Manager Lab Operations - Healthcare Reprocessing

Nelson Laboratories, LLC; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The Laboratory Operations Manager at Sotera Health leads a high-performing team to deliver safe, compliant, and efficient laboratory operations. You will drive staffing, performance metrics, and continuous improvement initiatives in alignment with quality standards and regulatory requirements.

This frontline leadership role focuses on coaching, accountability, and developing employees to meet current and future business needs while partnering with the Senior Laboratory Operations Manager to

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with potential for people management and leadership training.
• Laboratory science education, experience, or certifications preferred.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills to lead a cross-functional team.

Responsibilities

• Talent Management: recruit, onboard, develop, engage, and retain employees with regular coaching.
• Department Level Operations and Strategic Oversight: oversee daily lab operations, staffing, capacity, and performance metrics.
• Continuous Improvement & Business Performance: lead problem-solving to improve efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction.
• Regulatory Compliance & Quality: ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and quality systems.

Skills

People management

Leadership

Communication

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Change advocacy

Excel / data analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Outlook

LOMS (lab operating systems)

Job description

The name Sotera Health was inspired by Soteria, the Greek goddess of safety, and reflects the Company’s unwavering commitment to its mission, Safeguarding Global Health®. Sotera Health Company is a leading global provider of mission-critical sterilization and lab testing and advisory services for the healthcare industry. With a combined tenure across our businesses of nearly 200 years and our industry recognized scientific and technological expertise, we help to ensure the safety of millions of patients and healthcare practitioners around the world every year. Across our 64 facilities worldwide, we have over 3,000 employees who are dedicated to safety and quality. We are a trusted partner to more than 5,800 customers in over 50 countries, including more than 40 of the top 50 medical device companies and 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies.

Job Summary

The Laboratory Operations Manager is responsible for leading, developing, and motivating a high-performing team while ensuring operational excellence, employee engagement, and business performance. This role serves as a frontline people leader who establishes clear expectations, drives accountability, provides ongoing coaching and feedback, and develops employees to meet both current and future business needs. The Laboratory Operations Manager partners closely with the Senior Laboratory Operations Manager to execute departmental strategy, optimize operational effectiveness, improve key performance indicators, and ensure alignment with company values, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.

The role is accountable for workforce planning, continuous improvement initiatives, operational execution, and fostering a culture of safety, collaboration, accountability, and customer focus.

Essential Duties

• Talent Management: Lead the recruitment, onboarding, development, engagement, and retention of employees. Conduct regular one‑on‑one meetings with direct reports focused on development, performance, career growth, and engagement. Establish clear expectations, goals, and performance standards for employees. Provide timely coaching, recognition, and constructive feedback to support employee success. Hold employees accountable to department objectives, company values, policies, and behavioral expectations. Partner with Senior Manager and/or Human Resources to effectively address performance concerns, employee relations matters, and development opportunities. Develop individual development plans and growth strategies for employees. Create a culture of accountability, collaboration, professionalism, learning, and continuous improvement. Lead succession planning efforts to ensure business continuity and future leadership readiness. Identify and implement strategies that improve employee engagement and retention.
• Department Level Operations and Strategic Oversight: Lead day‑to‑day operational execution to ensure safe, efficient, and effective laboratory performance. Manage staffing plans, workload balancing, and resource allocation to meet customer commitments and operational objectives. Monitor workflow and capacity to proactively address constraints and changing business demands. Utilize operational metrics and key performance indicators to evaluate performance, identify trends, and implement improvements. Drive achievement of service, quality, productivity, turnaround time, and utilization goals. Partner with other departments to ensure a seamless customer experience and effective cross‑functional collaboration. Learn, champion, and leverage laboratory operating systems (LOMS) and other business systems to improve visibility, performance, and decision making. Support implementation of new technologies, systems, and operational processes.
• Continuous Improvement & Business Performance: Lead problem‑solving efforts related to people, process, quality, and customer concerns. Support implementation of strategic initiatives designed to improve efficiency, quality, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement. Ensure training programs maintain employee competency and business continuity. Support inventory and supply‑chain planning activities. Promote visibility of performance results through effective metric communication and team engagement.
• Regulatory Compliance & Quality: Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, quality systems, and customer commitments. Promote adherence to company policies, procedures, and safety requirements. Participate in quality investigations, corrective actions, and continuous quality improvement initiatives. Support implementation of company safety programs and initiatives.

Professionalism

Attend work regularly and reliably. Adhere to all policies and procedures. Perform other duties as assigned.

Competencies of this Position

• Strong people management capability.
• Desire to develop others.
• Ability to manage priorities and organize time.
• Good communication skills - written and verbal.
• Ability to manage conflict and have difficult conversations.
• Problem solving - employee issues, laboratory processes, customer challenges.
• Must be able to work cross functionally and break down silos to ensure we deliver an excellent customer experience.
• Be a change advocate.
• Persuasion and negotiation skills with staff.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office products, especially with Excel and Outlook.

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional office and lab environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, keyboards, computer mouse, phones, photocopiers, projectors and file cabinets. This role occasionally enters into the lab to perform work.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met to perform the essential job functions. Must be able to move/traverse 10% of the day and remain in a stationary sitting/standing position at a desk while using a computer, keyboard, computer mouse and phone 90% of the day. This position does not require heavy lifting greater than 50lbs.

Education and Experience Requirements

Bachelors degree with a potential for people management; Introduction to leadership training required. Laboratory science education, experience, or certifications preferred. Business/Management training preferred.

Sotera Health Goes to Market

Sotera Health goes to market through its three best‑in‑class businesses – Sterigenics®, Nordion® and Nelson Labs®. Sterigenics is a leading global provider of outsourced terminal sterilization and irradiation services for the medical device, pharmaceutical, food safety and advanced applications markets. Nordion is the leading global provider of Co‑60 and gamma irradiators, which are key components to the gamma sterilization process. Nelson Labs is a global leader in outsourced microbiological and analytical chemistry testing and advisory services for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.

Come Make a Difference with Us

Sotera Health is driven by its mission, Safeguarding Global Health®. Along with our three best‑in‑class businesses – Sterigenics®, Nordion® and Nelson Labs® – we are a leading global provider of mission‑critical end‑to‑end sterilization solutions and lab testing and advisory services for the healthcare industry.