Company Description
SGS is the world’s leading Testing, Inspection and Certification company. We operate a network of over 2,500 laboratories and business facilities across 115 countries, supported by a team of over 100,000 dedicated professionals. With more than 145 years of service excellence, we combine the precision and accuracy that define Swiss companies to help organizations achieve the highest standards of quality, compliance and sustainability.
Our brand promise – “when you need to be sure” – underscores our commitment to trust, integrity and reliability, enabling businesses to thrive with confidence. We proudly deliver our expert services through the SGS name and a portfolio of trusted specialized brands, including Applied Technical Services, Brightsight, Bluesign and Nutrasource.
Job Description
The Operational Excellence Manager is responsible for driving consistent operational discipline, service excellence, performance management, and continuous improvement across GBS operations.
The role establishes and embeds a common Operational Excellence framework that enables teams to operate efficiently, consistently, and transparently. It partners closely with Finance Shared Services Head, Operations Managers and functional leaders to identify performance gaps, surface improvement opportunities, strengthen operational controls, and build sustainable Lean ways of working.
The role will help establish consistent visibility of operational performance aligned with the GBS Operational Excellence Framework.
Key responsibilities encompass, but are not limited to:
1. Operational Excellence Framework & Governance
- Develop, implement, and continuously improve the GBS Operational Excellence framework.
- Establish minimum operating standards, Lean ways of working, governance routines, and operational controls.
- Drive consistent adoption of OpEx practices across processes and locations.
- Conduct periodic OpEx maturity assessments and identify improvement priorities.
- Establish governance to monitor implementation, sustainability, risks, and gaps.
2. KPI & Performance Management
- Define and standardize operational KPIs in partnership with Operations and Process Owners.
- Establish performance baselines, targets, thresholds, and review mechanisms.
- Drive consistent measurement of key service dimensions including:
- Productivity
- Timeliness
- Accuracy / Quality
- Facilitate performance reviews and ensure performance gaps have clear corrective actions and owners.
4. Lean Ways of Working & Daily Management
- Embed Lean principles into daily operations and management routines.
- Establish structured daily/weekly performance management practices.
- Improve visibility through dashboards, visual management, and structured performance reporting.
- Promote visual management and fact-based decision-making.
- Promote proactive escalation and disciplined follow-through of operational actions.
- Coach teams on structured problem solving and continuous improvement.
5. Process Improvement & Standardization
- Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and improve end-to-end processes.
- Facilitate process mapping, SIPOC, root-cause analysis, waste identification, and problem-solving workshops.
- Partner with Process Owners and Operations to address recurring defects, bottlenecks, rework, and inefficiencies.
- Ensure improvement initiatives have measurable business outcomes.
- Support harmonization of processes and practices across GBS centers where appropriate.
6. Incident & Issue Management
- Establish a structured approach for identifying, documenting, assessing, and resolving operational issues.
- Facilitate root-cause analysis and impact assessment for material or recurring performance issues.
- Ensure corrective and preventive actions have clear owners and follow-through.
- Identify recurring themes and systemic issues requiring broader intervention.
- Escalate significant operational risks and issues through appropriate governance channels.
7. Workforce Planning & Management
- Support Operations in establishing capacity and demand-planning disciplines.
- Serve as a strategic sounding board for Operations by providing insights on workload, productivity, resource utilization, overtime, and capacity gaps.
- Support Operations Managers identify workload imbalance, bottlenecks, operational risks, and emerging performance issues.
- Develop fact-based insights to support staffing and workforce decisions.
- Help establish early-warning indicators for potential capacity or service-delivery issues.
8. Business Continuity & Operational Resilience
- Partner with Operations, Risk, Technology, and other relevant stakeholders to develop, maintain, and periodically review business continuity plans for critical GBS services.
- Support business impact assessments and identify critical processes, dependencies, recovery priorities, and continuity risks.
- Establish governance for continuity-plan testing, simulation exercises, issue remediation, and readiness monitoring.
- Ensure lessons learned from incidents and continuity tests are translated into sustainable process, control, and resilience improvements.
- Provide visibility of business continuity readiness, risks, gaps, and corrective actions through appropriate governance channels.
9. Operational Excellence Culture and Capability Building
- Coach Operations Managers and teams on Operational Excellence principles and tools.
- Develop practical OpEx toolkits, templates, playbooks, and learning materials.
- Build local OpEx capability and communities of practice.
- Support development and adoption of role-based skills and competency frameworks.
Qualifications
Essential Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, or a related discipline
- Master’s degree or an equivalent advanced qualification is advantageous
- Lean Six Sigma certification, preferably at Green Belt or Black Belt level, is highly desirable
- 8+ years in Finance SSC and GBS operation
- 5+ years in Operational Excellence with exposure to global x-functional stakeholder
- Proven experience leading Operational Excellence, continuous improvement, performance management, or business transformation initiatives in a GBS/SSC, or complex operational environment
- Demonstrated experience coaching leaders and teams and embedding Operational Excellence principles into daily management practices
- Experience working in a multinational corporation or large, matrixed organization, with the ability to influence stakeholders across functions, locations, and seniority levels
Desirable Skills:
- Advanced knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, continuous improvement, and operational excellence methodologies
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including process mapping, root-cause analysis, waste identification, and data-driven decision-making
- Proven ability to define operational KPIs, establish performance baselines and targets, and translate data into actionable insights
- Experience in productivity, capacity, workload, and workforce performance management within a shared-services or GBS environment
- Strong facilitation, coaching, and change-management skills, with the ability to embed Lean ways of working and build operational excellence capability
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills across operational, functional, and senior leadership teams
- Proficiency in performance dashboards conceptualization, reporting, data-visualization, and process-improvement tools
Additional Information
What we offer
- A team of doers - Work alongside 14 people who build rather than coordinate. Everyone writes, ships and owns their work.
- Real product ownership - You decide what the product does. You won’t be grooming someone else’s backlog or running ceremonies.
- Growth through scope, not titles - There’s no ladder to climb. Your influence grows with what you ship: more products, more of the platform, and a bigger say in how SGS builds AI for its customers.
- An AI-native way of working - Build 100% AI-assisted, with our agentic development framework as your daily tool for drafting, prototyping, reading code and analysing feedback.
- A unique problem space - Build for the people who run quality, inspection and testing work around the world, with one-of-a-kind data from global supply chains and industrial testing.
Why SGS?
- Opportunity to work with a global leader in inspection, verification, testing, and certification.
- Collaborative and inclusive work environment.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- Opportunities for professional growth and development.
Join Us: At SGS, we are dedicated to fostering an open, friendly, and supportive culture that thrives on teamwork. We value diversity and provide endless opportunities to learn, grow your expertise, and fulfill your potential.