Principal, Operational Excellence
Avid Bioservices
Summary
The Principal, Operational Excellence is a senior individual contributor who designs and implements scalable business processes and operating systems that improve execution, predictability, speed, quality, and organizational performance across Avid Bioservices. The role personally leads complex cross-functional improvements across Manufacturing, MSAT, Quality, Process Development, Engineering, Supply Chain, Business Systems, and related functions. Neither level has direct people-management responsibility.
Job description
Key Responsibilities
- Diagnose and redesign urgent, high-priority cross-functional processes with unclear ownership, fragmented tracking, inconsistent handoffs, delayed decisions, or dependence on informal institutional knowledge.
- Lead process-maturity initiatives from problem definition through future-state design, implementation, adoption, benefits realization, and sustainment.
- Replace person-dependent practices with scalable workflows, named process owners, common tools, measurable performance, decision rights, and reliable escalation pathways.
- Advance Drive to 45 by improving coordination, visibility, handoffs, ownership, issue escalation, and execution discipline across batch review and release.
- Partner with Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Quality Control, MSAT, and other process owners to reduce waiting, rework, recurring delays, and unclear accountability while preserving regulated decision authority with designated functional owners.
- Design and strengthen Tier 1 through Tier 4 routines, metric alignment, escalation pathways, leader routines, decision rights, and action closure.
- Continue developing AXS by integrating daily management, visual performance management, structured problem solving, standard work, leader standard work, and enterprise governance.
- Develop performance and governance frameworks that make outcomes, constraints, risks, dependencies, owners, and required decisions visible.
- Build practical Lean capability through hands-on coaching while maintaining implementation accountability and transferring ownership to process owners.
- Establish sustainment plans with named owners, documented standard work, measures, review routines, and response plans when performance declines.
- At the Senior Principal level, shape enterprise Operational Excellence standards, advise executive leaders on systemic operating-model decisions, and lead Avid’s highest-complexity transformation priorities.
- Perform other job-related duties assigned in support of business priorities.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in science, engineering, business, operations, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
- Progressively responsible experience in Operational Excellence, Lean, manufacturing excellence, business-process improvement, or transformation work.
- Demonstrated implementation and sustainment of operating systems or complex cross-functional improvements in a regulated manufacturing or comparably complex environment.
- Deep knowledge of Lean management systems, tier governance, structured problem solving, value-stream analysis, standard work, performance management, and change execution.
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior, technical, frontline, and, for Senior Principal candidates, executive stakeholders without direct authority.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in biologics, biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, or CDMO operations.
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Master Black Belt, or comparable demonstrated expertise.
- Experience with Manufacturing, MSAT, Quality, Engineering, technology transfer, batch review and release, or business systems.
- Experience implementing tiered-management, daily-management, production-system, or business-excellence frameworks.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in science, engineering, business, operations, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
- Progressively responsible experience in Operational Excellence, Lean, manufacturing excellence, business-process improvement, or transformation work.
- Demonstrated implementation and sustainment of operating systems or complex cross-functional improvements in a regulated manufacturing or comparably complex environment.
- Deep knowledge of Lean management systems, tier governance, structured problem solving, value-stream analysis, standard work, performance management, and change execution.
- Demonstrated ability to influence senior, technical, frontline, and, for Senior Principal candidates, executive stakeholders without direct authority.
- Experience in biologics, biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, or CDMO operations.
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Master Black Belt, or comparable demonstrated expertise.
- Experience with Manufacturing, MSAT, Quality, Engineering, technology transfer, batch review and release, or business systems.
- Experience implementing tiered-management, daily-management, production-system, or business-excellence frameworks.
Benefits
- Health insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- 401(k) matching
- Paid time off
- Performance-based bonuses
Company overview
Avid Bioservices is a leading contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) specializing in biologics derived from mammalian cell culture systems. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Tustin, California, the company has over 30 years of experience in biologics manufacturing. Avid provides comprehensive process development, CGMP clinical and commercial manufacturing services for the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical industries. Their expertise spans from early-stage process development to full-scale commercial manufacturing, including cell line development, upstream and downstream optimization, analytical methods development, and regulatory submissions support. The company has produced more than 250 commercial batches and has five commercial products marketed in over 90 countries. With state-of-the-art facilities and a flawless quality track record maintained for over a decade, Avid Bioservices focuses on transforming the CDMO experience through personalized processes, unrivaled expertise, and exceptional quality standards. The company was recently acquired by GHO Capital Partners and Ampersand Capital Partners in a $1.1 billion transaction, positioning it for continued growth in the biologics manufacturing sector.