Lab Support Service Lead

Job SummaryAvantor Services offers a wide range of Laboratory services designed to save our customers time and money. These services range from centralised Glass washing and Media preparation to research activities and all share a central theme in supporting our customers, enabling them to recover valuable research time and to increase their lab productivity.
Avantor Services currently have an opening for Service Leads for the Laboratory Technician Support Service in Cambridge, based across AstraZeneca sites.
This is an exciting time to join the Avantor Services team, supporting the on-site service solution for AstraZeneca. This role is multi-disciplinary and underpins the laboratory support operations provided by Avantor Services.
The Service Lead role includes management of the current Laboratory Technician teams at Cambridge sites and the planning, mobilisation and smooth transition of services and Avantor Associates into the new R&D facility in central Cambridge.
The successful candidate will engage with Avantor Services Leadership Team to enable delivery of Scientific Services on schedule and aligned to customer expectation and satisfaction. A willingness and ability to travel between the customer sites is also an essential requirement. Key Tasks

• Management and delivery of current Laboratory Technician Support Service; ensuring service continuity across the Cambridge footprint
• Mentoring, development and engagement of Associates
• Design and implement pilot initiatives in preparation for the transition of services
• Drive innovation initiatives with a focus on sustainability and digitilisation
• Ability to create & implement robust documentation and Quality procedures including, but not limited to, project plans and timelines, COSHH, work instructions, SOP’s and risk assessments
• Project management; leading and supporting Customer and Avantor initiatives
• Support development and reporting of robust service level agreements and departmental KPI’s and the timely reporting to AZ FM Scientific Services
• Root cause analysis following service deviations and implementation of improvement plans
• Participate in Service Audits, SHE inspections, GEMBA walks, Tiered Daily Management meetings
• Dashboard maintenance and creation
• Supporting the Scientific Preparation Service Lead with planning and management of the Glass wash Service as appropriate
• Recruitment, training & behavioural management of current and new Associates, ensuring team capability is fit for purpose to ensure service delivery, compliance and innovation
• Managing key stakeholder expectations, communicating requirements and attending meetings with the customer to report on progress and provide information on the facility
• Collate information and analyse data to present to key stakeholders from project managers, to scientists to business analysts
• Develop strong customer relationships to act as a contact bridge between customers, researchers, facility responsible personnel, other contractors and all Avantor functions
• Ability to manage multiple timelines and changing priorities simultaneaously

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential

• Experience of people management including recruiting, onboarding, behavioural management and staff development
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to build strong customer and stakeholder relationships; customer service skills
• Excellent organisational, problem solving and analytical skills
• Knowledge and experience of project management
• Knowledge and experience of lean six sigma processes
• Experience of supplier and contractor relationship management
• Experience of leading through change and organisational transformation
• Experience of handling a fast-paced and rapidly changing working environment
• SOP, risk assessment & COSHH documentation and management experience
• Experience of working to ISO standards and/or GxP and auditing and development of Quality procedures
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills
• Willingness to travel when the business dictates to other UK customer sites
• Self-motivated, energetic and dependable with good attention to detail
• Use of Microsoft Project & Visio

• Desirable

• A relevant science degree or proof of multiple years experience in a laboratory environment
• Ability to adapt to emerging best practices and conversant with industry innovations
• Experience of stock management systems and ways of working e.g. Kanban
• Experience of developing & implementing new IT systems working with IT Support
• Experience of managing Laboratory and Service relocation

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