Global Operational Excellence Specialist

A brief overview

 

The Global Operational Excellence (OE) Specialist Lean is the global subject matter expert and authority for Lean systems and flow excellence. The role ensures consistent deployment of Lean principles, standards, and practices across production and transactional environments to deliver measurable, sustainable performance improvements in flow, throughput, lead time, and productivity.

 

What you will do

 

Capability Building, Coaching & Community: Focuses on strengthening Lean expertise across the organization by coaching OE Business Partners, OE Champions, and site leadership teams in Lean leadership behaviors and the practical application of Lean methods. It includes contributing to the OE Academy through the development and delivery of training content, as well as supporting role-based certification pathways. This area also emphasizes curating and sharing best practices, lessons learned, and scalable use cases across the global OE network to foster a strong community of practice. Additionally, it supports the development of consistent Lean competencies and promotes a unified “one Lean language” across regions and functions.

 

Execution & Value Delivery: Focuses on leading and supporting high-impact Lean initiatives across sites and functions, including manufacturing, supply chain, quality interfaces, and transactional processes. It emphasizes driving value stream optimization to improve flow, throughput, and end-to-end lead times from demand to delivery, while enabling systematic identification and elimination of losses in both direct and indirect processes through waste analysis and bottleneck management. This work ensures that Lean initiatives translate into effective problem-solving actions, standardized practices, and control plans that sustain performance over time, while also providing practical on-site and remote support for continuous improvement efforts, value stream transformations, and stabilization phases.

 

Lean Strategy & Standards: Encompasses the ownership, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the enterprise Lean toolbox, including standards, methods, templates, and guidance. It involves defining and governing Lean deployment concepts and systems—such as Value Stream Mapping, Standard Work, SMED, Visual Management, and TPM foundations—while ensuring these standards are aligned with the global Operational Excellence (OE) operating model and fully integrated into site management systems. This function also ensures the development and upkeep of a structured Lean playbook that promotes global consistency, while allowing for controlled local adaptation within established guardrails.

 

Interfaces & OE Governance: Focuses on close collaboration with other OE Specialists to ensure integration of methods and avoid tool fragmentation across the organization. It includes supporting OE governance routines such as maturity assessments, internal audits, and adherence checks to ensure Lean standards are consistently applied. This function also provides expert input into the OE portfolio pipeline, including defining scope, selecting appropriate approaches, identifying resource requirements, and estimating expected business benefits.

 

Qualifications

 

• Bachelor’s degree in pharma, engineering, operations, supply chain, business, or related field
• Lean certification preferred (e.g., Lean Leader, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with strong Lean focus) and strong practical application expertise (preferred)
• Proven experience (5+ years) in Lean deployment and delivery in manufacturing and/or transactional environments.
• Demonstrated track record leading value stream transformations and flow improvements with measurable outcomes.
• Deep expertise in Lean systems, flow, and operational management systems; pragmatic “shopfloor-to-office” orientation
• Strong facilitation, coaching, and stakeholder management across cultures and seniority levels
• Analytical and structured problem-solving with a disciplined approach to baselining, measurement, and sustainability
• Ability to translate standards into actionable practice and enable adoption at scale.
• Global role with regular travel to sites (10–30%) depending on footprint and project pipeline, for global coordination, training delivery, and site support.

 

 

Base Annual Salary Range: $93,850 - $129,043

 

Placement of new hires in this wage range is based on several factors including education, skill sets, experience, and training.

 

Total Rewards

 

We offer all Team Members a total rewards package including competitive