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Job Function:
Quality
Job Sub Function:
Supplier Quality
Job Category:
Professional
All Job Posting Locations:
Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States of America, Raynham, Massachusetts, United States of America, Ringaskiddy, Cork, Ireland, Warsaw, Indiana, United States of America, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Zuchwil, Switzerland
Job Description:
Job Position Summary
The Senior Manager, Strategic Supplier Management is a central individual contributor within the DePuy Synthes Supplier Quality organization. The role provides strategic leadership for continuous improvement & transformation portfolio execution, department-level project management office governance, and end-to-end supplier lifecycle management across the supply base.
This position establishes the operating model, governance, standard work, tools, and management routines required to select, prioritize, resource, execute, and sustain Supplier Quality initiatives. The Senior Manager serves as the department’s central integration point and single source of truth for strategic programs, ensuring that priorities, dependencies, risks, resources, funding, milestones, decisions, and value realization remain visible and aligned.
The role also owns or coordinates Supplier Quality governance across the supplier lifecycle—from early due diligence and selection through onboarding, qualification, monitoring, development, change management, segmentation, escalation, and planned exit. Working through influence in a global matrix organization, the Senior Manager partners with Supplier Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, Research and Development, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Systems, Compliance, Finance, Digital, and business leaders.
This role has no direct reports but leads cross-functional teams, workstream leaders, subject-matter experts, and project resources through strategic influence, technical credibility, structured governance, and data-driven decision-making.
Duties & Responsibilities
Continuous Improvement and Transformation Leadership
- Develop and maintain the Supplier Quality continuous improvement and transformation strategy, roadmap, portfolio, and multi-year deployment plan.
- Identify, scope, charter, and lead high-impact transformation programs aligned with patient safety, product quality, compliance, supply reliability, network strategy, productivity, and business priorities.
- Build compelling business cases that define the problem, current state, target state, investment requirements, resource needs, expected benefits, implementation approach, and measures of success.
- Establish a structured intake and prioritization process for improvement opportunities based on quality risk, compliance exposure, business value, strategic alignment, feasibility, and available capacity.
- Lead complex, cross-functional transformation initiatives from concept and diagnostic assessment through design, pilot, implementation, stabilization, standardization, and transition to business ownership.
- Apply Lean, Six Sigma, change-management, process-excellence, and structured problem-solving methods to simplify processes, eliminate non-value-added activity, reduce variation, and improve effectiveness.
- Drive harmonization of Supplier Quality processes, procedures, tools, roles, decision criteria, and governance across business units, sites, regions, and supplier categories.
- Partner with Digital, Data, Analytics, and Quality Systems teams to identify and deploy automation, workflow, dashboard, predictive-risk, and decision-support capabilities.
- Establish control plans, process ownership, sustainment measures, and post-implementation reviews to ensure that improvements remain effective.
- Promote a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, learning, and replication of successful practices across the Supplier Quality organization.
Supplier Quality Project Management Office
- Serve as the central Supplier Quality Project Management Office lead and maintain the authoritative portfolio of departmental projects and strategic initiatives.
- Establish and maintain standard project-management methods, templates, stage gates, governance routines, reporting expectations, and escalation pathways.
- Maintain integrated roadmaps covering scope, milestones, resource demand, funding, dependencies, decisions, risks, issues, assumptions, and benefits.
- Lead portfolio intake, prioritization, sequencing, and periodic rebalancing in partnership with Supplier Quality leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Coordinate project chartering, sponsorship, resource planning, funding requests, and assignment of accountable workstream leaders.
- Facilitate portfolio reviews, steering committees, transformation reviews, and executive governance forums.
- Develop concise, fact-based executive reporting that communicates portfolio health, progress, decisions, resource constraints, dependencies, and required leadership actions.
- Identify conflicts, gaps, duplicate efforts, and cross-program interdependencies; facilitate timely resolution and escalation.
- Define project health criteria and ensure consistent reporting of schedule, scope, cost, quality, compliance, resource, and value-realization performance.
- Coach project and workstream leaders in project planning, risk management, change control, stakeholder engagement, and effective governance.
- Ensure completed programs have clear ownership, documented standard work, training, controls, metrics, and transition plans before closure.
