Operations Manager - Life & Health Sciences

UL Solutions•Northbrook, IL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

UL is seeking a Highly Engaged and Experienced Leader to manage Life & Health Sciences (LHS) Safety Operations for Medical and Laboratory Equipment across three locations: Northbrook, IL, Melville, NY, and Research Triangle Park, NC. This role involves managing operations and P&L for these three sites, developing, implementing, and executing capacity and capability management with guidance from senior leadership. The manager will maintain strong working relationships with Sales and Principal Engineering organizations, focusing on growing the business and partnering with customers. The position operates in a highly dynamic and challenging work environment where quick decisions are required to keep customer commitments on track and ensure employees remain focused on their best work. Key responsibilities include ensuring effective workflow by engaging with cross-functional leads, driving continuous process improvement using a Lean Sigma approach, and leading a high-performing team through performance management and development. The manager will operate effectively within the UL matrix to support and drive high-performance culture changes, transformation efforts, and people engagement, holding the team and self accountable for results and assisting senior leadership in defining goals and metrics. The role also involves coaching and mentoring employees, ensuring compliance with policies, increasing customer loyalty, and providing technical guidance and judgment to resolve issues and complete projects. The manager will empower the team to achieve KPIs, ensure compliance with project requirements, explain company policies, and build strong cross-functional and global relationships.

Requirements

University Degree (equivalent to a Bachelors Degree) in Engineering, Business Administration, Management, Physics or 10+ years of leadership experience, preferably in technical, laboratory, or regulated environments.
Demonstrated experience in regulatory compliance is required.
Proven ability to collaborate effectively with Sales and PRE stakeholders to achieve shared objectives.
Demonstrated success in leading and managing cross‑functional initiatives.
Demonstrated ability to create and manage objectives, staffing and budgets/P& L.
Demonstrates knowledge of how decisions impact business results, working with a diverse team and planning and thinking strategically.
Demonstrates the ability to manage employee performance through development of performance expectations and goals, managing employee relations issues, identifying and addressing training needs, planning and executing against required staffing levels and assisting in operational planning.
Demonstrates the ability to lead in a technical arena a Lean Sigma organization.
Demonstrates the ability to make the complex simple and present information in a concise, relevant and powerful manner.
Demonstrates the ability to analyze and interpret analyses, data, process documents and plans.
Demonstrates the ability to take calculated risks and plan for contingencies.
Demonstrates the ability to listen, learn and teach.
Demonstrates awareness of the challenges of working in diverse cultural environments.

Nice To Haves

Lean Sigma Green Belt or Lean Leadership Training or equivalent preferred.
Experience within LHS/TIC environments is strongly preferred.
Six Sigma certification or equivalent experience is preferred.

Responsibilities

Manages Operations and P&L for 3 Site Location.
Develops, implements, and executes capacity and capability management with guidance from senior leadership.
Maintains strong working relationships with Sales and Principal Engineering organizations.
Focuses on growing the business and partnering with customers.
Operates in a highly dynamic and challenging work environment where quick decisions are required to keep customer commitments on track and ensure employees remain focused on doing their best work.
Ensures effective workflow by engaging with cross functional leads in order to understand scope and technical needs to assign resources effectively.
Responsible for driving and integrating continuous process improvement concepts and techniques, utilizing Lean Sigma approach.
Drives a high performing team by managing the performance and development of team members.
Operates effectively in the UL matrix to actively support and drive high performance culture changes, transformation efforts and people engagement.
Holds team and self accountable for results, assists senior leadership in defining goals and performance objectives and metrics to execute strategy.
Develops and coaches by providing, training, career counseling, feedback, guidance to drive high performance and morale.
Ensures understanding of and compliance with all established policies and requirements.
Increases customer (internal and/or external) loyalty, anticipates needs and provides proactive solutions; gathers, shares and responds to feedback.
Coaches and mentors employees to do the same.
May oversee the establishment of appropriate testing programs and the coordination of activities within the designated operations, including development of test procedures beyond the scope of existing standards and requirements requiring the use of independent judgement.
May also handle some projects and/or act as lead reviewer to support workflow and demand.
Provides direct support to team and customers by providing technical guidance and judgment to complete projects and address issues needing resolution (i.e. customer complaints, unusual requests, technical advice, etc.).
Ensures quality and adherence to policies and standards requirements.
Empowers and holds team accountable to achieve established KPIs (cost, revenue, profit, enterprise value, etc.).
Supports and guides team to ensure compliance with requirements, changes in project scope, specifications and customer notifications.
Explains UL family of companies' policies, procedures and requirements, negotiates completion dates and sample requirements, and ensures an effective experience.
Communicates and exemplifies ULs Vision and Mission.
Leads, promotes and embraces change through self and team.
Collaborates and builds trust within the organization and with customers to meet or exceed their expectations.
Develops strong, flexible cross-functional networks and global relationships to promote becoming the fastest, highest quality and most customer-friendly organization.