Working Here

Four roles, described properly

Read on to decide whether we're worth your time. The other way round comes later.

Most job adverts are a list of duties. That tells you nothing useful. If you're any good you already have a job, and the only question that matters is whether ours would be better. So here's the business, the roles, the money, and the parts you might not like. Read it and decide for yourself.

Skip ahead to the roles

The first three are based at our factory in Shaw, Oldham. Installation crews work nationally. Or go straight to how to get in touch.

Powder coating a sign tray in the Brand Consortia paint booth

We Make It

Everything we sell, we make. Metal fabrication, CNC routing, large format print, powder coating, all under one roof in Shaw. Fewer days spent chasing subcontractors for updates.

Around 35 People

One building, one team. There's nobody sitting between you and the decision. If something needs sorting you sort it, or you walk across the floor and find the person who can.

People Stay

Several of the team have been here more than a decade. Nobody stays that long anywhere by accident. It's the single most useful thing you can know about a company before you join it.

More about us →

Read This Before You Read The Job

Everyone's careers page says they're a great place to work. Here's the version with the awkward bits left in, so you can rule us out now rather than six months after you've handed your notice in.

What we're genuinely good at

  • Making things properly. We've been at this a long time and the finish shows it.
  • Doing what we said we'd do. Some of our clients have been with us over a decade, which is the only endorsement worth anything.
  • Investing in kit. Investing in you. Giving you the resources you need to do a great job.
  • Meaning the sustainability commitments. Carbon neutral with double offset since 2021, and we started the Sustainable Sign Scheme back in 2008, well before anyone was asking us to.
  • Health and safety that isn't theatre. SafeContractor accredited for over ten years, Achilles CAS Gold, and all the fingers we were born with.

What you might not like

  • We're a medium sized business. We plan the work and we do the work, and occasionally we have a week where everything lands at once.
  • We're a factory on an industrial estate in Shaw, not a sign-brokers office in City. The tram stop is a few minutes away and parking is free, but if you want city centre lunch options and somewhere to go after work, we could be the wrong place.
  • We're mid-rebuild. We're partway through a new integrated management system for ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001. If you like arriving somewhere finished, well, we are always on a journey.
  • We're serious about the environmental side. If you find that tedious, you'll find us tedious.
  • You'd be visible. In a team this size there's nowhere to hide a bad week. That cuts both ways, mind. There's nowhere to hide a good one either.

The main one

Project Manager

If you currently spend half your week chasing suppliers for updates you can't verify, this is a different job with the same title.

Why the job exists

Our sales team keeps bringing in national accounts, and every one of them needs somebody who owns it from survey to sign-off. We won't take on work we can't service properly, so the thing holding this business back right now is people, not orders. That's why this job is open.

What a week actually looks like

Monday you're planning the week's installations with production, and checking that the drawings released on Friday match what was surveyed. Tuesday you're explaining to a client's estates team why not confirming their order may move the programme, then snapping a photo in the paint shop to show-off how their fascias are coming along. Wednesday you're on a site in Bristol measuring up for a refit and taking the photographs nobody else would think to take. Thursday you're pricing the next phase. Friday you sign-off works that are complete and ready to be invoiced, noting any praise or feedback from your clients to the team.

You'd have your own accounts, your own programme and a company vehicle. You wouldn't have a script, a queue, or somebody reading your inbox over your shoulder.

What you'd own

  • Being the one name your clients have. Not a shared inbox, not a rota.
  • Getting the specification right before the order lands, because that's where these projects are won and lost.
  • Attention to detail, so that what gets made fits what's actually there.
  • Holding production and installation to the programme, and telling the client early when something changes.
  • Arguing your client's corner inside this building when you need to.

What we need from you

  • You've delivered physical work into live trading environments. Signage and graphics ideally, though shopfitting, interiors and fit-out all translate well.
  • You can hold six projects in your head and still answer the phone properly.
  • You write and speak clearly. A surprising amount of this job is simply communication.
  • Commercial sense. You know when a variation needs charging for, and you're comfortable saying so.
  • A full UK licence, and a willingness to be away from your desk.

