Manager Operational Excellence

Sterigenics U.S., LLC; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Sterigenics U.S. LLC is seeking an Operational Excellence (Op Ex) Manager to drive strategic initiatives across our global facilities. The role focuses on improving quality, productivity, labor, and cost savings while fostering a culture of safety, discipline, transparency, and accountability.

The candidate will map processes, analyze data, identify root causes, and implement scalable improvements across multiple sites. Travel 25–50% is expected to support global operations.

Qualifications

• Minimum BA or BS (or international equivalent).
• Lean / Six Sigma experience required or preferred.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Deploy best practices across all business units and regions.
• Identify opportunities to drive standardization, automation, and profitability.
• Act as change agent to improve operational efficiencies without disrupting site success.
• Develop and manage KPIs and action plans for continuous improvement.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives and facilitate process mapping and data analysis.

Skills

Lean

Six Sigma

PMP

Analytical thinking

Change management

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

MS Office

Minitab

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. Reporting to the Sr. Director of Operational Excellence, the Operational Excellence (Op Ex) Manager is responsible for the execution of strategic initiatives and capability building as part of the Operational Excellence program for Sterigenics. The position will work collaboratively with employees and the management team to implement operational improvements that focus on improving quality, productivity, labor, and cost saving efficiencies. This role will serve as a change agent for developing and encouraging a culture that is driven by safety, discipline, transparency, and accountability. The Op Ex Manager will assist in executing strategic performance analysis, gap assessment, opportunity identification and change implementation for critical processes across the organization, to deliver a scalable and sustainable best in class operations environment for the business. Will facilitate cross-functional initiatives for mapping process flow paths, gathering and analyzing process data to identify root cause problems, identifying areas of process improvements, and use of process techniques to develop solutions to improve and enable measurable results in process efficiency, customer satisfaction, product quality that drives higher productivity and an increase in profitable growth.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Deploy best practices across all business units, and regions.
• Identify opportunities that will benefit customers to drive standardization, automation and profitably.
• Create, communicate and support strategies aimed at changing behaviors, without disrupting the legacy of success within the sites themselves.
• Understand inherent cultures, motivation and action.
• Act as a champion and change agent for driving positive culture change and improving operational efficiencies while deploying new techniques and tactics.
• Develop and manage a monthly report of KPIs, identifying critical issues and action plans to attack problems.
• Provide external benchmarking, industry best practice identification, evaluation, and adoption plans.
• Lead cross-training initiatives, aimed at broadening the overall knowledge of the business, while fostering team building, and improved individual growth and performance.
• Develop, maintain and ensure regulatory compliance with procedures and metrics that impact quality, safety, process and productivity improvements throughout the company.

Professional and Cultural Characteristics

• Strong business acumen.
• A “spark in the eyes” team player, cooperative, unselfish, thinks company-wide, not departmentally, who can work easily and synergistically with other functional departments.
• Ability to effectively interpret and communicate details, into concise and understandable facts, numbers, and actionable items.
• Must be a change agent, never satisfied with the status quo.
• Initiates action, overcomes obstacles, make progress and drive a process or project from start to finish as an individual or within a team to achieve acceptable results.
• Works with aggressiveness, tenacity, persistence, and intelligent forcefulness.
• Uncompromising integrity, moral values, and ethics.
• Honest, truthful, straight forward.
• Professional in appearance, demeanor, operating styles manifested in image, thoroughness, completeness, accuracy, polish, appropriateness, integrity, effectiveness.
• Performs at high standards.

Education Required

1. Minimum BA or BS (or international equivalent).

Experience and Skills Required

1. Ideal candidate should have 3-5 years hands on practicing Lean, Six Sigma experience.
2. 5-10 years of progressive experience, at a project level, in an individual contributor role, developing, initiating and supporting Operational Excellence initiatives in a global organization.
3. 5-10 years of experience in a transactional or services business with an operational emphasis in Supply Chain optimization.
4. Preference toward Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean, Six Sigma certifications.
5. Preference toward candidates with multi-site global experience, operating in different time zones & cultures.
6. Record of delivering quantifiable efficiencies/performance optimization and implementing change across multiple functional areas.
7. Analytical and problem-solving skills.
8. Excellent communication skills with ability to secure alignment and influence without authority at senior-leader levels.
9. Excellent computer skills (MS products, MiniTab).
10. Must be able to travel 25-50% to various locations as needed and have a valid passport.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or protected veteran status.

Sterigenics U.S. LLC takes affirmative action in support of its policy to employ and advance in employment individuals who are minorities, women, protected veterans, and individuals with disabilities.

VEVRAA Federal Contractor 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 its 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.