Composites Team Leader

About the role

McLaren Automotive builds high-performance road cars around carbon-fibre structures, with production centred around Woking and specialist composites supply from its wider UK manufacturing network. Composites work is central to the brand: the tub is not a cosmetic part, it is the structural heart of the vehicle. This Composites Team Leader role leads a carbon-fibre layup and curing team producing Monocell-style structural assemblies. You'll manage daily resourcing, first-off checks, autoclave or oven readiness, kit control and quality escalation across a production area where scrap is expensive and defects are often only visible to trained eyes. The role needs a calm, technically credible leader. Operators need clear standards, engineers need accurate feedback, and production needs the area to hit schedule without compromising fibre orientation, cure discipline or traceability.

Responsibilities

• Lead daily team briefings, labour allocation and shift handover for the composites cell
• Supervise carbon-fibre layup, debulk, bagging and cure preparation against controlled work instructions
• Own first-off, in-process and final inspection escalation with quality and manufacturing engineering
• Control material life, freezer-out time, kit status and traceability records for pre-preg materials
• Drive scrap, rework and defect reduction through root-cause actions and operator coaching
• Coordinate tooling, autoclave / oven availability and production priorities with planning teams
• Develop operators through skills matrices, standard work and structured feedback

Requirements

• Composites manufacturing background
• Proven team leader
• Experience with pre-preg layup, vacuum bagging, cure cycles and structural composite inspection
• Comfortable interpreting controlled work instructions and engineering drawings
• Strong people leadership in a low-volume, high-quality manufacturing environment
• Confident using quality data to reduce scrap and repeat defects