What we don't care about

  • Degrees. Nobody here has ever been asked to produce one.
  • Whether you've used our software before. You'll pick it up in a fortnight.
  • Gaps on your CV. Life happens to everyone.
  • Formal project management certifications. Useful, never required.
  • Recruitment agencies: no agencies, thank you. Speculative approaches will not be responded to and do not create any fee agreement.

We hire the person, not the CV.

The facts

Salary £35,000 to £45,000, depending on what you bring. We'll tell you where in that band you sit once we know a bit more about you.
Vehicle Company vehicle or car allowance. Our company cars are fully electric.
Travel Regular travel across the UK. Occasionally involving a night away, but not often. It isn't every week and we plan it in advance.
Hours Monday to Thursday 8am to 5pm, Friday 8am to 4pm. Occasional out of hours work when a client trades through the day and we fit at night.
Holiday 28 days a year, including bank holidays.
Based Duchess Street, Shaw, Oldham OL2 7UT. Free on-site parking, first come first served, then plenty of local on-street parking and we're also only a few minutes from the Shaw and Crompton tram stop. On-site is useful, because the factory is the point, but we can be flexible on your main working location.

The Other Three

The first two aren't quite as urgent as the project manager's job, but we'd find a seat for the right person tomorrow. The third, sign installation, is a standing invitation rather than a vacancy. Same terms either way: come and look at the place before you decide anything.

This is a technical role rather than a conceptual design one. We work almost entirely inside the brand guidelines of household-name businesses. You'd take those guidelines, set them against a detailed site survey, and produce a signage proposal drawn to the exact dimensions and conditions of that one building. Then you'd produce the technical drawings our metalwork and vinyl graphics departments manufacture from.

Two outputs, two audiences, one file that has to satisfy both. A mistake in your artwork becomes a physical object on a lorry heading to a live store, which is why the eye for detail matters more here than anywhere else in the studio. Get it right and you get to drive past your own work for the next decade.

There's some creative work for our own marketing too, for when you fancy a break from setting out fascias.

What we're after

  • A strong working knowledge of Illustrator, working to scale on vector layouts, plus some Photoshop. FlexiSign is useful if you have it.
  • Previous experience producing signage drawings within signage, display graphics or an allied manufacturing industry. This one really is essential. There's too much tacit knowledge in it to teach quickly.
  • A practical understanding of how signs go together: aluminium, aluminium composites, acrylic, vinyl, mounting, laminating. You won't be asked to build anything, but you need to know what happens to your file after you release it.
  • Pre-press, CAD and CNC production files, and large format print setup are all distinct advantages rather than requirements.
  • Comfortable asking a project manager an awkward question rather than guessing.

If you apply, send a few examples of sign artwork you've produced alongside the CV. That tells us more in thirty seconds than a covering letter does in a page.

The facts

Salary £24,000 to £30,000, depending on experience.
Hours Mon to Thu 8am to 5pm, Fri 8am to 4pm. On site in Shaw.
Holiday 28 days a year, including bank holidays.

Building signage from raw material to finished product. Fabricating aluminium and acrylic, assembling built-up letters and illuminated fascias, wiring LED gear, applying vinyl, and finishing to a standard that stands up on a national retailer's shopfront in the rain for ten years.

You'd work across the sequence rather than standing at one station all day. The kit is modern and well looked after, including a Swissqprint Nyala 3 flatbed printer and an LP channel bender. If you want installation work and the travel that comes with it, that's available. If you'd rather stay in the factory, that's fine too.

What we're after

  • Time-served sign maker, or an allied trade such as fabrication, joinery or exhibition build.
  • Precise and tidy. The finish is the whole product.
  • Someone who'd rather flag a problem at 9am than hide it until 4pm.
  • Happy working to a drawing, and confident enough to say when the drawing is wrong.

The facts

Salary £25,000 to £37,000, depending on experience and skills. Inclusive of overtime. That's the real spread across the team, taken from payroll rather than plucked from a job board.
Hours Mon to Thu 8am to 5pm, Fri 8am to 4pm. On site in Shaw.
Holiday 28 days a year, including bank holidays.

