Regional Operational Excellence Manager

Planet Pharma; Germantown (MD); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Planet Pharma is seeking a practical leader to drive Operational Excellence across North America, bridging shop floor and senior leadership. The role focuses on establishing management systems, coaching leaders, and delivering a portfolio of improvement initiatives with measurable benefits.

The successful candidate will build discipline in daily management, tie improvements to financial results, and sustain gains across sites with strong change leadership and stakeholder collaboration.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• 5+ years in Operational Excellence, continuous improvement, manufacturing, engineering, quality, or related discipline.
• Led cross-functional improvement programs with measurable, sustained results.
• Practical experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, structured problem solving.
• Ability to influence, coach, and lead change without direct authority.
• Strong facilitation, communication, stakeholder-management, and project leadership.
• Willingness to travel to North American sites, with occasional international travel.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the North America Operational Excellence roadmap.
• Assess operational maturity and create deployment plans for sites.
• Translate objectives into prioritized improvement initiatives with owners and milestones.
• Partner with leaders to deliver improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, and capacity.
• Lead cross-functional programs from opportunity through sustainment.
• Define baselines, validate benefits, and establish controls to sustain results.
• Establish daily management and visual management practices; drive problem solving.

Skills

Cross-functional leadership

Stakeholder management

Project leadership

Facilitation

Data analysis

Lean Six Sigma

Problem solving

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, life sciences, operations, supply chain, business, or related field

Tools

Power BI

Excel

ERP systems

Job description

Excellence to identify, prioritize, and deliver measurable business improvements. This is a visible transformation role for a practical leader who can move comfortably between the shop floor and senior leadership. The successful candidate will establish effective management systems, coach leaders and teams, develop a strong portfolio of improvement initiatives, and help ensure that benefits are measured, validated, and sustained.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy and Deployment

• Develop and execute the North America Operational Excellence roadmap in alignment with regional business priorities and global Operational Excellence direction.
• Assess operational maturity across supported sites and establish practical deployment plans based on business needs, risks, and opportunities.
• Translate strategic objectives into a prioritized portfolio of improvement initiatives with clear owners, milestones, risks, and success measures.

Business Impact and Portfolio Delivery

• Partner with site and functional leaders to identify and deliver improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, capacity, working capital, and employee capability.
• Lead high-impact, cross-functional improvement programs from opportunity identification through implementation, benefit confirmation, and sustainment.
• Partner with Finance and process owners to define baselines, validate benefits, and establish controls that sustain results.

Operating System and Governance

• Establish and strengthen common practices for daily management, visual management, tiered accountability, leader standard work, and structured problem solving.
• Create an effective review cadence for the regional improvement portfolio and provide concise, data-based updates and recommendations to leadership.
• Identify, document, and scale effective practices across North American sites in partnership with Global Operational Excellence.

Capability Building and Change Leadership

• Coach leaders, project owners, and front-line teams in practical problem solving, change leadership, and continuous improvement methods.
• Facilitate kaizen events, value-stream improvement activities, and other focused interventions that address priority business problems.
• Develop site-level champions and build ownership within the operation so improvements are sustained after implementation.
• Build alignment across functions and sites, address barriers to adoption, and help leaders translate transformation priorities into daily behaviors.

Digital and Analytical Enablement

• Use operational data, visualization, and analytical tools to identify constraints, assess root causes, monitor performance, and support decision-making.
• Partner with Operations, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, Finance, and digital teams to improve the consistency and accessibility of performance information.

Your profile

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, life sciences, operations, supply chain, business, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Five or more years of experience in Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, manufacturing, engineering, quality, supply chain, or a related operational discipline.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional improvement programs that produced measurable and sustained results.
• Practical experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, structured problem solving, or comparable improvement methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to influence, coach, and lead change across functions and levels without relying on direct authority.
• Strong facilitation, communication, stakeholder-management, and project-leadership skills.
• Ability to analyze operational and financial data and translate findings into clear priorities and actions.
• Ability and willingness to travel to supported North American sites, with occasional international travel.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in biotechnology, diagnostics, pharmaceutical, medical device, or another regulated manufacturing environment.
• Working knowledge of GMP, ISO 13485, or comparable quality systems.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Leader, or equivalent demonstrated depth of Operational Excellence experience.
• Experience deploying an operating system or Operational Excellence program across multiple sites.
• Experience partnering with Finance to validate savings, productivity gains, and other business benefits.
• Proficiency with data analysis, visualization, and project-management tools, including Power BI, advanced Excel, ERP or manufacturing data systems, or comparable platforms.