Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins works with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate. Eurofins believes it is a global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics 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, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies.

In over just 30 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to over 55,000 staff across a network of more than 1000 independent companies in over 50 countries and operating more than 900 laboratories. Eurofins offers a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products, as well as providing innovative clinical diagnostic testing services, as one of the leading global emerging players in specialised clinical diagnostics testing. In 2020, Eurofins generated total revenues of EUR € 5.4 billion, and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.

The Lean Program Leader – Australia / New Zealand will oversee and coordinate the lean and operational-improvement practices occurring across Eurofins in Australia and New Zealand.

The Lean Program Leader will be responsible for enhancing the lean capabilities of our lean professionals and operational staff within the region, and will support the further development and implementation of Lean at Eurofins. This will be achieved by driving Lean projects, coaching and supporting local Lean teams, taking direct control of a number of local and regional lean projects, further developing the “Eurofins Lean Academy”, and by coordinating annual operational budgets and regular operational reviews with management.

The focus of Eurofins Lean projects is on sustainable change, not only on quick wins. While Lean Program Leaders at Eurofins globally use a clearly defined methodology that is adapted to the service industry, the focus is on systematic problem solving and coaching, and not on dogmatic implementation of all classical Lean tools or on just optimizing specific pain points. Strong project and change management skills are required for successful Lean implementation in a decentralized organization such as Eurofins. 

Key Position Objectives:

• Support the further development of the “Eurofins Lean Academy”.
• Support the dissemination of the “Eurofins Lean Academy”.
• Launch and run Lean projects.
• Support mature lean projects and coach experienced Local Lean Project Managers.
• Participates in the selection of local Lean project managers.
• Define best practices of lean within the group.
• Support or lead other Permanent Improvement Programs initiatives.

• Strong change management skills required and good interpersonal skills (team management, written and oral communication, presentation skills) are important as the operational excellence program is all about changing the way people work.
• Engineering or economics qualifications and/or university master’s level qualifications, will be an advantage.
• Experience in a commercial laboratory is an advantage.
• Extensive formal and on-the-job training in Lean / Operational excellence concepts, and at least 3 years of implementation experience.
• Total professional experience of more than 5 years, with at least 3 of which working on lean or operational excellence projects and at least 1 year of leadership experience (e.g. run a pilot or local implementation), will be an advantage.
• Good knowledge of standard office applications, especially MS Word, MS PowerPoint, and MS Excel. General knowledge about systems, IT architecture and production control, will be an advantage.
• Strong project and change management skills are required for successful Lean implementation in a decentralized organization such as Eurofins.               
• Team management skills required. Experience running a core team of approx. 5 people during a lean implementation, excluding all the stakeholders and external team members (e.g. such as local plant staff) is required.

• Holidays: According to local legislation and Eurofins local internal rules. Peak periods of work, during which leave applications may be limited.
• Driving license required: Yes, local land-based travel is required.
• Additional local, national, and international travel

This opportunity is only open to candidates who are eligible to work in Australia/New Zealand, and already have work rights or an appropriate working visa.