Associate Director - Senior Operations Associate

Eli Lilly and Company; Plainfield (IN); On-site; USD 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Senior Operations Associate to enhance its North American Logistics Operation. This role is pivotal in driving business improvement projects, managing warehouse operations, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. The ideal candidate will have a strong operational background, excellent leadership skills, and a passion for problem-solving. You will collaborate across teams to optimize processes and develop metrics that enhance efficiency. This position offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact in a global healthcare leader, contributing to the delivery of life-changing medicines and improving operational excellence.

Benefits

Cell phone provided

Off-hours support for critical issues

Travel opportunities

Philanthropy and volunteerism involvement

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading people in operational or pharmaceutical settings.
• Knowledge of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs).
• Experience in project management and operational efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement business improvement projects.
• Lead initiatives for operational efficiency and resource utilization.
• Ensure compliance with quality standards and training requirements.

Skills

Leadership

Problem Solving

Communication Skills

Operational Efficiency

Project Management

Financial Acumen

Lean Manufacturing Principles

Education

Bachelor's Degree

10+ years work experience

Tools

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Excel

SAP

PowerBI

PowerPoint

TrackWise (QMS)

GMARS (CMMS)

Job description

At Lilly, we unite caring with discovery to make life better for people around the world. We are a global healthcare leader headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. Our employees around the world work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to our communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. We give our best effort to our work, and we put people first. We’re looking for people who are determined to make life better for people around the world.

The Senior Operations Associate supports the North American Logistics Operation (NALO) organization, reporting to the Associate Director of Operations for NALO. The role primarily supports internal US distribution centers (Plainfield, Enfield and Fresno) with occasional support for NALO’s 3PL network. The position is responsible for the design and implementation of business improvement projects, warehouse capacity analysis, operations metrics development and reporting, inventory management, and compliance initiatives. The position has ownership for investigations and deviations within the operations space. It also directly manages the waivers and buyer positions at NALO. To meet customer requirements, this position requires a general understanding of the pharmaceutical industry and distribution, warehousing, both US and OUS traffic management, regulatory and sales practices.

Key Objectives/Deliverables:

Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE):

• Drive an interdependent HSE culture, promoting a safe work practice across all operations personnel.
• Investigate HSE incidents, implement safety initiatives and action items.
  

Quality / Regulatory Compliance:

• Responsible for ensuring that operations SOPs meet the quality standards as defined by cGMPs, the Global Quality Standards, and local Quality procedures.
• Investigate operational events and drive implementation of appropriate countermeasures (Trackwise Lead Investigator and Change Owner).
• Ensure appropriate training curricula are maintained for operations personnel and that personnel are appropriately trained to always perform job tasks.
• Coordinate with maintenance and engineering to ensure that equipment used by operators is maintained in a cGMP manner; assist in development of operator maintenance training program.
• Responsible for ensuring data integrity and good documentation practices across operations roles.
• SME for internal and external audits for all operations processes; prepare operations employees for audits
  

Operations:

• Lead major initiatives to drive efficiency opportunities associated with process flow and resource utilization, ensuring sufficient capacity [space, people, equipment] exists for current and future volumes.
• Partner with Associate Director – Tech@Lilly and Associate Director – Operations, network across Lilly sites and benchmark externally to develop prioritization list for SAP enhancements and process improvements required to improve operational systems and flow.
• Develop robust process for metric gathering and implementation of improvement initiatives. Implement metrics focused on Warehouse & Operations KPIs and Customer-Focused KPIs.
• Directly manage employees responsible for order waiving / planning processes and indirect material purchasing / inventory management.
• Replicate distribution best practices, ensuring alignment where appropriate across all NALO sites.
• Lead Process Team and escalate risks and challenges to Site Lead Team.
• Primary operations coordinator with US Customer Service and LVA to understand customer requirements and schedules, using that information to develop operational support structure and policies.

Financial /Productivity:

• Ensure budget commitments are met, reporting out key trends in monthly metrics updates and providing financial risk/opportunity assessments.
• Drive productivity initiatives for warehouse operations, including development of business cases and validation of savings post-initiative completion.

People Development:

• Provide performance feedback and coaching to Operators in a timely manner.
• Assist Associate Director – Operations in performance management cycle for direct employees; also assist in talent pipeline development across NALO.
• Support SCALE and intern programs as needed.

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree (or 10+ years work experience);
• 5+ years leading people, preferably in an operational or pharmaceutical organization.
• Knowledge of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs).
  

Additional Preferences:

• Highly organized, able to manage competing priorities, able to influence across multiple levels of an organization from site leadership to hourly team members.
• Proven critical problem-solving skills, leadership skills, strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability with computer systems and software (Microsoft Word, Excel, SAP, PowerBI, PowerPoint).
• Knowledge of cGMP, SAP, TrackWise (QMS), and GMARS (CMMS).
• Experience with Change Management, Deviation Management, Periodic Reviews, Routine Data Monitoring / Reporting.
• Root cause analysis and problem solving (CAPA).
• Experience with the principles of lean manufacturing to drive continuous improvement and operational excellence.
• Financial acumen and demonstrated experience in business case creation and analysis.
  

Additional Information:

• Senior Operations Associate will be provided a cell phone and is expected to provide off-hours support for critical issues and decision making.
• Occasional travel to Enfield, CT and Fresno, CA is required (normally 5 – 15%).

Lilly is dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities to actively engage in the workforce, ensuring equal opportunities when vying for positions. If you require accommodation to submit a resume for a position at Lilly, please complete the accommodation request form (https://careers.lilly.com/us/en/workplace-accommodation) for further assistance. Please note this is for individuals to request an accommodation as part of the application process and any other correspondence will not receive a response.

Lilly 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.

Our employee resource groups (ERGs) offer strong support networks for their members and help our company develop talented individuals for future leadership roles. Our current groups include: Africa, Middle East, Central Asia Network, African American Network, Chinese Culture Network, Early Career Professionals, Japanese International Leadership Network (JILN), Lilly India Network, Organization of Latinos at Lilly, PRIDE (LGBTQ + Allies), Veterans Leadership Network, Women’s Network, Working and Living with Disabilities. Learn more about all of our groups.

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