RCI-ABBV-28362 Continuous Improvement Project Manager

Position Title: Manager, RDAA PTP (Project Manager III)

Length of Contract: End of year 2025

Hybrid – Irvine, CA – 3 days onsite required.

Looking for continuous Improvement Project Manager

• Should be able to help scientists (helping them with procurement process and training them)
• Pharma or biotech industry exp will be a plus
• Strong procurement and continuous improvement background is needed for this role
• Placing orders will be minimal
• Drive improvements
• Communicate value to leadership and organization
• Problem solving
• Able to look, analyse and understand at metrics
• Analyse root cause
• Working with responsible people to drive the business forward
• Should be able to understand regulatory risk and constraints
• Manager is open to other industry exp if the candidate has a lot of continuous improvement exp
• This is more on continuous improvement and not towards sourcing
• Process mapping experience

Must have

• Communication skills / Communication with leadership
• Exp building dashboard and visualization
• Should know how ERP and procurement systems works (Placing orders)
• Problem solving (Root cause analysis will be a very useful tool in problem solving)
• Procurement/purchasing experience incl. SAP (Should know how procurement, contracts, and SAP works)
• Exp with Smartsheet is a must
• Spotfire exp
• Ability to change level of communication based on audience

Purpose:

• The Manager, RDAA Business Excellence Strategy and Operations works with cross-functional and divisional stakeholders to optimize centralized operational functions in support of RDAA.
• Responsible for driving continuous improvement in R&D business processes including procurement, invoicing, and meeting management.
• Working directly with business owners, facilitating end to end procure to pay operational support as needed (e.g., order creation, invoice resolution, new vendor initiation).
• Brings a continuous improvement mindset, proactively identifying inefficiencies/pain points within current business processes and working with the broader team to propose fit for purpose solutions.
• The ideal candidate will be adept at extracting data from a variety of systems (mainly smartsheets), cleaning and transforming this data, and creating insightful dashboards.
• Expectation for increase and/or shift in responsibilities as business operations needs emerge.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for driving efficiency in E2E procure to pay processes including (but not limited to) new order creation, new vendor qualification, invoice payment
• Partners effectively with business owners to ensure timely execution and resolution of requests
• Provides visible metrics, tracking and early escalation for all key initiatives under support to ensure rapid resolution, cross-business learnings and continuous improvement
• Serves as point of contact for business operations challenges in RDAA, working with broader Business Excellence team to triage and provide appropriate support model (e.g., direct intervention vs handoff to supporting stakeholders)
• Pulls together key learnings/opportunities in slide presentations for team problem solving and business case development
• Supports business operations initiatives to streamline processes cross functionally both within function and across RDAA
• Anticipates emerging issues and proactively develops solutions working with RDAA Business Excellence team
• Establishes partnerships with key counterparts in RDAA functional teams and supporting functions (e.g., Finance, procurement, AP)
• Interacts with external stakeholders as needed as point of contact for procure to pay related queries
• Collaborates with other business excellence groups to share best practices and learnings

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required. Advanced degree/certifications a plus.
• Minimum of 8 years total experience required, 6 years Business related. 4 years in pharmaceutical, healthcare or regulated industry and strong knowledge in pharmaceutical regulations i.e. FDA and European Union preferred.
• 3 years experience in a business operations role; and/or experience in finance/accounting/procurement strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of pharmaceutical regulations, i.e. FDA and European Union and their impact to organization processes and technology tools preferred.
• Expertise in leveraging operational excellence concepts and problem-solving frameworks to remove waste and inefficiencies in business processes.
• Experience with change management in implementing new processes
• Expertise with driving efficiency in purchasing or financial processes required (including SAP, purchasing, vendor contracts, purchase order set up and invoice resolution).
• Proficiency in project planning experience preferred including managing multiple ongoing initiatives/workstreams
• Experience in leveraging qualitative/quantitative data to develop business case
• Proficiency in excel, smartsheets and other advanced software analytics tools preferred (e.g., Smartsheets, PowerBI)
• Experience working in a complex and matrixed environment required. Demonstrated ability to own proactive problem solving/stakeholder management to drive the business forward
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written required.

Note: Higher education may compensate for years of experience

Description Details

What are the top 3-5 skills, experience or education required for this position:

1. 1 Problem Solving, driving efficiency and change management skills as it relates to business processes
2. 2 Procurement/purchasing experience incl. SAP
3. 3 Experience building business cases on areas under support and gaining buy in for process improvement
4. 4 General analytics abilities (e.g., excel, Smartsheets, powerBI)
5. 5 Strong communication skills working with director level individuals