Are you a Lean professional who loves cross functional collaboration and leading continuous improvements? Are you looking for a chance to make a difference for people worldwide? Unlock your future today!

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you’re our kind of person.

We are ambitious, we want to go from good to great – we are not satisfied and we want to continue our journey to become the best in the pharmaceutical industry. Lean is all about identifying where processes can be turned, improving the efficiency of each step. It’s about working together to continually improve what’s being delivered. As part of our ongoing commitment to Lean, we are now searching for a new Lean Coach to join our Lean Centre of Excellence (Lean CoE) team. With your experience, knowledge and personal drive we will succeed together!

Your Business Area

The AstraZeneca’s standard framework for Lean is led out of our Global PMO and governed centrally by our Lean Centre of Excellence team. With our support these standards and strategies are then executed locally by the regional Lean teams, spanning 26 sites and 6 global functions.

Lean CoE have a strong long-term ambition to drive a Lean transformation and embed mature Lean ways of working throughout Global Operations. Looking to the future, our 2025 vision now sees our challenge to optimise and sustain Lean as our Licence to Operate, underpinning our vision so that the Global Operations teams align with Lean and how it will unlock our future success.

As part of Lean CoE you will work cross functional across all of Operations, managing our strategies and supporting first line managers and leaderships team. Being a part of our international team you need to be able to travel approximately 50% of your working time.

What you’ll do

• Support the Global Process Owner Manage Performance to define and deliver the Manage Performance strategy and improvement plan, including quarterly reporting into Operations Scorecard
• Lead the Digital tier network to co-ordinate Tier Process digitisation efforts globally
• Develop and deliver Kaizen events and improvement projects, aligned to Manage Performance Strategy, collaborating with Lean BPO’s, Business BPO’s and teams globally
• Support key global initiatives that are interdependent to Manage Performance, including: Supply Network Planning, Strategy deployment improvement programme, Manufacturing Accounting Project

You will coach functions, leadership teams, peers and employees to develop plans that deliver required uplift in Lean maturity and business value, whilst ensuring alignment to Manage Performance. The role also includes providing necessary coaching and arrange training as required to build and maintain the required levels of  competence and understanding of Manage Performance. You will support BPOs via process approval to confirm adherence to Manage Performance processes.

Essential for the role

• Educated to degree level in Manufacturing, Industrial, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering or equivalent technical/business field
• Demonstrated significant industry related experience in Lean/Six Sigma projects and programs
• Working knowledge of manufacturing and supply chain processes
• Requires a sound understanding of GxP, Safety, Health, Project Management and Change Management

Desirable for the role

• Six Sigma Black Belt training and/or certification
• Expertise in the application of analytical problem solving methodology
• Understanding of Good Automated Manufacturing Practice, current Good Manufacturing Practice and regulations as defined by local regulatory bodies
• Broad understanding of relevant IT systems and how these systems integrate with manufacturing execution business processes and can be used to drive business value
• Keen interest and strength in the area of using data, as well as a strategic approche towards the governance and evolution of data and analytics standards/capabilities 

Why AstraZeneca?

At AstraZeneca when we see an opportunity for change, we seize it and make it happen, because any opportunity no matter how small, can be the start of something big. Delivering life-changing medicines is about being entrepreneurial - finding those moments and recognising their potential. Join us on our journey of building a new kind of organisation to reset expectations of what a bio-pharmaceutical company can be. This means we’re opening new ways to work, pioneering cutting edge methods and bringing unexpected teams together.

Are you ready to bring new ideas and fresh thinking to the table? Excellent! We have one seat available and we hope it’s yours.

We welcome your application no later than 12th July, 2020. For questions about the role, please contact your future manager Stuart Gibbs (Director, Lean Operations).

The location identified above reflects our primary target location for this role but as a Global Operations Network for the right individual  there may be an option to base your activity from another of our key operations facilities, including: Macclesfield, UK; Sodertalje; Wuxi; North Ryde; Gaithersburg, MD; Newark, DE

Date Posted

Closing Date

AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity.  We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills.  We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.  We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics.  We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.