Head of Make CoE

About this role

Responsibilities

• Strategy and Roadmap Leadership: Shape, maintain and communicate the Make CoE strategy and multiyear roadmap; ensure clear priorities and measurable value delivery.
• Governance and Alignment: Lead the Make steering committee, co-lead the Make IT Strategy steering committee and actively contribute to Smart Factory and Advanced Data & Analytics governance, achieving enterprise alignment across sites, functions and regions.
• Senior Decision-Making: Formulate compelling business cases, improvement plans and recommendations; present at senior forums to drive decisions that improve quality, performance and productivity.
• Cross-Functional Integration: Partner closely with IT, Data & Analytics, PT&D and GTO to integrate process technology with operational processes, ensuring holistic solutions that scale.
• Smart Factory and Advanced Analytics: Shape and deliver capabilities that advance digital, autonomous and data-driven manufacturing, aligning standards and architecture with business needs.
• End-to-End Process Optimization: Improve integration across the value chain and enabling processes, breaking silos and unlocking flow, reliability and responsiveness.
• Team Leadership and Development: Coach and develop the Make CoE team to excel in collaboration, communication and influencing; build a culture of ownership, curiosity and continuous improvement.
• Business Process Management Excellence: Design, own, maintain and communicate global standards; drive adherence; define global KPIs; monitor and improve performance; codify and spread good practices; strengthen BPM capability across the network.
• Customer Focus and Value Creation: Embed voice of the customer across process networks; deliver solutions that advance Safety, Quality, Sustainability, Lead-time and Productivity.
• Risk and Issue Management: Proactively identify issues and risks; escalate effectively; ensure portfolio transparency and course correction.
• Facilitation and Ways of Working: Run effective meetings and workshops; maintain the Transformation Map; ensure team awareness of interdependent programs and initiatives.
• Digital Integration: Partner with IT and Digital/Autonomous teams to integrate digital and IT solutions with operations processes, staying current with internal and external trends.
• 10+ years of broad experience in pharmaceutical operations, particularly within the area of manufacturing and preferably also in other functional areas of Operations
• Proven ability to effectively partner and collaborate with senior leadership across multiple Operations functions in order to reach optimal enterprise-level decisions that incorporate diverse perspectives and insights
• High level of proficiency in collaborating and influencing at many levels of the company through well-developed communication and interpersonal skills. Must be able to build productive relationships with colleagues across a range of functions including supply sites, IT, Quality, PT&D/GTO, and GERE, amongst others.

Requirements

• Demonstrated strength in verbal, written and presentational skills which are clear and concise, and the ability to communicate effectively to a wide range of groups across many nationalities and cultures.
• Proven ability to lead and coach teammates both in direct-line and dotted-line organizational models
• Broad understanding of IT systems and digital/autonomous solutions, and how these elements integrate with manufacturing processes
• Keen interest and strength in the area of leveraging data to drive business value, as well as a strategic mindset towards the governance and evolution of data and analytics standards and capabilities
• Thorough understanding of regulatory and GMP compliance standards for pharmaceutical operations
• Demonstrated high level of capability and proficiency in Business Process Management principles and their application, with experience from cross-functional, global process work. Genuine belief in and passion for the benefits of BPM
• Track record leading global, cross-site process transformations in pharmaceutical manufacturing
• Experience delivering Smart Factory, Industry 4.0 or autonomous manufacturing capabilities at scale
• Mastery of Lean methods to drive productivity, flow and defect reduction across networks
• Success defining global KPIs and using advanced analytics to steer performance improvement
• Experience operating in complex matrix structures and engaging site, regional and functional leaders
• Credibility presenting at executive governance forums and influencing strategic decisions
• Exposure to end-to-end value chain integration, from technology transfer through commercial supply
• Familiarity with sustainability-by-design approaches within manufacturing environments
• Willingness to travel globally, approximately 15%