get hands-on in production, contributing directly to the fabrication, finishing and assembly of exhibition components alongside the team.
• Challenge conventional materials and construction methods. If something needs to look like wood but doesn\'t need to be wood, we want you to know the alternatives and be confident proposing them.
• Identify and trial new substrates, finishes, fabrication techniques and production methods that keep Tecna\'s offering modern, efficient and competitive.
• Manage stock, materials and supplier relationships, maintaining availability, controlling costs and building strong partnerships with specialist suppliers.
• Covered within bullet 1 above.
• Drive continuous improvement across processes, equipment, factory layout and workflow to increase efficiency, quality and productivity.
• Maintain a safe, organised and well-run production environment with high standards of housekeeping and compliance.

What we are looking for:

• An instinctive understanding of exhibition build standards. You know that a stand will be judged at arm's length on a busy show floor, not under a microscope, and you make confident production decisions that deliver the right result without over-investing effort where it will have negligible impact.
• A background in exhibition, events, theatre, film/TV production, props, scenic construction or a related industry where bespoke, visual environments are the end product.
• Experience leading a production or fabrication team, planning workloads, managing people and meeting tight deadlines.
• Materials-agnostic thinking: you\'re as comfortable with foam, GRP, acrylic, fabric structures or printed substrates as you are with timber, and you know when to reach for which.
• Awareness of current trends in experiential and exhibition design. You follow the industry, you know what good looks like, and you have opinions about where things are heading.
• Strong organisational and planning skills with the confidence to own a production schedule and hold a team to it.
• Good IT skills and comfort using business systems for scheduling, stock management and reporting.
• A practical, hands-on approach combined with the ability to step back and improve the systems and processes around you.

Nice to Have

• Experience with CNC routing, print, finishing or graphics application.
• Familiarity with modular exhibition systems (aluminium framing, tension fabric, similar).
• Experience in scenic construction, props-making or set building for film, TV or theatre.
• Working knowledge of lighting and AV integration within exhibition or event environments.

• Annual bonus based on company performance
• 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays