Job Details

Location: Irvine, CA (hybrid schedule)

Contract Length: 12 Months

Pay Rate: $80-90/hr

Purpose:

The Project Manager, Business Excellence Strategy and Operations works with cross-functional and divisional stakeholders to optimize centralized operational functions in support of Research and Development.

Responsible for driving continuous improvement in R&D business processes including procurement, invoicing, and meeting management.

Working directly with business owners, facilitating end to end procure to pay operational support as needed (e.g., order creation, invoice resolution, new vendor initiation).

Brings a continuous improvement mindset, proactively identifying inefficiencies/pain points within current business processes and working with the broader team to propose fit for purpose solutions.

The ideal candidate will be adept at extracting data from a variety of systems (mainly smartsheets), cleaning and transforming this data, and creating insightful dashboards.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for driving efficiency in E2E procure to pay processes including (but not limited to) new order creation, new vendor qualification, invoice payment
• Partners effectively with business owners to ensure timely execution and resolution of requests
• Provides visible metrics, tracking and early escalation for all key initiatives under support to ensure rapid resolution, cross-business learnings and continuous improvement
• Serves as point of contact for business operations challenges in R&D, working with broader Business Excellence team to triage and provide appropriate support model (e.g., direct intervention vs handoff to supporting stakeholders)
• Pulls together key learnings/opportunities in slide presentations for team problem solving and business case development
• Supports business operations initiatives to streamline processes cross functionally both within function and across R&D
• Anticipates emerging issues and proactively develops solutions working with R&D Business Excellence team
• Establishes partnerships with key counterparts in R&D functional teams and supporting functions (e.g., Finance, procurement, AP)
• Interacts with external stakeholders as needed as point of contact for procure to pay related queries
• Collaborates with other business excellence groups to share best practices and learnings

Qualifications/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree required. Advanced degree/certifications a plus.
• Minimum of 8 years total experience required, 6+ years Business related. 4+ years in pharmaceutical, healthcare or regulated industry and strong knowledge in pharmaceutical regulations i.e. FDA and European Union preferred. 3+ years experience in a business operations role; and/or experience in finance/accounting/procurement strongly preferred. Strong knowledge of pharmaceutical regulations, i.e. FDA and European Union and their impact to organization processes and technology tools preferred.
• Expertise in leveraging operational excellence concepts and problem-solving frameworks to remove waste and inefficiencies in business processes.
• Experience with change management in implementing new processes
• Expertise with driving efficiency in purchasing or financial processes required (including SAP, purchasing, vendor contracts, purchase order set up and invoice resolution).
• Proficiency in project planning experience preferred including managing multiple ongoing initiatives/workstreams
• Experience in leveraging qualitative/quantitative data to develop business case
• Proficiency in excel, smartsheets and other advanced software analytics tools preferred (e.g., Smartsheets, PowerBI)
• Experience working in a complex and matrixed environment required. Demonstrated ability to own proactive problem solving/stakeholder management to drive the business forward
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written required.