Director of SHE & Operations Excellence

Croda is a market leader in research, development and manufacturing of ingredients for the Life Sciences and Consumer Care markets. With over 6,000 employees in 39 countries, we are focused on our purpose of ‘Smart Science to Improve Lives’ and aim to become people, land and climate positive by 2030. Croda’s manufacturing sites range from GMP certified to high hazard batch chemical operations, and with manufacturing presence in over 10 countries, Safety and Operational Excellence are fundamental pillars to our organisational strategy.

Due to an upcoming retirement, we are looking for an experienced operations leader to implement and govern the Group’s Safety, Health & Environment (SHE) and Operational Excellence (OpEx) standards. You will be acting as a catalyst for culture change, to embed continuous improvement, cost efficiency, customer agility, and waste reduction whilst driving a high-performance culture within all areas of operations.

Who We’re Looking For

• Formal qualification in an Engineering or Science discipline, with prior experience in a multi-site operations leadership role within high hazard chemical manufacturing.
• Excellent influencing and conflict management skills, with the ability to deliver through others and influence at senior levels in the organisation including executive and board level.
• Passion for driving robust behavioural safety cultures with clear accountability and delivery of actions.
• Prior experience of creating and deploying large scale operational excellence programmes within region or globally (formal training in Lean, Six Sigma etc. is desirable but not essential).
• High level of curiosity and strategic thinking to design, implement and improve upon manufacturing strategies and drive harmonisation across sites and regions.
• An authentic and low ego leader, able to demonstrate leadership behaviours that are consistent with personal and organisational values.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design, deployment and continuous improvement of a global operational excellence programme focused on capturing continuous improvement opportunities, reducing waste and driving cultural change.
• Overall responsibility for the management and governance of global SHE and Operations Excellence programs, ensuring Croda’s SHE risk assurance policies and OpEx standards are met while facilitating continuous improvement across these areas.
• Drive insight and leadership into developments in SHE and OpEx, sharing industry best practices and applying relevant knowledge to Croda to drive improvements across all areas of operations.
• Coach and develop the global SHE and Operations Excellence team, nurturing and developing talent and driving a culture of high performance.
• Own the global SHE management systems and continuous development and documentation of Croda’s OpEx Program.
• Partner with global leaders, regions, sectors, functions, and the Group SHE Steering Committee to implement SHE and OpEx effectively.
• Effectively influence and engage with Croda’s Executive Committee, including Board updates and industry peers.
• Lead the creation of dashboards, KPIs, and visual metrics for continuous improvement tracking.
• Influence site leadership to embed SHE and OpEx into their operational objectives and Site Transformation Plans.

Why Croda?

At Croda, we believe our people are our difference. We are people-led, driven by the desire to do good and deliver value, a unifying principle shaped by all the great people that have travelled through Croda since our beginning in 1925. We pride ourselves on bringing together diverse teams and talents from across the globe and, guided by our values of Responsible, Innovative, and Together, we are passionate about building an inclusive, collaborative, and diverse organisation with innovation and customer focus underpinning all that we do.

Additional Information

This role would ideally be based close to our UK Head Offices in East Yorkshire, however remote/hybrid locations will be considered. Relocation support can also be provided if required.

Croda is an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.