Director of Operations Manufacturing (Life Sciences)

Vida Group International; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Vida Group International in Irvine, CA seeks a Senior Plant Operations Leader to drive manufacturing and distribution integrity, advance safety culture, and align regional plants with company goals.

You will boost productivity, manage budgets, and collaborate with senior leaders to meet quality, cost and on‑time delivery targets. A degree and 10 years of managerial experience are required.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to build on a data-led culture in operations and act as a change driver.
• Degree in a relevant discipline is required or preferred.
• Ten years of managerial experience with budget responsibility in consumer/electro‑mechanical industries.
• Experience in lean manufacturing with strong ops focus, CI and continuous improvement.
• Knowledge of Health, Safety and Environmental legislation and standards.
• Regulatory compliance focus is a plus.
• Proven management in process plant environments.
• Ability to deliver with limited resources (people and money).
• A track record of innovative solutions for single train or multi-product facilities.
• Proven leadership to motivate and develop others.
• Strong talent development and succession planning capabilities.
• Experience with reliability best practices and process improvements.
• Ability to measure performance and achieve objectives.
• Excellent written and oral communication, influencing across all levels.
• Evidence of ongoing senior-level training and development.

Responsibilities

• Ensure manufacturing and distribution operations meet safety and environmental rules and regulations.
• Instill a plant safety culture to drive world-class safety performance.
• Establish strategic goals for manufacturing and technical centers aligned with company values.
• Build collaborative relationships with business leaders and stakeholders.
• Drive productivity and efficiency by monitoring processes and leveraging technology.
• Develop plant strategies to meet safety, quality, cost and on-time delivery goals.
• Create metrics and evaluate efficiency of procedures, applying data-driven improvements.
• Collaborate with plant managers on budgets to promote profitability and monitor margins.
• Manage and develop staff including performance appraisals, hiring and training.
• Communicate with business units to meet company objectives.
• Lead change management for the area of responsibility.
• Coach and mentor teams, fostering global collaboration across regions.
• Provide process technology expertise to operations teams.
• Support process safety programs and sustainability initiatives.

Skills

Data-led culture

Change management

Leadership

Regulatory compliance

Safety culture

Process improvement

Budget management

Stakeholder engagement

Team development

Lean manufacturing

Continuous learning

Performance metrics

Education

Degree in a relevant discipline

Job description

• Ensure that manufacturing and distribution operations meet all company and government safety and environmental rules and regulations.
• Instills a plant safety culture to drive world-class occupational and process safety performance.
• Establish strategic goals for manufacturing and technical center while aligning operational activities with Company goals and values.
• Build collaborative relationships and effectively interact with business, senior leaders and stakeholders.
• Drives plant productivity and efficiency by monitoring processes and leveraging most effective technologies across the regions.
• Establish strategy for plants to ensure that delivery of manufactured products meet safety, quality, cost and on-time delivery goals in support of associated business objectives.
• Create metrics and evaluate the efficiency of business procedures according to organizational objectives and apply improvements by analyzing and interpreting data and metrics of various disciplines.
• Work with plant managers to develop and adjust operation budgets to promote profitability, monitor revenue margins and ensure Company goals areachieved or exceeded.
• Responsible for staff management and development including assigning and directing work, appraising performance, hiring, training and retention, disciplining, addressing complaints and resolving problems.
• Cooperates and effectively communicates with business units to meet Company objectives.
• Leads change management activities for area of responsibility.
• Coach, mentor and develop the team by fostering an environment of continuous learning, and encouraging global collaboration in a geographically and culturally dispersed organization.
• Provides process technology subject matter expertise to operations team.
• Supports and champions any process safety programs, policies and procedures.
• Supports sustainability initiatives.

Knowledge / Experience / Skills Required

• Demonstrated ability to build on new data-led culture in operations facility, and be an effective driver of change.
• Degree in a relevant discipline
• Ten years of managerial experience with budgetary responsibility in the consumer/electro-mechanical industry preferred.
• Ideally from a competitive/lean manufacturing environment, with a strong focus on operations, lean and CI.
• Knowledge of current Health, Safety, and Environmental legislation and standards.
• A keen focus on regulatory compliance a plus.
• Proven management experience in process plant.
• Worked in an environment of leading organization capabilities. In other words able to get it done with limited resources (people and financials).
• Demonstrated ability to create and implement innovative solutions to complex problems running a single train / multi-product operating facility.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, direct and positively motivate others.
• Strong ability to identify, develop and encourage talent.
• Demonstrated results in process improvement and experience in reliability best practices and programs
• Proven ability to measure performance and deliver against objectives.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability to influence all levels of the organization.
• Evidence of ongoing training/development at a senior level to current best practice.