Purpose of the job: Reporting to the Division Vice President, the Lab Director is responsible for taking ownership and operating a successful laboratory. This achieved through displaying an entrepreneurial spirit, inspiring excellence in others, building strong customer relationships, making sound operational decisions and leading change.
Main activities:
Take ownership of the business; develop and implement a strategic plan for the laboratory to meet business goals
Manage financial aspects of the business including budget development, short and long term financial goal setting, P&L
management and executing strategies to achieve goals
Understand and take advantage of available resources to help achieve results in a cost effective, safe, ethical manner
Develop and maintain expertise in the field of food science and related technologies through available library resources and peer expertise
Demonstrate leadership through communication and actions to earn respect and trust of the team
Set the tone of integrity, accountability, excellence and initiative by modeling the behavior that is expected from leaders and staff
Clearly communicate goals and accountability of achievement across all levels of the workforce
Create and foster an environment where coaching and development is a priority to promote employment engagement, career pathing, and organizational succession planning
Understand corporate objectives and manage laboratory performance to maintain or improve operational and financial efficiencies aligning with company goals
Ensure compliance with Mérieux policies and standard operating procedures striving for the highest level of quality, customer
excellence, safety, and efficiency for existing and new business
Ensure exceptional internal and external customer experiences through engagement, attitude, communication and service
Participate in strategic conversations with sales team and dedicate time to meet with current and prospective clients to
understand customer needs and build trusting relationships
Develop deep industry knowledge and play an active role in industry events
Provide technical expertise to clients by helping them interpret laboratory data and suggesting solutions to their related business
challenges
Constantly evaluate laboratory from all aspects and challenge the status quo; analyze and derive strategy that is inclusive of
change, provide clear goals and continually measure progress
Communicate change and stand behind the message; present a united front with corporate partners and leadership team
Participate in the implementation of internal quality control programs, evaluation of the results and in the establishment of the
internal repeatability and reproducibility of standard methods, including participation in internal and external audits
Manage, and check randomly and systematically, that the quality system is documented, effective, updated and being understood and adhered to by the staff.
Monitor the quality activities and implement the agreed corrective action and evaluate its effectiveness
Manage local controlled documents (Manuals, Procedures, Work Instructions, Charts, Guidelines).
Cease specific analyses when evidence from the quality system indicates the process is not in control and the quality of the results are compromised as a result of the non-conformances and (b) to restart work and communicate the resumption of work to
Corporate Sales and Quality groups
Communication:
Internal Interlocutors: Employees, other peers and managers within the network within and external to the Operations team. Communication with the leadership team is consistently expected and required.
External Interlocutors: Communication with clients is expected and required when issues are escalated to the lab director level. Communication with vendors or suppliers is also expected and required in instances where equipment might need to be acquired, maintained, or fixed.