Operations Manager

Do you have proven experience of managing operational teams in a laboratory, technical production, logistics, sample management or regulated service environment. If so, we are looking for you! You will be responsible for the effective day-to-day running of the Watford site, ensuring that sample receipt, laboratory activity and scheduling operate as one controlled, visible and efficient workflow.

Step Into the Role

The role is accountable for driving operational performance, improving production flow, removing local bottlenecks, and ensuring that samples are received, processed, scheduled and transferred in a way that supports both UK customer delivery and the Poland GDC.

This is a hands-on operational leadership role requiring strong people leadership, structured problem solving, Lean thinking and close collaboration with other UK sites, Customer Services, Quality, Logistics, IT/LIMS teams and the Poland GDC. The role will also act as the key UK operational lead for Watford input into LIMS implementation and future process design.

• Lead the daily operation of the Watford site, ensuring safe, controlled and efficient delivery across sample receipt, laboratory activity and scheduling.
• Create clear daily priorities for the team, balancing customer demand, sample flow, capacity, turnaround times and operational constraints.
• Ensure effective handovers, daily communication routines and visible management of workload, risks and blockers.

• Manage the end-to-end sample receipt workflow, ensuring samples are booked in, prioritised, stored, labelled, transferred and released to the correct transfer process.
• Improve flow from arrival through registration, scheduling, dispatch and laboratory handover, reducing waiting time, rework and avoidable escalation.
• Ensure sample integrity, chain of custody, storage conditions and traceability are maintained at all times.

• Oversee local laboratory activity and scheduling to ensure work is planned, resourced and delivered in line with customer requirements and operational priorities.
• Work closely with UK Operations, Logistics, Customer Services and Laboratory teams to align production plans and remove cross-site bottlenecks.
• Support the development of simple, practical scheduling routines that improve visibility of work‑in‑progress, capacity and constraints.

• Use Lean methods to identify waste, improve flow, reduce variation and create standard work across the Watford operation.
• Lead practical improvement activities such as 5S, visual management, root‑cause problem solving, process mapping and daily performance reviews.
• Develop a culture of continuous improvement where colleagues are encouraged to identify issues, suggest improvements and take ownership for local solutions.

• Act as the UK operational lead for the UK side of the LIMS implementation, ensuring future system design reflects real operational workflows and customer requirements.
• Support process mapping, data cleansing, user requirement capture, testing, training and change management for sample receipt, scheduling and local laboratory processes.
• Ensure LIMS implementation is used as an opportunity to simplify processes rather than digitise inefficient manual work.

• Build strong working relationships with other UK sites and the Poland GDC to improve sample flow, communication, priority setting and issue resolution.
• Ensure Watford acts as a reliable operational bridge between UK customer demand and Poland laboratory delivery.
• Escalate operational risks early and work collaboratively across functions to agree practical solutions.

• Work with Quality and H&S colleagues to ensure site operations comply with internal procedures, UKAS/ISO 17025 requirements, method requirements and health and safety standards.
• Ensure non‑conformances, incidents, complaints and operational deviations are investigated, corrected and prevented from recurring.
• Maintain high standards of housekeeping,…