Digital Manufacturing Transformation KTP Associate

University of Essex - Essex Business School

Location: Manchester, Hybrid

Salary: £41,000 per annum

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed On: 1st September 2025

Closes: 6th October 2025

Job Ref: REQ09506

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) are a unique UK-wide activity that help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity by making better use of the knowledge, technology and skills within universities, colleges and research organisations.

Further information is available at: https://iuk-ktp.org.uk/

THE PROJECT

In partnership with Comfy Quilts, we offer an exciting opportunity to a graduate with the relevant skills and knowledge to use operational expertise and state of the art IoT sensors and devices to fully integrate the manufacturing facilities of Comfy Quilts by developing and implementing a bespoke asset management tool for real time data collection and analysis.

DUTIES OF THE POST

These will include:

• Manage of the project; taking leadership in achieving the project objectives.
• Leading the technical delivery of the KTP project, ensuring that all stages—from mapping current processes to developing and implementing the optimised production model—are delivered on time and to specification.
• Conduct detailed mapping and assessment of company’s production lines, internal processes, and technology readiness to identify optimisation opportunities and improve efficiency.
• Review the company’s data management system to define a robust structure of the governance system.
• Design, develop, and test intelligent production management solutions, including machine learning–enabled predictive maintenance systems and integrated ERP platforms.
• Undertake the interpretation, evaluation, and criticism of existing literature, relevant to the project.
• Identify risks in the change process and manage of these risks through appropriate mitigation strategies
• Engage with internal and external stakeholders at all levels (Factory Supervisors and Operatives, Project / Sales / Accounting / Engineering / Cad professionals, Managers)
• Manage phased implementation, pilot testing, and company-wide rollout of the new operational plan
• Design, deliver, and plan technical training programmes required for the project and upskilling company staff.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications / Training:

• A postgraduate degree in one of these areas: Data Science; Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning; Business Analytics; Industrial Engineering; Computer Science; Information Systems

Experience / Knowledge:

• Experience of working with Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Knowledge and experience of developing and testing Machine Learning algorithms.
• Knowledge and experience designing new software systems, including user-friendly interfaces.
• Experience in data analysis, creating and managing data bases, analysing datasets to draw insights, generating insightful reports and dashboards to support decision-making.
• Working knowledge of data governance, Digital Transformation tools (e.g., IoT, sensors, automated systems)
• An understating and working knowledge of production system analysis or manufacturing operations
• An understating and working knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems
• An understating of Change Management
• Strong project management experience, demonstrating the ability to organise resources, plan, and progress work activities to achieve targets
• Professional report writing experience

Skills / Abilities:

• Competent in higher level programming languages such as Python and C++.
• Research and data management skills, knowledge on acquisition of data from various sources and combining them for data analysis and data-driven decision support
• Ability to apply academic theories in a commercial and practical setting
• Ability to contribute to the writing of academic papers and conference presentations

Please use the 'Apply' button to read further information about this role including the full job description & person specification which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role. You will also find details of how to make your application here.

Our website http://www.essex.ac.uk contains more information about the University of Essex. If you have a disability & would like information in a different format, please email resourcing@essex.ac.uk.