Job Description :

Packaging Area Manager

St James Gate, Dublin

Permanent Contract

Closing date: 11th May 2026

Join our Supply Chain and Manufacturing team.

Our Supply Chain and Manufacturing team are problem-solvers, sourcing, producing, and delivering our much-loved brands to delight customers around the globe. Over half of Diageo’s 30,000+ people work in Supply Chain and Manufacturing. It’s an intricate and sophisticated operation that’s the product of logistical, manufacturing, and technical collaborations. We are proud to be a global leader in beverage alcohol with an exceptional portfolio of brands, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, Baileys, Smirnoff, Tanqueray, and many more.

St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin is Diageo's largest manufacturing facility in Ireland, and the largest stout brewery in the world, producing over three million pints of Guinness every day, supplying a growing Irish, UK and US market, and exporting to 90 global markets. Our main beer brands are Guinness, Guinness 0.0, Rockshore, Hop House 13, Smithwick's and Harp.

About the Role

As the Packaging Area Manager, you will play a critical leadership role within the St James’s Gate Keg Plant, with full accountability for delivering safe, high‑quality and cost‑effective kegging operations in a 24/7 manufacturing environment. Reporting to the Site Operations Manager, you will lead a multi-shift team to embed a culture of operational excellence, continuous improvement and high performance.

Key responsibilities include:

Lead a team of 7 direct and 15 indirect reports.
Lead and performance‑manage the kegging operation to deliver customer service, quality, safety, environmental and cost targets.
Inspire, empower and develop a multi‑shift packaging team, building capability and engagement across all levels.
Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement through structured performance management, KPI tracking and manufacturing excellence programmes.
Ensure full compliance with safety, hygiene, quality and LTO standards, acting as a visible role model for best practice.
Own resource planning and budget management, delivering production goals while identifying productivity and cost‑saving opportunities.
Build strong relationships with key stakeholders including brewing, logistics, planning, technical teams and trade unions.

About you

You will be an experienced manufacturing leader with a strong operational and people‑management background, comfortable taking ownership of performance in a fast‑paced, 24/7 production environment. You'll lead with clarity and confidence, using data, structure and collaboration to get results whilst developing engaged, high‑performing teams.

We're seeking someone with experience managing teams, with a consistent track record of developing people and improving performance. The successful candidate will have strong interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across operations, support functions and unions.

In addition:

A qualification in applied science, engineering or equivalent, with experience gained in an FMCG manufacturing environment.
Solid operational and engineering understanding, enabling you to balance safety, quality, customer service and cost requirements.
A commitment to operational excellence, with hands‑on experience leading or implementing continuous improvement programmes.
A structured, analytical approach to problem‑solving, using data to identify issues and deliver sustainable improvements.

Working with us

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And creating an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this.

We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you’ll be welcomed and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You’ll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, and more.

Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to the next level and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.

Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you!

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please ensure that you make a note of this when you submit your application.

Recruitment Scam Warning

Protecting candidates is very important to us. All communications regarding your application will come from an email address ending in @Diageo.com. In our recruitment process, we'll never ask for money.

Worker Type :

Regular

Primary Location:

St James Gate

Additional Locations :

Job Posting Start Date :

2026-04-10