Job Description

The Director of R&D Operations is a pivotal role responsible for leading, executing and collaborating on a variety of efforts on behalf of Olympus’s U.S. based R&D organization. Reporting to the Head of the Development Center of the America’s, this dynamic position will be responsible for various efforts, including but not limited to: Project leadership & execution, global R&D collaboration and information sharing, coordination of our offshore development collaboration, leading efficiency & effectiveness efforts, and providing general support.

Job Duties

• Ideate, prioritize and lead functional initiatives focused on enhancing efficiency, effectiveness, predictability and quality of the U.S. R&D organization.
• Collaboratively develop appropriately detailed project plans and project contracts to ensure stakeholder alignment to projects objectives, scope, deliverables, resources, cost, milestones / timeline, etc.
• As a representative of the US-DC, act as a collaborative point of contact for our global CTO organization (particularly with the “Center of Excellence”), track and provide regular updates on initiatives in flight and negotiate future efforts.
• Gain a deep understanding of our organization’s capabilities, strengths, and areas of weakness / inefficiencies to ensure proposals / efforts are of high value and ensure we do not over commit.
• Collaborate with DC Leadership and our PMO Team to ensure accuracy of project resourcing models. Seek efficiencies wherever possible while balancing FTE allocations to help ensure success.
• Develop and maintain a project dashboard to track project status, advancements, and key metrics; Report out on a monthly basis to DC Leadership and stakeholders.
• When required, lead onboarding of contractors / consultants, and/or hiring of staff, to support our larger initiatives (e.g., Agile for waterfall).
• Serve as a champion for Olympus’ Offshore Development Center (ODC) in Hyderabad, India. Drive utilization of the ODC and stakeholder engagement.
• Oversee an on-shore project coordinator responsible for managing projects & deliverables executed by the ODC.
• Drive the development of a project dashboard and ensure project status, advancements, and key metrics are reported on a monthly basis to DC Leadership and stakeholders.
• Develop a long-term Offshore Strategic Plan based on project roadmaps, input from key stakeholders, and long-term strategic plans of the US-DC.
• Coordinate the development of project SOW’s with input from our R&D functional leaders.
• Leveraging a high level of engagement and feedback from our engineers and people leaders, champion our organization health and sustainability efforts by assuming ownership of our FY25 OH&S Plan, schedule/manage quarterly OH&S reviews, and track the execution of action items in support of high employee engagement, accountability, and satisfaction.
• In collaboration with US-DC Leadership, lead the development of a multi-year Strategic Plan comprising an analysis of current and future state competencies, capabilities, resources, etc. to articulate required actions to achieve our product pipelines and development excellence.
• All other duties assigned

Job Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in applicable engineering fields is required.
• Minimum of 20 years of applicable experience in development of medical devices is required.
• Minimum of 15 years with an applicable master's degree, or a minimum of 12 years with an applicable Ph.D.

Preferred:

• Advanced degrees and/or a track record of continuous learning / intellectual curiosity is highly preferred.
• Extensive experience in medical device development is required.
• Experience scoping, leading, monitoring, and reporting on projects is required.
• Experience with operational excellence methodologies (e.g., Lean, Agile*, DFSS, etc.) is highly preferred.
• An aptitude for project foresight and contingency planning (i.e., ability to employ extensive experience to predict and plan for risks / issues / hurdles) is required.
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), including extensive experience developing presentations and presenting in front of cross-functional teams and leadership is required.
• Experience collaborating with an offshore development partner in India is highly preferred.
• Leadership / People Leadership experience highly preferred.
• Proven track record of valuing / managing alignment and expectations (functionally and cross-functionally)
• Strong collaboration skills, and ability to adapt within a global organization.
• Ability to work effectively in a multicultural environment, experience working with Japan teams preferred.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally based on project and business needs.
• Energetic self-starter with a track record of leading projects/efforts to completion (i.e., execution)
• Enthusiastic demeanor / “Can Do” attitude.