Director, Operational Excellence

The Director, Operational Excellence will focus on delivery excellence, process optimization, resource management, and stakeholder management.

The Director will be an operational leader who develops frameworks and effective ways of working on which the organization can build in the coming years.

This includes ownership of organizational resource tracking, resource planning, hiring process support, and staff augmentation vendor management, so the organization has the right talent in the right roles at the right time in line with funds planning.

The Director and team will ensure that the organization develops and fully integrates a continuous improvement culture, with the ultimate goal of ensuring team efficiency, and financial effectiveness.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leads priorities focused on service delivery and capability alignment, resource management, budget/financial management, vendor and technology management, communications, and training
• Partners with the Leadership Team in short- and long-term planning activities that align with the organization's strategy, vision, operational plan, and goals
• Establishes and maintains organization-wide resource tracking, providing visibility into headcount, allocation, capacity, utilization, and cost across colleagues and contingent workers
• Leads resource planning in partnership with the Leadership Team and Finance, forecasting demand, identifying capability and capacity gaps, and recommending the right mix of full-time and augmented staff
• Supports hiring processes in partnership with Talent Acquisition and PX, including position requests and approvals, job description development, requisition tracking, interview coordination, and onboarding readiness
• Manages processes related to staff augmentation vendors, including vendor selection, rate and contract negotiation, performance management, and spend oversight
• Drives innovative thinking and planning, leveraging new technologies as needed, to address the needs of the organization and its individual capabilities
• Challenges the status quo and drives continuous improvement by establishing a solid foundation and implementing standard ways of working, systems, processes, and frameworks
• Works closely with cross-functional peers and team members to consolidate efforts for org processes improvements, but also applies independent decision making to ensure best possible approach is being implemented
• Promotes a continuous improvement mindset and process improvement initiatives through communication, training, and best practices, ensuring accountability through governance
• Has critical impact on significant reduction of administrative and redundant tasks across Engineering & Technology organization through applying most efficient and suitable AI tools and bringing in innovative ways of working
• Builds, develops, and grows relationships with internal and external stakeholders and vendors at every level
• Serves as strategic program/project manager for key organizational projects. Has direct accountability for budget assigned to these projects and management of related vendors, supports oversight processes for organizational budget
• Coaches, mentors, and supports the professional growth of direct reports. Responsible for efficient resource and funds allocation within the team.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree and 8+ years relevant work experience
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and interpersonal, collaboration, and facilitation skills
• Proven analytical and critical thinking skills, and strong background in process improvement
• Practical experience with operational, process improvement, gaining efficiencies and project management methodologies and ability to lead project teams
• Ability to multi-task and handle multiple priorities while managing aggressive deadlines
• Strong ability for independent decision making while working closely with cross-functional peers
• Demonstrated ability to manage/lead complex projects, including resource and budget management for assigned projects

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in related field
• Pharmaceutical or Healthcare industry experience
• Practical experience with organization setup processes that include job descriptions creation, managing hiring processes with human resources, sourcing contracted resources
• Project Management Professional (PMP) and/or Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB)
• Knowledge of or expertise in Digital product development and/or Design Thinking
• Experience driving change in a global, matrixed organization
• Candidate demonstrates a breadth of diverse leadership experiences and capabilities including: the ability to influence and collaborate with peers, develop and coach others, oversee and guide the work of other colleagues to achieve meaningful outcomes and create business impact.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive and generous benefits and programs to help colleagues lead healthy lives and to support each of life's moments
• 401(k) plan with Pfizer Matching Contributions and an additional Pfizer Retirement Savings Contribution
• Paid vacation, holiday and personal days
• Paid caregiver/parental and medical leave
• Health benefits to include medical, prescription drug, dental and vision coverage