General Manager

Job Title: General Manager
Contract Type: Permanent
Industry:
REF: 123986
Contact Name: Gerry Kennedy Director of The RFT Group
Contact Email: gerry@rftgroup.ie
Job Published: over 2 years ago

Job Description

Vice President, Site General Manager

Opportunities to take on the role of site General Manager in the exciting world of the pharmaceutical industry are rare in this country. When the company itself is already highly successful with a strong commercial portfolio and drug pipeline, when the site here in Ireland is well managed with a high performing, highly motivated workforce, passionate about shared values, then this truly is an exceptional opportunity for a bright capable leader.

The newly appointed General Manager will be responsible for the overall direction and guidance of Operations activities as they pertain to the Irish site, particularly, manufacturing, engineering, logistics, EHSS and project management. Additional responsibility for the strategic development of site activities and developing site infrastructure in order to support same.

Working alongside site Function Heads, the General Manager will determine and implement site strategy over a 5–10-year horizon, including the determination of overall business needs, the direction and guidance of site activities, the delivery of requirements on schedule, along with compliance with regulatory guidelines

Job Spec
  • The GM is the overall site leader. As such, he or she is responsible for coordinating and giving direction on site and corporate alignment to all functional groups at the site and leading the functions in meeting site and company goals and priorities, business targets and budgeting assumptions.
  • The GM will oversee the financial management of site activities in order to ensure an effective return on investment for capital and service projects while supporting the business objectives, being responsible for the Site P&L as it relates to revenues, spend, margins and contribution as well as capital spend targets.
  • The GM is expected to challenge the site leadership team equally and to understand their budgets, assumptions, headcount, goals and priorities in order to ensure meeting of corporate and site goals and targets.
  • The GM needs to openly support the Quality initiative and ensure that Quality is immediately included in all matters that affect GMP operation of plant, product and process. The GM should ‘Champion’ the company quality philosophy and standards.
  • As site leader, the GM should set an example for embracing and acting out the values and principles we set forth as crucial to our success. He or she should place priority on requiring data driven decisions, accountability and follow through. The GM should avoid bureaucracy and seek to improve efficiencies in how we work by eliminating non-value-added procedures.
  • The GM is responsible for the management of direct reports and co-ordination of site functions/resources to ensure that site activities are planned and managed in line with best practice and regulatory requirements.
  • He/ She will establish, develop and drive processes, systems and people to achieve best practice standards across the site.
  • He/ She will develop and maintain an effective management organisation through delegation, motivation and the assignment of specific responsibilities to Function Heads.
  • He/ She will control business and related key performance indicators through the analysis of key metrics and performance measures.
  • The GM is responsible for the preparation of strategic plans, annual budgets, financial statements and forecasts as they relate to the effective management of the site and site activities.
  • He/ She will establish and maintain an effective employee relations and HR environment, ensuring that the employee representation body is operating effectively and complements the company’s overall business objectives.
  • He/ She will ensure effective materials management by providing inputs into the establishment of supplier contracts, purchasing policies, production planning, inventory control and distribution systems.
  • He/ She will promote the activities of the EHSS Function in order to create a safe workplace which is in full compliance with all safety, environmental and related regulatory and/or corporate requirements.
  • The GM will facilitate and support the establishment and maintenance of effective production and engineering programmes through the promotion of capital and service projects, materials and resources.
  • The GM will ensure that the site operates in line with cGMP and related regulatory requirements at all times, ensuring that current compliance issues and trends, both internal and site-wide, are critically evaluated and training is provided where appropriate.
  • He/ She will play an appropriate role in the development, operation and evaluation of training/re-training programmes. In relation to area of responsibility, ensure that training carried out is in accordance with the training; plan/specific training needs; documented; tracked; evaluated.
  • He/ She will liaise with outside companies and agencies in order to represent the company in the community.

Person Spec
  • Academic profile: Preferably multi-disciplined in areas such as Science, Engineering or Business.
Relevant Masters level qualification desirable.
  • Strong understanding of, and experience in, operations management.
  • 10-15 years’ experience gained within a high volume, dynamic manufacturing environment.
  • Experience within a regulated industry.
  • Proven track record of organizational leadership success in a matrix reporting environment with an active, sophisticated understanding of organizational dynamics.
  • Ability to effect positive change, thereby increasing effectiveness of site leadership and efficiency of operations.
  • Inspiring communicator; able to motivate and inspire cross-functional and cross-site teams.
  • Calming presence. Ability to moderate emotional situations. Steady and consistent.
  • Ability to “balance” – between personal preference and business needs.
  • Financial understanding and experience. Must have a business sense, not just technical SME. Some entrepreneurial smarts will be useful in developing our plant portfolio going forward.
  • Logical and possessing strong problem-solving skills.
  • High level of customer orientation/understanding.
  • Diversity in thought and experience – broad understanding of the functional as well as business needs.

COMPETENCIES:

Collaboration
  • Builds allies and relationships across departments.
  • Communicates information about decisions, plans, and activities to others.
  • Can find common ground and solves problems for the good of the organization, easily gains trust, encourages collaboration.
  • Able to convey tough messages in an appropriate and helpful manner.

People Management
  • Motivates and challenges employees.
  • Delegates effectively.
  • Encourages individual and team development.

Insight and Adaptability
  • Understands strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and limits.
  • Works to continuously improve self.
  • Encourages openness to new ideas.
  • Continuously foster and encourage innovative thinking.

Business Acumen
  • Maintains a long term, big picture, and global view of the business.
  • Understands the meaning and implications of key financial and quantitative metrics and analytics in order to evaluate and act on strategic options and opportunities.
  • Understands the industry, the competition, the macro conditions of the global market, the compliance environment and their collective impact on the company.

Strategic Leadership
  • Clear leader. Sets the tone at the top and is clear about behavioural expectations.
  • Visionary: able to develop and communicate a vision for the Site’s future and lead it there. Must be comfortable with the undefined and able to create a path forward.
  • Shapes and develops realistic business strategies that recognize emerging trends, address competitive threats and meet market needs.
  • Develops long-term objectives, balances short- and long-term goals.
  • Expresses ideas clearly and concisely.
  • Able to see linkages across organization. Aligns functional objectives with corporate priorities.
  • Leads through change and adversity, makes the tough call when necessary.

Results with impact
  • Targets and achieves results, sets challenging goals, prioritizes tasks.
  • Acts decisively to tackle difficult problems and takes the lead on unpopular but necessary actions.


Gerry Kennedy, Managing Director, Recruitment for Technology Ltd. Cv to gerry@rftgroup.ie
Maple House, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin D18 F863