Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company which provides a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries. The Group believes it is the world leader in food, environment and pharmaceutical products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and for supporting clinical studies. In addition, Eurofins is one of the key emerging players in specialty clinical diagnostic testing in Europe and the USA.

Group's key figures are approx. 4,2 billion Euros turnover, 800 laboratories across 47 countries and more than 45.000 staff

Job Location: Any of Eurofins Food Testing Laboratories in Europe.

Within each of its divisions, Eurofins strives to further standardise, streamline and optimise its operations to facilitate intercompany business, improve its overall competitive advantage, develop its ability to serve international key accounts, and leverage network scale effects. Eurofins has launched the “Operational Best Practices” (OBP) programme, as a key pillar of its drive towards the “Ideal BU” through standardisation and optimisation of laboratories. This includes (but is not limited to) identification, documentation, and deployment of best practice in terms of processes, methods, equipment, consumables, quality, layout, KPIs, standard operating times, etc. Another key focus of the OBP programme is to benchmark laboratories, identify gaps to best practice and support & ensure the closing of such gaps to meet the overall objective of operational excellence.

The OBP programme is organised by division (Environment Testing and, Food and Feed Testing) and is sponsored by senior and executive vice-presidents.

As part of the programme, the industrial director Food manages a set of Operation Segment technical & industrial managers, each responsible of the delivery of the programme deliverables in their own Operation Segment / area of focus (e.g. General Food Chemistry, Pesticides, etc.). The industrial director Food is accountable for the programme delivery and the systematic benchmark of laboratories, action plans set-up and overall performance improvement across the Food Testing Division. She/he uses her/his experience, authority and leadership to promote and lead change in the wider organisation. The industrial director Food works in close collaboration with Eurofins Group support functions (e.g. purchasing, Eurofins Technologies, Permanent Improvement Programmes, IT) to ensure disruptive, innovate and sustainable improvements are generated, in line with Group guidelines, tools and methodologies. The industrial director Food is accountable and responsible for the industrialisation of the division. Together with the Operation Segment technical & industrial managers, she/he defines and aligns the future laboratory footprint per continent (production centres, competence centres, proximity laboratories, etc.), and leads all laboratories towards this desired state.

The candidate will be located in a large Eurofins campus in Europe, and will report to the Chief Operating Officer Food & Environement. It is critically important that the candidate be trained to and aligned with Eurofins contemporary practices and philosophies with respect to method harmonisation, Best Practice instrumentation, Eurofins productivity performance measurement methodologies, KGDs and any other group initiatives.

The industrial director Food has objectives along the three following dimensions:

1. Technical & Operation Segment testing methods excellence;

2. Operations excellence;

3. Laboratory industrialisation.

   The industrial director manages the different Operation Segment technical & industrial managers, gets support from internal consultants from the programme management office, and reports to the programme leadership and sponsors.

1. Technical & Operation Segment testing methods excellence

The industrial director Food provides senior leadership and guidance to the OBP programme for the Food division, its Operation Segment technical & industrial managers and all involved expert teams (OBP Cross Company Team (CCT) for each Operation Segment), to ensure the OBP programme is well structured and governed. She/he steers all the related networks so that all programme deliverables, aligned with group leadership, are delivered in a timely manner. The industrial director Food liaises with all involved parties (including local lab management) to ensure relevant experts are involved in the best practice definition process (for methods, equipment, processes, consumables, quality, standard operating times for the production of each activity/step of each test, KPIs, etc.). She/he uses her/his technical expertise and experience to review and challenge the programme best practices and conclusions. She/he brings updates and identified challenges / roadblocks to executive meetings (Food Executive Committee Meeting). Based on her/his knowledge of the Food industry, the industrial director Food provides strong technical support to Key Account Management programmes; she/he drives and influences innovation in the Group (including a strong collaboration with Eurofins Technologies).

2. Operations Excellence

The industrial director Food ensures that benchmarking tools and methodologies are consistently developed by all Operation Segment technical & industrial managers for their respective Operation Segments. She/he leads benchmarking across the world (based on the individual Operation Segment benchmark material), and drives and ensures convergence towards operational excellence of all laboratories in terms of TAT, quality and costs. She/he ensures that all support functions (e.g. Sample reception, logistics, homogenisation, etc.) are included in the benchmarks. The industrial director Food relies on her/his own experience and on Eurofins wide network to generate and stimulate change in the organisation (e.g. she/he ensures expert visits are happening between laboratories, she/he removes obstacles for implementation, strongly supporting Operation Segment technical & industrial managers recommendations towards local management).

The industrial director Food stimulates a permanent benchmarking mind-set within the division.

3. Laboratory industrialisation

Based on the group strategy, and on the recommendations of the Operation Segment technical & industrial managers, the industrial director Food defines the future Eurofins laboratory network. She/he ensures liaison with all involved support functions (e.g. purchasing, IT, Lean, etc.) to ensure effective implementation. The industrial director Food defines the future competence centres map in the different regions/continents, based on fact-based evidences and local expertise. She/he suggests method development or acquisition targets to answer potential gaps in the Eurofins laboratory landscape. The industrial director Food is involved in post-acquisition on-boarding processes from a technical, operations excellence and laboratory industrialisation point of view.

• A Master in Engineering, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology or any other degree that is relevant for the expert working group.

• Typical previous experience for an Industrial Director Food / OBP Leader is Business Unit Manager / General Manager / Country Division Manager / Cluster Manager – a highly capable, recognised technical business and people leader, problem solver and project manager.

• At least 7 years’ experience in relevant business area of the Operation Segments, with specific expertise on testing methods, equipment, consumables and processes, being able to identify and describe best practice and implement it.

• At least 5 years’ experience in leading teams. Some of the experience should include remote leading decentralised teams, and leading teams that are not under direct formal responsibility.

• Excellent English oral and written is a must. German / French are considered a plus. Very good communication skills are a key pre-requisite as the Industrial Director / OBP Leader has to interact with CCT team members and lab stakeholder on a regular basis.

• Personal skills:

  • Very strong interpersonal skills (e.g. interview skills, oral and written communication skills, presentation skills) as this role will interface a lot with local resources and experts to understand and document processes.

  • Proven change management and influencing skills.

  • Ability to define concepts, align them with key stakeholders in different countries and describe them clearly and concisely.

  • Structured, analytical and driven personality, able to own and drive a working group with limited governance and guidance from programme leadership.

  • Strong problem-solver with “can-do” mentality, able to both pragmatically define solutions and capture and understand all relevant details when necessary.

• Technical knowledge IT: MS Office products, Access DB a plus.

EVOLUTION:

In a fast growing group, successful leaders are frequently being offered increased areas of responsibility (subject to geographic mobility).

Eurofins offers international opportunities to strong performers.