Associate Director, Operational Excellence

What if the work you did every day could impact the lives of people you know? Or all of humanity?

At Illumina, we are expanding access to genomic technology to realize health equity for billions of people around the world. Our efforts enable life-changing discoveries that are transforming human health through the early detection and diagnosis of diseases and new treatment options for patients.

Working at Illumina means being part of something bigger than yourself. Every person, in every role, has the opportunity to make a difference. Surrounded by extraordinary people, inspiring leaders, and world changing projects, you will do more and become more than you ever thought possible.

The Associate Director, Operational Excellence is a pivotal leader and true partner across every function at Illumina. In this role, you’ll collaborate directly with the leadership team to drive high‑impact transformations that fuel our company strategy, deploy our Operational Excellence business systems, and build strong, self‑sustaining capabilities across the organization.

This is an opportunity to be at the center of Illumina’s innovation engine — shaping how we operate, elevating our performance, and influencing the way teams across the company work and grow. You’ll thrive here if you love solving complex challenges, navigating across diverse disciplines, and empowering, inspiring, and mentoring teams to create smarter, simpler, more effective ways of working.

At Illumina, your contributions directly support life‑changing science, and this role places you right where impact meets purpose.

Responsibilities:

• Partner with Sr Leaders and their leadership teams in Lean/Operational Excellence system deployment and maturity

• Supports and leads complex improvement and optimization projects/initiatives in the areas of Safety, Quality, Productivity and Cost savings

• Conducts training in continuous improvement methodologies and mentor others in the application of these methods

• Facilitates/assists business process management and the teams supporting continuous improvement.

• Contributes to/Drives business process management and helps to ensure sites have installed and are effectively practicing business processes

• Coordinate stakeholders to develop area specific roadmap as part of site/functional strategy.

• Lead functions to development, implementation and monitoring of goals and KPI’s through strategy deployment

• Oversees functional Operational Excellence Project Portfolio and chairs the Operational Excellence Steering committee

• Promote site level communication and sharing through network.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in a technical/quantitative field (PhD/MBA/MS preferred).

• 15 years of experience. >7 years in business process transformation/Operational Excellence deployment and >7 years of Operational Excellence program management experience.

• Preferred: Lean Six Sigma Blackbelt or Master Blackbelt certification

• Preferred: experience in a regulated healthcare environment.

• Preferred: AI and RPA automation experience or process mining experience

• Strong project management skills and adaptability to a fast-paced environment

• Demonstrated experience in driving continuous improvement culture and operating system across an enterprise and ability to navigate and influence across all levels of an organization, translating strategic vision into tangible outcomes

• Consistent track record of collaboration, including the ability to work with cross-functional teams, and across complex ecosystems

• Exceptional written and verbal communications skills (including articulating \ vision, inspiring teams, and presenting to senior executives).

• Strong sector and enterprise mindset, and strong business/financial acumen

• Strong negotiation and interpersonal skills

• Excellent stakeholder management and networking skills required

The estimated base salary range for the Associate Director, Operational Excellence role based in the United States of America is: $178,800 - $268,200. Should the level or location of the role change during the hiring process, the applicable base pay range may be updated accordingly. Compensation decisions are dependent on several factors including, but not limited to, an individual’s qualifications, location where the role is to be performed, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Additionally, all employees are eligible for one of our variable cash programs (bonus or commission) and eligible roles may receive equity as part of the compensation package. We offer