Manager Lab Operations - Healthcare Reprocessing

Sotera Health•Salt Lake City, UT

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Laboratory Operations Manager is responsible for leading, developing, and motivating a high-performing team while ensuring operational excellence, employee engagement, and business performance. This role serves as a frontline people leader who establishes clear expectations, drives accountability, provides ongoing coaching and feedback, and develops employees to meet both current and future business needs. The Laboratory Operations Manager partners closely with the Senior Laboratory Operations Manager to execute departmental strategy, optimize operational effectiveness, improve key performance indicators, and ensure alignment with company values, quality standards, and regulatory requirements. The role is accountable for workforce planning, continuous improvement initiatives, operational execution, and fostering a culture of safety, collaboration, accountability, and customer focus.

Requirements

Strong people management capability
Desire to develop others
Ability to manage priorities and organize time
Good communication skills - written and verbal
Ability to manage conflict and have difficult conversations
Problem solving - employee issues, laboratory processes, customer challenges
Must be able to work cross functionally and break down silos to ensure we deliver an excellent customer experience.
Be a change advocate
Persuasion and negotiation skills with staff
Proficiency with Microsoft Office products, especially with Excel and Outlook
Bachelors degree with a potential for people management; Introduction to leadership training required.

Nice To Haves

Laboratory science education, experience, or certifications preferred.
Business/Management training preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the recruitment, onboarding, development, engagement, and retention of employees
Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with direct reports focused on development, performance, career growth, and engagement
Establish clear expectations, goals, and performance standards for employees
Provide timely coaching, recognition, and constructive feedback to support employee success
Hold employees accountable to department objectives, company values, policies, and behavioral expectations
Partner with Senior Manager and/or Human Resources to effectively address performance concerns, employee relations matters, and development opportunities
Develop individual development plans and growth strategies for employees
Create a culture of accountability, collaboration, professionalism, learning, and continuous improvement
Lead succession planning efforts to ensure business continuity and future leadership readiness
Identify and implement strategies that improve employee engagement and retention
Lead day-to-day operational execution to ensure safe, efficient, and effective laboratory performance
Manage staffing plans, workload balancing, and resource allocation to meet customer commitments and operational objectives
Monitor workflow and capacity to proactively address constraints and changing business demands
Utilize operational metrics and key performance indicators to evaluate performance, identify trends, and implement improvements
Drive achievement of service, quality, productivity, turnaround time, and utilization goals
Partner with other departments to ensure a seamless customer experience and effective cross-functional collaboration
Learn, champion, and leverage laboratory operating systems (LOMS) and other business systems to improve visibility, performance, and decision making
Support implementation of new technologies, systems, and operational processes.
Lead problem-solving efforts related to people, process, quality, and customer concerns.
Support implementation of strategic initiatives designed to improve efficiency, quality, customer satisfaction, and employee engagement.
Ensure training programs maintain employee competency and business continuity.
Support inventory and supply-chain planning activities.
Promote visibility of performance results through effective metric communication and team engagement.
Ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements, quality systems, and customer commitments
Promote adherence to company policies, procedures, and safety requirements
Participate in quality investigations, corrective actions, and continuous quality improvement initiatives
Support implementation of company safety programs and initiatives.
Attend work regularly and reliably
Adhere to all policies and procedures
Perform other duties as assigned