Regional Operational Excellence Manager

Excellence to identify, prioritize, and deliver measurable business improvements. This is a visible transformation role for a practical leader who can move comfortably between the shop floor and senior leadership. The successful candidate will establish effective management systems, coach leaders and teams, develop a strong portfolio of improvement initiatives, and help ensure that benefits are measured, validated, and sustained.

• Develop and execute the North America Operational Excellence roadmap in alignment with regional business priorities and global Operational Excellence direction.
• Assess operational maturity across supported sites and establish practical deployment plans based on business needs, risks, and opportunities.
• Translate strategic objectives into a prioritized portfolio of improvement initiatives with clear owners, milestones, risks, and success measures.

• Partner with site and functional leaders to identify and deliver improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, capacity, working capital, and employee capability.
• Lead high-impact, cross-functional improvement programs from opportunity identification through implementation, benefit confirmation, and sustainment.
• Partner with Finance and process owners to define baselines, validate benefits, and establish controls that sustain results.

• Establish and strengthen common practices for daily management, visual management, tiered accountability, leader standard work, and structured problem solving.
• Create an effective review cadence for the regional improvement portfolio and provide concise, data-based updates and recommendations to leadership.
• Identify, document, and scale effective practices across North American sites in partnership with Global Operational Excellence.

• Coach leaders, project owners, and front-line teams in practical problem solving, change leadership, and continuous improvement methods.
• Facilitate kaizen events, value-stream improvement activities, and other focused interventions that address priority business problems.
• Develop site-level champions and build ownership within the operation so improvements are sustained after implementation.
• Build alignment across functions and sites, address barriers to adoption, and help leaders translate transformation priorities into daily behaviors.

• Use operational data, visualization, and analytical tools to identify constraints, assess root causes, monitor performance, and support decision-making.
• Partner with Operations, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance, and digital teams to improve the consistency and accessibility of performance information.

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, life sciences, operations, supply chain, business, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Five or more years of experience in Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, manufacturing, engineering, quality, supply chain, or a related operational discipline.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional improvement programs that produced measurable and sustained results.
• Practical experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, structured problem solving, or comparable improvement methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to influence, coach, and lead change across functions and levels without relying on direct authority.
• Strong facilitation, communication, stakeholder-management, and project-leadership skills.
• Ability to analyze operational and financial data and translate findings into clear priorities and actions.
• Ability and willingness to travel to supported North American sites, with occasional international travel.

• Experience in biotechnology, diagnostics, pharmaceutical, medical device, or another regulated manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of GMP, ISO 13485, or comparable quality systems.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Leader, or equivalent demonstrated depth of Operational Excellence experience.
• Experience deploying an operating system or Operational Excellence program across multiple sites.
• Experience partnering with Finance to validate savings, productivity gains, and other business benefits.
• Proficiency with data analysis, visualization, and project-management tools, including Power BI, advanced Excel, ERP or manufacturing data systems, or comparable platforms.