Standard Excellence Manager

Key Responsibilities

• Standards
  • Own the end-to-end enterprise standards framework, including definition, governance, risk classification, lifecycle control, and continuous improvement of operational and quality standards.
  • Translate regulatory, corporate, and business strategy requirements into clear, practical, and actionable standards that enable consistent execution across all EU manufacturing sites and operations.
  • Establish and maintain robust governance mechanisms to control the development, approval, deployment, and change of standards, ensuring clear accountability.
  • Ensure standards are inspection-ready by design, risk-based in structure, and fully integrated into SOPs, training programmes, and site processes rather than existing as standalone documentation.
  • Act as the single point of accountability for interpretation of enterprise standards, providing authoritative guidance to sites and operating units to prevent ambiguity, local deviation, and unintended variability.
• Quality Excellence & Continuous Improvement
  • Lead enterprise quality excellence initiatives focused on loss elimination, defect prevention, variability reduction, and right-first-time performance, aligned to QSCP and business objectives.
  • Embed standard work, root-cause problem solving, and continuous improvement disciplines as everyday behaviours, not one-off initiatives.
  • Proactively identify systemic quality risks and recurring failure modes through structured analysis of deviations, CAPAs, complaints, audit findings, and performance data.
  • Drive cross-site learning by identifying repeat issues and translating lessons learned into standard updates, governance improvements, or targeted interventions.
  • Actively support progression of site quality maturity, balancing compliance, efficiency, and operational effectiveness.
• Capability & Change Management
  • Build sustainable organisational capability by defining clear deployment models for standards, supported by training, coaching, and effectiveness checks.
  • Operate as a trusted subject-matter expert across sites, regions, and global functions, providing hands-on support for implementation challenges and complex interpretation topics.
  • Lead and support enterprise-level change activity, ensuring new or updated standards are adopted consistently and effectively, with appropriate stakeholder engagement and readiness.
  • Ensure change is measured and sustained through clear success criteria, post-implementation review, and feedback loops into governance processes.
• Performance, Metrics & Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)
  • Define and own enterprise-level KPIs for standardisation, quality maturity, and governance effectiveness, ensuring alignment between site performance and enterprise expectations.
  • Use performance data to challenge inconsistencies, identify losses, and prioritise improvement actions across sites.
  • Drive tangible reductions in Cost of Poor Quality by linking standards compliance to loss elimination, defect reduction, and prevention of repeat failures.
  • Provide clear, insight-driven reporting to Management Review and Quality Council forums, enabling senior leaders to make informed decisions on risk, prioritisation, and investment.
• Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Partner closely with Operations, Quality, EHS, Supply Chain, and other functions to ensure standards are operationally practical, risk-appropriate, and value-adding.
  • Actively support audit readiness and regulatory inspections by ensuring standards are not only compliant on paper but demonstrably effective in practice.
  • Use audit outcomes, inspection observations, and external benchmarks to continuously strengthen enterprise standards and governance maturity.

Education & Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific, quality, or related technical discipline, or equivalent professional experience in related environments.
• 5–8 years’ progressive experience in quality systems, operational excellence, and enterprise standards governance within regulated or complex manufacturing and operational environments.
• Proven experience defining, governing, and deploying enterprise standards and standard work across multi-site organisations, ensuring consistency while accommodating risk-based differentiation where appropriate.
• Experience translating regulatory, corporate, and business strategy requirements into practical, usable standards that enable compliant, efficient, and sustainable site execution.
• Strong track record in continuous improvement, variability reduction, and loss elimination, including practical application of structured problem-solving methodologies across operational settings.
• Demonstrated ability to balance compliance, operational effectiveness, and business performance, avoiding unnecessary complexity, over-documentation, or “tick-box” compliance.
• Experience identifying and addressing systemic quality and operational risks through the structured analysis of deviations, CAPAs, audit findings, complaints, and performance data.
• Proven experience working in matrixed, cross-functional environments, partnering with Operations, Quality, EHS, Supply Chain, and other functions to embed standards effectively.
• Strong stakeholder management and facilitation experience, with the ability to influence outcomes, align behaviours, and drive change without direct line authority, including engagement with senior leaders and governance forums.