Operations Director

Operations Director | London (On site) | Executive Package

Big remit, real influence, and a business that actually needs you to make things better, not just keep things ticking over.

The Role

This is not a steady state operations role.

It is a hands on, sleeves rolled up leadership position in a business going through change. The focus is moving from being reactive to becoming more structured, scalable, and commercially sharp.

You will be stepping into a complex setup with in house manufacturing, external partners, global logistics, and customer care, all within a regulated environment. There is a lot going on, and priorities have not always been clear.

That is where you come in.

You will bring order, set direction, and help the business scale properly, without losing sight of quality, compliance, or the customer.

What You Will Be Doing

• Owning end to end operations across manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, and customer care
• Leading multiple production sites while aligning a network of third party manufacturers and CDMOs
• Setting a clear operations strategy that actually sticks, not something that changes every week
• Bringing structure and focus to a fast moving, sometimes ambiguous environment
• Driving performance across key metrics including cost, quality, service, safety, and delivery
• Improving how things run day to day, including planning, scheduling, materials, and output
• Leading engineering and maintenance to keep assets reliable and production flowing
• Working closely with suppliers to ensure materials are available, compliant, and on time
• Owning compliance across a highly regulated environment including GMP, ISO, MHRA and FDA standards
• Leading continuous improvement through Lean, Six Sigma, automation, and digitalisation
• Managing budgets, capital expenditure, and operational costs with a commercial mindset
• Building, developing, and where needed reshaping teams to get the right people in the right roles
• Acting as a key voice at leadership level and helping steer the wider business
  
  

What You Will Need

• A background leading sizeable operations with more than 100 people in a manufacturing environment
• Experience in GMP/FDA/MHRA regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals, healthcare, consumer healthcare or similar
• A solid understanding of both in house production and external manufacturing networks
• The ability to prioritise properly by deciding what matters and sticking to it
• Calm and clear thinking under pressure
• Strong commercial judgement, not just a focus on operational efficiency
• A track record of improving performance rather than simply maintaining it
• Confidence making decisions without perfect information
• A practical mindset and the ability to move between strategy and day to day operations
• Enough resilience to handle pace, ambiguity, and competing demands

About the Business

• Long established and well respected brand with a strong heritage
• Operating in a regulated, product led environment
• Global footprint with both internal manufacturing and external partners
• Now entering a genuine growth and transformation phase

This is not a finished article, and that is the point. There is real opportunity here to shape how things work, build capability, and support a business that wants to scale meaningfully over the next few years.