Associate Director Operational Excellence

Associate Director Operational Excellence

The Position

Reporting to the Director of Portfolio Management Office and part of the Ireland Manufacturing organization, this role will be responsible for leading and embedding a culture of continuous improvement and capabilities within Ireland Manufacturing. This role drives strategic initiatives that enhance operational performance and support site-level business objectives. The successful candidate will lead operational excellence efforts while partnering with leadership teams to deliver measurable improvements.

Responsibilities include:

• Lead the deployment and execution of Operational Excellence strategy across the site, aligning with global and local strategic focus areas, priorities and initiatives.

• Act as a change agent to foster a mature culture of excellence, continuous improvement, and innovation at the site.

• Buildout of Site KPI Dashboard ensuring alignment, visibility and accountability with tiered performance management boards.

• Support the preparation of Quarterly Business Reviews with site KPI dashboard, OE and strategy execution updates.

• Leading the development and execution of site strategy focus area priorities / initiatives as required.

• Identifies a pipeline of improvement projects by evaluating the value stream for waste, complexity and facilitates the implementation of solutions.

• Supports the facilitation of cross-functional problem-solving sessions to address site-specific challenges using structured problem solving & provision of updates at governance forums.

• Supports the organization through the execution of Value Stream Mapping, Kaizens & Gemba’s

• Drives implementation and embedding of leader standard work, structured problem solving and 7S at Ireland Manufacturing.

• Champions the use of analytics in driving excellence in execution & decision making.

• Business Process Owner for Eviview CI system for OE related modules & liaison with vendors as required.

• Collaboration and communication with all levels of the Organisation and associated stakeholder management.

• Build operational excellence capability by delivering structured problem solving, Yellow Belt & Green Belt & training.

• Provides mentorship to the site OE Advocate team, Yellow Belt /Green Belt / Black Belt candidates and kaizen teams focused on rapid improvements as needed.

• Chairs the site OE Advocate team to collaboratively drive the OE Site Strategy across the business and coordination of OE recognition events.

• Collaborates across PDM Manufacturing sites to implement shared and harmonised processes.

• Participates in the PDM Operational Excellence Community & collaborates in the development of the OE Strategy.

Knowledge, Experience and Skills:

• Lean / Six Sigma Black Belt certified.

• Degree qualified with extensive experience.

• Proven capability to operate at a strategic and tactical level of execution.

• Strategically applies data analytics to inform high-impact Operational Excellence initiatives.

• Knowledge of Leader Standard Work and OE Production Systems.

• Strong leadership with proven ability to influence and collaborate across local and global teams.

• Demonstrates excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.

• Ability to act on own initiative.

• Experience in pharmaceutical operations/GMP environment.