Senior Lean Six Sigma & Operational Excellence Lead

Corden Pharma - A Full-Service CDMO; Boulder (CO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Health Insurance—PPO/HSA

Paid Parental Leave

Wellness Program

Job summary

Corden Pharma Colorado is seeking a Senior Operational Excellence Specialist to drive the site’s Lean Six Sigma initiatives and multi-functional improvement projects. You will partner with leadership to identify opportunities, develop roadmaps, and manage portfolio impact across safety, quality, delivery, and cost.

The role requires strong change management skills, mentoring of Green/Black Belts, and ability to influence at all organization levels.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a Science or Engineering field; 10 years total professional experience in manufacturing, operations, engineering, quality, supply chain, laboratory operations, or pharmaceuticals.
• Five years of direct Operational Excellence, Lean, Six Sigma or Continuous Improvement Leadership experience.
• Black Belt certification and experience with statistical analysis is preferred.
• GMP experience preferred and CDMO experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead large-scale, cross-functional, and value stream-level Operational Excellence initiatives that deliver substantial and sustainable improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, and customer satisfaction.
• Partner with value stream leadership and site leaders to identify, prioritize, and develop improvement roadmaps aligned with operational objectives and strategic goals.
• Maintain a customer-focused mindset and identify innovative improvement opportunities while ensuring compliance with safety, quality, regulatory, and business requirements.
• Translate business challenges into improvement portfolios, business cases, and execution plans, ensuring resources and efforts are focused on the highest-value opportunities.
• Drive performance management systems by establishing, analyzing, and improving leading, lagging, process, and key performance indicators that support sustainable business results.
• Validate and communicate operational and financial benefits of improvement initiatives, partnering with business leaders to ensure realization and sustainability of results.
• Measure and track project benefits, including productivity, cycle time, quality, capacity, and cost savings, and support validation of results.
• Facilitate Kaizen events, process mapping workshops, root cause analyses, and other continuous improvement activities within departments or functional areas.
• Direct and continuously improve site Operational Excellence programs including 6S, OEE, Lean Labs, Visual Factory, and Daily Management Systems to drive site-wide adoption and maturity.
• Lead and coach Green Belt and Black Belt projects across Manufacturing, Development, Quality, Supply Chain, and supporting functions
• Serve as a site Subject Matter Expert in Lean Six Sigma methodologies, advanced problem-solving, value stream optimization, and continuous improvement best practices
• Mentor leaders, managers, and Operational Excellence practitioners to strengthen organizational capability, accountability, and continuous improvement of culture
• Influence decision-making at all levels of the organization by using project results, operational data, business priorities, and OE Program insights to recommend strategic improvement priorities to site leadership
• Act as a change agent by promoting Operational Excellence principles, sharing success stories, and driving engagement in improvement initiatives

Skills

Lean Six Sigma

Change management

Financial analysis

Leadership

Project management

GMP/CDMO experience

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Science or Engineering

Black Belt certification

Tools

Statistical analysis

Job description

Corden Pharma Colorado is seeking a Senior Operational Excellence Specialist to drive the site’s Lean Six Sigma initiatives and multi-functional improvement projects. You will partner with leadership to identify opportunities, develop roadmaps, and manage portfolio impact across safety, quality, delivery, and cost.

The role requires strong change management skills, mentoring of Green/Black Belts, and ability to influence at all organization levels.