Director, Operational Excellence

at  AGC Biologics

Our purpose is to bring hope to life by enabling life-changing therapies for patients around the globe, creating a healthier and happier tomorrow. Our mission is to work side by side with our customers in order to improve patients’ lives by bringing new biopharmaceuticals to market.

JOB SUMMARY

In this role, you will be charged with actively deploying a new Lean Production System across the EU region, including the Copenhagen, Heidelberg and Milan manufacturing sites. This Operational Excellence Director role will work closely with the Executive Vice President of EU Operations, the Copenhagen, Heidelberg and Milan General Managers and their leadership teams to further define and execute the Lean Production System deployment plan for these sites and identify and prioritize Operational Excellence initiatives. This individual will directly report to the Sr Director of Global Operational Excellence and will report dotted line to the Copenhagen, Heidelberg and Milan General Managers and participate with the Site Leadership Team(s), as needed.
This individual will act as the senior continuous improvement champion for the EU region, and help others see the bigger picture in terms of performance and improvement opportunities across the entire scope of the Copenhagen, Heidelberg and Milan sites as well as the global network. As part of the global Operational Excellence team, this person is responsible for facilitating and actively supporting both global as well as region-specific Operational Excellence initiatives. This person will also partner closely with the Global Operational Excellence Director of the US and Asia regions to design and deploy a consistent continuous improvement mindset and Lean way of working across the global network.
This person acts as a leader and architect to building capabilities that support the goals of transforming our culture into a new way of working: one free of wastes, with established smooth flow, and an aligned continuous improvement spirit amongst all employees. This person is viewed as the top Lean-Six Sigma expert across the EU region who coaches and mentors others across the global network. This person will supervise Operational Excellence Business Partner(s) to support the EU region.

LEADERSHIP SKILLS

• Maturity, confidence and high degree of emotional intelligence with demonstrated empathy and ability to influence others
• Ability to influence with or without authority, facilitate groups with diverse perspectives, bring teams to alignment.
• Demonstrate effective leadership through communication, respect, influence, persuasion, and trust.
• Agile and pro-active relationship management in a multi-matrix organization
• Excellent communication skills: simplifying the complex, making the message /request clear, providing options/proposals, ability to focus on the purpose and outcome

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

• BS / BA degree with 15+ years of any industry experience; or Master’s degree with 10+ years of any industry experience.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and previous experience in deploying Lean transformations
• Candidates from any industry are welcome to apply.

Preferred:

• Biopharma experience

Our culture at AGC Biologics is defined by the six core values: Knowledge, Trust, Quality, Ingenuity, Accountability and Teamwork. Our core values stem from our team members and are embedded into our DNA. They provide a common language and understanding of how we as an organization are connected across three continents. Our core values serve as a compass and reminder of how we achieve our purpose of bringing hope to life for patients around the globe.
AGC Biologics is a leading global biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) with a strong commitment to delivering the highest standard of service as we work side-by-side with our clients and partners, every step of the way. We provide world-class development and manufacture of mammalian and microbial-based therapeutic proteins, plasmid DNA (pDNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), viral vectors, and genetically engineered cells. Our global network spans the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with cGMP-compliant facilities in Seattle, Washington; Boulder and Longmont, Colorado; Copenhagen, Denmark; Heidelberg, Germany; Milan, Italy; and Chiba, Japan. We currently employ more than 2,500 employees worldwide. Our commitment to continuous innovation fosters the technical creativity to solve our clients’ most complex challenges, including specialization in fast-track projects and rare diseases. AGC Biologics is the partner of choice. To learn more, visit www.agcbio.com. Want to keep posted about our growth and learn more about our company? Follow us on
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AGC Biologics offers a highly competitive compensation package and a friendly, collaborative culture that values personal initiative and professional achievement. AGC Biologics is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances

• Takes active leadership of Lean deployment, lean thinking mindsets, and improving maturity.
• Leads large-focused improvement and optimization along the Lean journey including initiatives which cover the all the operational dimensions of Safety, Quality, Delivery, Engagement, and Cost.
• Designs, recommends, and coaches in continuous improvement methodologies, such as Kata, Kaizen, A3 thinking, and other structured problem solving.
• Deploys a management system and problem-solving approach to improve process and performance while influencing partners in the business to drive top and bottom-line impact for the organizational effectiveness
• Creates a common/standard library of systems, tools and visual factory creating a single OE look and feel in every business unit
• Facilitates, assists, and champions in business process management and the teams applying continuous improvement methodologies.
• Ability to influence with or without authority, facilitate groups with diverse perspectives, bring teams to alignment.
• Have a high tolerance for ambiguity, being humble, curious and vulnerable when faced with challenges.
• Possess a contribution mindset fueled by an inner drive to take initiative without being directed to do so.
• Effectively partners with executive, global and site leadership to understand root causes for gaps and identify potential issues between existing and desired states and recommends best plans for resolutions that will contribute to closing identified gaps.
• Creates an environment of strong team spirit, timely and effective communications, sense of urgency, high motivation and inspire team to achieve goals in the immediate and longer term.
• Leads decision making support and make recommendations regarding best options.
• This role will require international travel
• Expected travel 15% - 20%