Area Managers

PURPOSE OF ROLE

The purpose of the role is to translate Hulamin’s operational strategy into measurable Area-level performance by ensuring disciplined execution of the production plan, strengthening team capability, and embedding a high-performance, safety-first culture. The incumbent will collaborate closely with Maintenance, Engineering and support functions to enable visible, action-oriented performance management through Integrated Manufacturing Approach (IMA) and Visual Management (VM) practices.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Production Output & Process Performance: Apply deep, cross-disciplinary expertise across production, process and technical domains to deliver the Area’s volume, quality and stability targets, evaluating competing alternatives and trade-offs in partnership with Engineering and Maintenance areas.
• Production Planning, Scheduling & Operational Coordination: Resolve complex, cross-functional scheduling problems by interpreting the Metal Master Plan, six-week and Metal Planning outputs against Area-level constraints, exercising judgement between competing sequencing and resourcing alternatives, and participating in operational planning through weekly Executive-led cross-Area reviews of throughput, quality, safety and recovery.
• Quality, Speed & Cost Systems Management: Independently develop and adapt the Area’s quality and speed standards, systems and SOPs against SPC, FMEA, Control Plan and Cpk data, resolving complex, often ambiguous quality and speed problems that require combining technical, statistical and cost insight, evaluating competing corrective options where root cause is not always immediately apparent, and directing the Process and shift leadership teams toward a single, coherent quality response.
• Safety, Health & Environment: Exercise multi-disciplinary judgement to anticipate and resolve complex safety risk before it materialises, evaluating competing risk priorities and root causes from incomplete near-miss and non-compliance data, integrating the safety performance of Area Coordinators, the SHE Coordinator and Shift Leadership into a single Area-wide safety standard, and participating in the discipline’s safety strategy through ISO 45001 governance and monthly plant-level safety reporting.
• People Leadership, Development & Employee Relations: Head the Area as a major operating function, accountable for the performance and integration of operations teams as a single capable team; resolve complex, judgement-intensive people and industrial relations problems through the Departmental Action Forum and Employee Relations Committee; and build succession depth and rotation readiness that sustains Area performance over multiple leadership transitions.
• Budgeting & Cost Management: Evaluate competing investment and cost alternatives to develop the Area’s annual operating and capital expenditure budget, exercising judgement on trade-offs between cost, quality and safety that shape Area performance over multiple budget cycles, and directing corrective action where variances signal deeper systemic cost drivers rather than one-off deviations.
• Continuous Improvement & Special Projects: Develop new processes, procedures and standard operating procedures that extend beyond the Area’s own sub-discipline, resolving complex improvement problems that require combining technical, quality and cost insight, and participating in the discipline’s strategic improvement agenda in partnership with the Continuous Improvement specialists..

QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS (MINIMUM & IDEAL)

• Bachelor’s Degree at NQF Level 7 in Mechanical, Electrical, Metallurgical, Chemical or Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• A postgraduate qualification in Engineering, Operations Management or Business Management is preferred; an MBA will be advantageous.
• A minimum of 10 years’ operational management experience in continuous manufacturing, heavy industry or a technically complex environment.
• Demonstrated accountability for production output, quality, cost, safety, people leadership and continuous improvement.
• Experience in unionised, shift-based or continuous-production environments, with exposure to Visual Management, Lean, TPM or Six Sigma, will be advantageous.

LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES AND ATTRIBUTES

• Learning agility and the ability to acquire process knowledge within a complex operating environment.
• Emotional intelligence, resilience and sound judgement in high-pressure situations.
• Strong people leadership, coaching capability and accountability for team performance.
• Analytical, data-driven decision-making and credible stakeholder influence across functions.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

• The role operates within a continuous 24/7/365 manufacturing environment and may require rotating work patterns, night work, weekends, public holidays and callouts.
• The position is rotation-based, and the incumbent must be willing to be deployed across Hulamin operational areas in Pietermaritzburg and Richards Bay.
• Prior knowledge of the advertised production process is not the primary selection criterion; leadership character, learning agility, accountability and people-leadership capability will be central to success.

Hulamin is committed to prioritising transformation in line with diversity, inclusion and all legislative requirements in its recruitment and appointment processes.

Please note that Hulamin reserves the right to withdraw, alter and re-advertise any vacant position based on its operational requirements.

"Hulamin does not require or solicit any payments for any recruitment process." Please report (anonymously if you prefer) any request for such to the Hulamin Ethics and Fraud Hotline at 080 2255 688.

Candidates who do not receive any correspondence within 1 month after the closing date may assume that their applications were unsuccessful and are hereby thanked for applying.

Closing Date: Tuesday, 01 August 2026