Director, Operational Excellence Change Leader

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals! As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. We’re driven by our vision of ‘Food and Companionship Enriching Life’ and our approach to sustainability – the Elanco Healthy Purpose – to advance the health of animals, people, the planet and our enterprise.

At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights. Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!

Your Role: As a member of the Site Leadership team the role will be expected to work as an enterprise leader to establish and execute the site strategy. From a functional standpoint, the Operational Excellence Leader will provide a Drive for Continuous Improvement – being consumed by an overriding need to do better; unsettle others’ acceptance of the status quo. Enabling Others by Inspiring/energising them to achieve more than they thought they could; respecting and acknowledging the needs and contributions of others; Coaching and leading others in the implementation of Operational Excellence (OpEx) principles at the Speke site. This role will be responsible for completing the necessary training, owning the annual OpEx Programme (including the annual lean maturity assessment and PMO for the annual cost savings plan) engraining the concepts of OpEx philosophy into the organization, training appropriate individuals in OpEx concepts, partnering with leaders at the sites to continuously improve the OpEx culture.

Your Responsibilities:

• Manage annual cost savings plan (% of operating expenses). To include the PMO of the Transformation programme.
• Coach, Train and help instill key OpEx principles, tools and practices, throughout the site.
• Provide analysis of business results and metrics to ensure that targeted areas for improvement are realized, including the annual Site Lean Maturity Self Assessment.
• Partner with business leaders to develop OpEx goals for the various departments and site; all levels of organization to develop employees’ ability to convert continuous improvement ideas into action and realized value.
• Develop and implement OpEx management control system(s) throughout, utilizing monthly metrics as part of the foundation.
• Participate in Change Agent and Change leader network across the global organization and identify replication opportunities.

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications):

• Ideally Black Belt but Minimum Green Belt Trained: a sensei in Lean and continuous improvement facilitation who is a seasoned practitioner and deployer of Lean tools and the Lean management system.
• 3-5 years minimum experience working in Operational Excellence / Transformation Leadership / Operational Leadership role: Leading large/complex kaizen events, delivering rapid results, involving varied participants.
• Track-record of problem solving: DMAIC, A3, 8D, 3C and simple problem solving.
• Bachelors Degree.
• Project management experience.
• Vivid Communication using stories, quotes, analogies, historical references, humour and other rhetorical techniques to make concepts / philosophies / ideas vivid and memorable.
• Workplace Orientation: Belief that problems and improvements can best be approached by “being there”; habit or discipline of putting oneself in the physical position to see / feel / smell the real situation.
• Problem Identification: Identifying cause and effect; identifying what is relevant; asking questions and using the answers, and other information, to decide what is important.
• Change Leadership: The ability to communicate a compelling vision of the organisation’s strategy so that it appears both doable and desirable AND to link and champion the day-to-day activities necessary to achieve it.
• Self Directed: Holding self and others accountable; achieving clarity re “who is to do what, by when and to a specified standard.”
• Openness to, and speed of, learning: Interrogating what has happened to extract lessons; learning and using, to a standard, new information and skills.

What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications):

• Statistical analysis capabilities.
• Experience implementing digital solutions.
• Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Life sciences or biologics experience.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown underrepresented groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Elanco we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. If you think you might be a good fit for a role but don't necessarily meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right candidate for this role or other roles!

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.