A man in charge at a very small level (6)
I believe the answer is:
atomic
'very small level' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a man in charge at a' is the wordplay.
'a man' becomes 'tom' ().
'in charge' becomes 'ic' (abbreviation for 'in charge').
'at' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'tom'+'ic'='tomic'
'tomic' after 'a' is 'ATOMIC'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for atomic that I've seen before include "Extremely minute" , "Sort of bomb, number, or power" , "Relating to basic particles" , "Relating to nuclear energy" , "Basically simple" .)