Downer's WA asphalt business is changing what its technical function does. Our two NATA accredited laboratories at Gosnells and Hope Valley each have a supervisor running the bench, supported by mobile testing capability across regional WA. With day-to-day operations in capable hands, the labs now need direct technical leadership and strategic management. We are looking for a Technical Manager to take the function beyond testing and turn it into a capability that wins work, protects margin and builds people.
About the role
Reporting to the Production Manager and acting as second in charge, you are accountable for all laboratory operations across both laboratories and our mobile capability. The operational needs of the labs are managed through your supervisors, which frees you to focus on what the function achieves: process control that shows variation as it happens, mixes that meet specification, perform on site and cost less to make, products of our own, and a lab business that grows.
The role is autonomous in how it gets there. The first six months are spent establishing baselines and real numbers, with targets then set against those figures and a staged action plan agreed for delivery.
What you will own
- Overall accountability for laboratory operations, NATA accreditation and quality systems, delivered through the laboratory supervisors
- Assessment and improvement of QA systems, moving from retrospective checking to process control charting, and holding material suppliers to account against their ITPs
- The mix design register and review cycle. Meeting specification is the floor, not the target. The work is designing the lowest cost mix that meets it and that crews can place and compact and customers want to buy again, then proving the saving against actual production cost rather than a model
- A proprietary product pipeline, with sustainability first: high RAP, warm mix, recycled and modified binders, and lower embodied carbon backed by an EPD
- An investigation into what an R&D capability would take, including WARRIP and AfPA funding channels, grants and university partnerships, with a recommendation either way
- Growth of external testing revenue through business development: identifying who is not being served well, building an offering around turnaround, NATA scope, regional coverage through Albany and technical advice, and owning the client relationships