This one is a standing invitation rather than a vacancy with a closing date. We do our own manufacturing to keep the quality where we want it, and we're building our installation capacity on exactly the same basis. So if you're good, we want to hear from you whether or not we happen to be advertising. Applications on spec, any time.

We're hiring employees, not subcontractors. If you've had enough of the day-rate treadmill, this is the conversation to have.

Full time, on the books, with everything that comes with that. Sick pay, holiday pay, a pension, and a phone that doesn't stop ringing only because someone else's programme slipped.

We'd particularly like a crew. If you're a pair who already work well together and would rather move as a team than be split up and parcelled out, say so and we'll take both of you. Individual fitters are just as welcome and would join one of our existing teams.

Grocery and supermarket experience counts for a lot here. Live trading environments, night work, tight handovers, and a store manager who needs the shutters up by six. If you've done that work you'll already know why we ask.

What you'd be fitting

  • Fabricated aluminium sign trays and tensioned flex face systems.
  • LED illumination, built-up and stand-off lettering.
  • Digitally printed vinyl graphics.
  • The occasional bespoke thing nobody has built before, which is usually the interesting one.

Cards and tickets

  • We'd expect CSCS, IPAF and PASMA and we will cover these for you if yours have expired.
  • You take safety seriously, and don't skip the toe-boards or harness because you think no-one is looking.
  • We fund the upskilling from there: TWSTS, CSCS Gold, PASMA advanced configurations. If you want the tickets, we'll pay for them.
  • Previous experience and a practical head are the parts we can't teach.

The facts

Pay We haven't published a band for this one, because the answer genuinely depends on how much travel and overtime you take on. What we will say is that our fitters earn well above the basic rate you'll see on a typical installer advert. Ring us and we'll give you a real figure on the first call.
Basis Full-time employment. We're not looking for subcontractors for this, and we won't ask you to invoice us.
Travel National, with overnight and weekend work as the programme needs it. Paid accordingly, and planned as far ahead as we can manage.
Based Anywhere sensible. Somewhere on the Derby to Watford stretch suits our current coverage best, but we'll talk to good fitters wherever you are.
Applying On spec, any time. If you don't have time to write a formal cover letter, just ring us on 0345 2000 768 and ask for a chat about fitting work.

How This Would Go

No repeated panel interviews. No psychometric tests. Nothing to prepare.

1

A conversation

Twenty minutes on the phone at a time that suits you, or a coffee somewhere neutral if you'd rather not be seen visiting. We'll learn about you and then tell you the salary figure we have in mind before you spend any more time on us.

2

Come and look

A proper walk round the factory and time with the people you'd actually be working alongside. Bring the awkward questions. Ask them anything you like without us in the room, if you'd prefer.

3

An answer

An offer, or a no with the reason why. Either way you'll hear from us within a few days, and you'll hear from a person rather than a template.

Two Ways In

Pick whichever suits where you are right now.

Apply

Send a CV if you have one to hand. If you haven't, a few paragraphs about what you've delivered and where is genuinely enough. Tell us which role you're after.

We read everything ourselves. Nothing here goes through a filter or a scoring algorithm. Installers, you can skip all that and just ring 0345 2000 768.

EMAIL YOUR APPLICATION

Or just a quiet word

If you're happily employed and only half curious, email Brad directly. It stays between the two of you. It doesn't go on a system, it isn't discussed with anyone here, and we won't chase you.

Ask what you like, including the things you can't ask in an interview. If the timing's wrong, say so and we'll leave it there. It's a small industry and we'd rather keep it civil.

EMAIL BRAD DIRECTLY

Not looking now, but you might be in a year?

Send us a line about what you do. We'll keep it to hand and get in touch when something fits. Nobody will pester you in the meantime.

We handle applications ourselves and keep them only as long as we need to. Nothing is shared outside this business. See our privacy policy for the detail, or ask us and we'll tell you plainly.

Brand Consortia is an equal opportunities employer. If you need any part of this process adjusting so you can take part properly, tell us and we'll sort it.

No recruitment agencies, thank you. Speculative approaches will not be responded to and do not create any fee agreement.