Director, Operational Excellence at Lonza Inc. in Walkersville, Maryland

Job Description:

Today, Lonza is a global leader in life sciences operating across three continents. While we work in science, there’s no magic formula to how we do it. Our greatest scientific solution is talented people working together, devising ideas that help businesses to help people. In exchange, we let our people own their careers. Their ideas, big and small, genuinely improve the world. And that’s the kind of work we want to be part of.

The Operational Excellence Director is an integral part of the Walkersville Site Leadership Team as they endeavor to empower the team to eliminate waste, drive results and create value for Lonza and our customers.   The Director, OpEx will drive the transformation towards a lean organization with the overall development and deployment of site strategic and tactical plans leveraging OpEx-, PMO-, and training resources.  The successful candidate will create value by understanding process, flow and customer needs and aligning with Lonza methodologies and strategies. 

See what we are all about: About Us | Lonza

The ideal Operational Excellence Director will be an experienced lean transformation leader with a proven track record of implementing positive change within a cGMP environment.  This person will also be flexible to adapt to changing business priorities and will promote continuous improvement and lean initiatives to improve safety, quality, service, productivity, cost, and engagement.

Key responsibilities:

• Collaborates with the local Walkersville operations team and the Bioscience network functions to design and build a capable, and agile organization with the technical skills, experience, behaviors and know-how to continually build the innovation funnel and sustainably deliver results


• Drives overall transformation towards a lean organization


• Oversee the development and implementation of fit-for-purpose, standardized project management, LBMS, and related training processes and tools to facilitate and assess project planning, program budgeting, risk identification and management, change management, program governance, prioritization and project status reporting


• Ensure all executed projects, programs, and related training are aligned with site objectives and adhere to all the defined processes and meet the required standards for planning and execution


• Generates and implements strategies to ensure optimal flow of materials & information to enable all activities across the value chain to consistently deliver to customer and business expectations


• Develops Walkersville capabilities for analytics and data science, from defining performance metrics and balanced scorecards that support the strategic aims of the Bioscience business, to establishing best practice for collecting, curating, and analyzing data to drive decision-making

Key requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Science, Business, Engineering or related field; MBA a strong plus


• Prior Supervisory experience


• Green Belt certification desired


• Experience and demonstrated success in leading lean transformation in Life Science and/or Bio Pharma industry


• In depth knowledge of large-scale biologic, pharmaceutical or medical device manufacturing, cGMP and US/EU regulations.   


• Must have strong organizational skills and be able to manage and prioritize multiple projects or assignments at one time, including the ability to follow assignments through to completion and meet deadlines. 


• Strong capability in RCI, definition of problem statement and lean problem solving tools


• Able to communicate status, needs, forecasts, risks and timelines effectively to management

Every day, Lonza’s products and services have a positive impact on millions of people. For us, this is not only a great privilege, but also a great responsibility. How we achieve our business results is just as important as the achievements themselves. At Lonza, we respect and protect our people and our environment. Any success we achieve is no success at all if not achieved ethically.

People come to Lonza for the challenge and creativity of solving complex problems and developing new ideas in life sciences. In return, we offer the satisfaction that comes with improving lives all around the world. The satisfaction that comes with making a meaningful difference.

Lonza is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a qualified individual with disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law