Job Description

Knauf stands for opportunity. We know that opportunity looks different to each person and we are proud that we see opportunity in everyone. This exciting role within Knauf Insulation could be the perfect next opportunity for you to build a unique career, in a values-led culture with a clear purpose of making tomorrow a home for all of us.

Knauf Insulation is proud to be part of the Knauf Group, a global manufacturer of construction materials. Our division is approaching 50 years of heritage in manufacturing insulation, with a growing global reach in 40 countries and ambitious goals for the future. We are looking for passionate, ambitious people to join our 6,000-strong team and help us achieve these goals. We are all led by the same core values and believe in the powerful potential of large companies to have a positive impact on the world.

The expansion of the Continuous Improvement & Manufacturing Excellence Department means we are now looking for a Support On Remote Manager, to be based in St-Helen, UK and reporting to the Continuous Improvement & Manufacturing Excellence Director.

Can you say ‘yes’?...

• Can you show past experience of developing a support on remote center ?

• Can you demonstrate experience of remote support to manufacturing operations?

• Can you communicate efficiently and build effective remote working relationships?

• Can you demonstrate strong knowledge with SPC, PLC and Ignition?

As Support On Remote Manager, you would be responsible for establishing and leading the SOR function to monitor, support remotely plant operations through standardised processes and scalable tooling, while building the standards, processes, working with digital to develop dashboards, and reporting needed to validate site SOR compliance, detect deviations, and drive timely cross-functional action with plant teams and other groups.

What you’ll be doing:

• Development

  • Build a standard for SOR compliance, covering:

    • Ignition

    • Historian- OSI PI / Ignition

    • PLC network access for programming

    • CCTV access

    • Waites

    • Energy dashboard

    • Maintenance dashboard

      • Develop a fault occurrence overview

    • PLC software tracking

    • Build a process for tracking actions with plants and other teams to support SOR operations.
      

  • Build a process to identify deviations from normal operations in primarily a production but also maintenance perspective via:

    • Reports

    • KPIs

    • Alarm logs

    • SPC and other performance tools.

    • Dashboards (Maintenance, Energy, Environmental, Model-based control)

    • SAP (ensure a reasonable and practical scope)

    • Software changes monitoring aligned with change management
      

  • Build a process to make the SOR team scalable:

    • External/internal action tracking

    • Plant assignment

    • Resource measuring

    • Define a future 24/7 operating model (e.g., Johor, UK, USA) and handoffs

  • Build reports to share real-world plant performance with the group:

    • Actual uptime/downtime event reporting from Ignition

  • Improve SOR overwatch and access:

    • Improve camera requirements for future SOR sites

    • Leverage existing PI data to Improve data quality

    • Ensure PLC network access is secure and reliable

    • Always look to develop SOR opportunities and systems to improve the service and functionality. Working closely with the IP Digital team, to prioritise and schedule needs. The role is to identify opportunities, whilst the IP Digital team will design and implement.

  • Develop towards future business needs as SOR grows.

• Operational

  • Support and grow the SOR team:

    • Once processes are set up and more sites are online, expand to a fully operational support centre.

    • Grow future teams’ skill set and evolve them with the concept of SOR

  • Be the first line of Service between the plant for OT daily support. If no possibility to resolve, cascade to IP Digital Manufacturing team. Ensure adherence to existing standards while trouble shooting

  • Team responsibilities:

    • Investigate dashboards/KPIs/reports that indicate deviations

    • Use SCADA and other OT data to investigate and produce recommendations or plant follow-up actions

    • Support RCA, FMEAs, and fault tree reviews

    • Maintain a strong understanding of OT systems and cybersecurity controls. Ensure standards but the main responsibility lies with IP digital

    • Work with plants to reduce alarms (nuisance and real)

    • Estimate priority and use the correct escalation paths for actions or events

    • Coordinated action plan and track action with the plants to resolve detected issue.

    • Refine baselines for process monitoring to reduce false-flag notifications

  • Communication:

    • Navigate remote work challenges; ensure clear, consistent two-way communication to close gaps between SOR data and reality

    • Manage and reduce friction between “Central” and “Local Plant” teams

    • Communicate to plant stakeholders to act on data-driven recommendations.

• Governance, compliance, and risk

  • Own and maintain SOR standards and documentation

  • Implement change management for software changes and configuration tracking

  • Align with environmental, safety, and regulatory requirements where applicable
    
    

    Expected business travels is 20% of time.

What we’d love for you to have:

We are interested in you as a person; your attitude, behaviours and values. As long as you have the willingness to learn anything you need for the role that you don't already have, we'd love to speak to you.

What we’d love for you to have:

• Educated in a technical or engineering subject.

• Working knowledge of Continuous Improvement. Six sigma qualification preferable.

• At least 5 years Plant experience and a track record of delivering improvements.

• First-rate problem-solving skills

• Advanced Knowledge of control systems

• Working knowledge of ignition

• Ability to extract and analyze data from process software systems.

• Comfortable with data manipulation and creating reports.

• Familiarity with SPC, KPIs, alarm management, and model-based control concepts

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management across time zones

• Good Project Management skills.

Soft Skills

• Autonomous, organized, proactive – ownership attitude

• A team player with a leadership and communication style which is motivating and engaging to individuals and teams.

• Able to build positive relationship, comfortable with contacts at the highest levels of a structure

• Assertive and self-confident when presenting and supporting conclusions

Strong analytical skills, agile with multi-tasks and work prioritization (multiple projects), able to stand business pressure

We will provide:

As this is a central, international position, the package and associated benefits will be those of the contract's host country. Our common criterion was to build a comprehensive salary package that stands out in the market.

On top of that, a dedicated time for personal development and potential for leadership training will be provided.

What happens next?

We appreciate that your time is precious and applying for a new job can be a lengthy process - so we have committed to replying to your application within five working days.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion (D&I) reinforces our Knauf Insulation values of Making Tomorrow a Home for all of us. We are committed to creating a workplace where we all can thrive, whoever we are, and inspiring a culture of inclusion and innovation that will drive future business success. We do our best to make sure being at work feels like home. To learn more about our business and culture go here ( People & Culture - Knauf Insulation Western Europe)

If there are any other ways that you need to receive this job information, please contact us on dany.wolf@knaufinsulation.com