Director, Operational Excellence

At West, we’re a dedicated team connected by a purpose to improve patient lives—a mission that has been at the center of our company for more than a century. Our story began when Herman O. West solved the challenge of supplying penicillin in mass quantities to the U.S. Government during World War II. Today, we deliver thousands of life-saving and life-enhancing injectable medicines to millions of patients daily. There’s no better place to join an inclusive community of professionals with opportunities for lifelong learning, growth, and development. We empower the physical, mental, emotional, and financial health of our team members and their families through comprehensive benefit programs. We also believe in giving back to help those in need in the communities where we live and work, and we are committed to sustainability efforts that create a healthier environment and planet.

About the role

In this role, you will execute assigned initiatives, which may include strategic assessments, operational assessments, process analysis, opportunity identification, workshop facilitation, improvement execution, and control plan development and management. This broad role requires oversight of technical and business complexities and involves assisting in the development of strategic plans for driving transformation and remediation initiatives. You will act as a catalyst for change and a driver of engagement for improvements, providing leadership on strategic thinking and transformational processes to ensure established goals and objectives are met.

Responsibilities

• Develop recommendations to create a transformation and remediation strategy and roadmap; guide a steering team to drive execution.
• Create a cross-functional team (e.g., Operations, OPEX, Engineering, Quality) to review, plan, and implement transformational efforts at the site of care (SOC) relating to the SOC Quality Management System and all SOC internal processes.
• Prioritize processes to be reviewed and transformed/remediated based on initial assessment and make recommendations to the site leadership team.
• Collaborate with the New Product Introduction (NPI)/Project team where transformational activities are of the scale to be deemed a project or program.
• Provide portfolio management support (milestone tracking, status reporting, value tracking, risk issue, and escalation) for work streams in the strategy transformation office.
• Develop a deep understanding of the strategy and associated workstreams to identify dependencies, risks/issues, and change communication needs.
• Engage with multiple stakeholders within the firm and develop relationships to address and work through workstream questions and challenges.
• Liaise with other portfolio managers and leaders across the firm to understand cross-workstream dependencies, risks, and issues; build a trusted rapport with leadership and teams.
• Develop and communicate a clear vision for operational improvement, change management, and transformation.
• Monitor and report on the progress of projects to senior leadership and stakeholders within the Contract Manufacturing Operational Unit Leadership team.
• Share and seek best practices within the global contract manufacturing network.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including operations, quality, engineering, and supply chain to drive change and improvement efforts.
• Define and manage the tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of change programs and Operational Excellence (OpEx) initiatives.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement across the manufacturing network in Dublin.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., project management, engineering, or business).
• Minimum 10 years of experience in a manufacturing/production environment.
• 2+ years of people management experience.
• Experience in leading a team through Change Management preferred.
• Track record of executing large-scale change, with a focus on results and outcomes within strict timelines.
• Respected leadership that galvanizes teams to pursue transformation and high performance.
• Good interpersonal/leadership skills and the ability to interface with all departments and team member levels.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.
• Proficiency in SAP, all MS Office applications, Minitab, and other statistical software programs.
• Experience in a highly regulated industry and compliance environment.
• Experience with highly complex, interconnected systems and business processes.
• Experience working in a matrix environment.
• Awareness of all relevant standard operating procedures as per company policy.
• Support and contribute to Lean Sigma programs and activities toward delivery of set targets.
• Compliance with the company’s safety and quality policies at all times.

Preferred Qualifications

• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification/education upon hire preferred.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or above certification/education upon hire preferred.

Schedule

Travel Requirements: Up to 10% (approximately 26 business days per year).

Physical Requirements

• Light-exerting: Up to 20 lbs/9 kg of force frequently, and/or negligible amount of force frequently/constantly to move objects.
• Regularly required to sit, stand, walk, talk, hear, see, and use hands and fingers to operate office equipment (e.g., phones, computers, copiers).
• Sitting and/or standing for extended periods may occur, as well as getting to and from offices and building sites.
• Ability to lift and carry various items up to 30 pounds.
• Office work environment is usually quiet; manufacturing work environment is moderate to loud (hearing protection required).
• Job requires mental skills such as communication, decision-making (sometimes quick), interpreting data, reading, writing, organization, problem-solving, understanding direction, supervising, and speaking publicly.