Job details for SeAH Wind development at South Bank, Teesworks

Piling work is well underway at the South Bank site to pave the way for the 800 metre offshore monopile manufacturing facility.

South Bank resident Karen Maclane and Hartlepool’s Matthew Hart are leading the way in developing and growing the profile of SeAH Wind in the North East after Matthew joined  in October 2022 and Karen in January 2023.

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They’ve explained how many jobs for the plant will come online towards the end of 2023, and early in 2024.

Matthew revealed the bulk of staff recruitment would accelerate towards the end of this calendar year, and into the early part of 2024, ready for production commencing in mid-2024.

He said: “By mid-2024 we plan to have around 300 employees, and then circa 700 by 2026/7 depending on our order book, when we will look to add additional shifts.

“This means there won’t just be the initial 300 jobs, but as we grow there will be more positions and also many more jobs created in our supply chain.”

Karen is the Talent Acquisition Partner for SeAH Wind and will be a familiar face at jobs fairs across the Tees Valley in the coming months.

The 38-year-old grew up on Teesside and spent seven years working for Nobia UK. She also worked at G4S, in Stockton, before joining SeAH in January.

The mother of two has worked here for most of her adult life and is a Governor at St Margaret Clitherow’s RC Primary School, in South Bank.

“I’m very passionate about what SeAH Wind want to achieve and creating jobs and opportunities for people in our local area.” she said.

Father-of-two, Matthew, 45, who was born and bred in Hartlepool, is the HR Manager for SeAH Wind. After a spell working in the NHS, he then chalked up almost 16 years at the ICL Group, based in Cleveland Potash. It was there he rose to become UK Head of HR before seizing an opportunity with SeAH Wind.

SeAH Wind staff are now on the ground in Middlesbrough as progress on constructing the £450million facility on the 90-acre South Bank site gathers pace. Matthew said SeAH Wind have now set an office up in Teesside, where both Karen and he are based along with their first intake of managers who will lead the business going forwards.

The mammoth project will create up to 700 direct jobs when it reaches full production, and circa 1,500 indirect jobs during the construction period and more jobs in the supply chain once operations start.

Some of the Teesside staff, newly employed by SeAH Wind, have recently travelled out to Korea to visit SeAH’s Headquarters in Seoul as well as some of SeAH’s other production facilities, with the aim to start collaborating and transferring knowledge and information from the Korean team.

The firm is also looking at building a training programme with the potential for apprenticeships in the future.

The entrance to Teesworks (Image: Press release)

Karen said: “We’ll be looking for Flux Cored and Submerged-Arc Welders, however other roles we are looking to fill will include Crane Drivers, CNC operators, and General Operatives.”

Matthew added: “To support our facility, we will also need to hire talented individuals into a number of other roles including Health and Safety, Quality Assurance, IT, Finance, HR, and Procurement.”

While the bulk of positions will come online later this year and early in 2024, the pair revealed SeAH Wind had already attracted a positive response on the ground in the Tees Valley.

Matthew said: “We’ve had some good interest so far, receiving a lot of speculative CVs and we recently attended a jobs fair at Darlington, so we’re speaking to people about all the opportunities.

“Over the next couple of months, we plan to have our own website where we’ll list all our vacancies and provide a portal in which people can apply for them.”

Matthew has close knowledge of Teesside’s recent industrial past and explained the firm was keen to see positions recruited locally where possible.

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“Our desire is to recruit from the local area – there will be times where we have to go further afield. We will look at trying to get the very best talent from across the Teesside area and augment this with global talent as and when required.” He added: “The North-East is a fantastic place to work and live.”

When fully operational, the SeAH Wind plant is expected to produce between 100 and 200 monopiles per year which will be transported directly from the factory to the new Quay facility, before heading to the North Sea for installation.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “Teesworks is driving forward with the cleaner, safer and healthier industries of tomorrow – and the SeAH project is an absolutely vital part of this push."