- Maintain a repository of charters, business cases, schedules, decisions, lessons learned, benefits, and reusable project assets.
Supplier Lifecycle Governance
- Design, maintain, and continuously improve the Supplier Quality lifecycle governance model from supplier identification through disengagement.
- Define lifecycle stages, decision points, quality requirements, approval authorities, required evidence, handoffs, escalation criteria, and accountability.
- Establish consistent Supplier Quality governance for supplier due diligence, selection, onboarding, qualification, approval, monitoring, segmentation, development, change management, performance escalation, requalification, and exit.
- Co-lead supplier selection governance with Procurement and relevant business partners, ensuring early Quality participation and risk-based evaluation.
- Maintain standard criteria and tools for supplier due diligence, quality-system assessment, technical capability review, risk assessment, and selection recommendations.
- Coordinate Supplier Quality participation in onboarding and qualification to ensure purchasing controls, quality agreements, audits, validation, approved-supplier requirements, inspection controls, and product or process qualifications are completed appropriately.
- Establish risk-based supplier segmentation that considers product and patient risk, supplier criticality, quality performance, compliance history, process capability, supply continuity, technology, and business importance.
- Define governance for ongoing supplier monitoring, periodic review, requalification, change notification, performance escalation, and development.
- Establish clear triggers and decision criteria for supplier intervention, development, restricted use, new-business hold, recovery, alternative sourcing, or exit.
- Co-own a structured supplier-exit process with Procurement and Supply Chain, including quality-risk assessment, transition controls, records, approved-supplier-list updates, change management, continuity planning, and closure.
- Monitor lifecycle-process effectiveness through metrics, audit findings, cycle time, compliance, stakeholder feedback, and recurring issue analysis.
- Ensure lifecycle governance is integrated with new-product introduction, product and process transfers, external manufacturing, acquisitions, network optimization, supplier consolidation, and business continuity activities.
Process Ownership, Standardization, and Governance
- Serve as process owner or central governance lead for designated Supplier Quality procedures, playbooks, forms, checklists, tools, and training.
- Maintain clear process interfaces among Supplier Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Systems, and Compliance.
- Facilitate cross-functional decisions regarding process design, ownership, roles, controls, system requirements, and implementation.
- Ensure new or revised processes are risk-based, scalable, practical, inspection-ready, and aligned with applicable quality-system requirements.
- Establish governance forums with clear charters, decision rights, membership, escalation paths, records, and follow-up mechanisms.
- Coordinate procedure harmonization and change implementation across affected business units, sites, and functions.
- Develop training, communication, adoption, and change-management plans for new operating models and processes.
- Periodically assess process maturity, control effectiveness, adoption, and opportunities for further simplification.
Metrics, Analytics, and Value Realization
- Define and maintain transformation, portfolio, lifecycle, and operational-governance metrics.
- Develop dashboards and executive scorecards that create transparency to program health, supplier risk, process performance, resource demand, and realized benefits.
- Partner with data owners to improve data definitions, integrity, accessibility, traceability, and consistency across systems.
- Use trend analysis and risk signals to identify emerging issues, recurring systemic gaps, and future improvement opportunities.
- Establish baselines and track measurable outcomes such as risk reduction, defect prevention, compliance improvement, cycle-time reduction, resource productivity, cost avoidance, inspection reduction, and supply-continuity benefits.
- Validate benefit realization with Finance and functional owners where appropriate.
- Use lessons learned and performance data to adjust transformation priorities and lifecycle controls.
Cross-Functional Leadership and Change Management
- Build strong partnerships with Supplier Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, Research and Development, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Systems, Compliance, Finance, Digital, and business leadership.
- Influence senior stakeholders to align priorities, resources, funding, timelines, ownership, and decisions.
- Lead cross-functional teams without direct authority and create clarity in complex or ambiguous situations.
- Facilitate workshops, governance reviews, process-design sessions, risk assessments, and decision forums.
- Develop stakeholder, communication, training, and adoption strategies for significant organizational or process changes.
- Anticipate resistance, identify adoption barriers, and implement actions that support sustained behavioral and process change.
- Coach colleagues in transformation, governance, project-management, and continuous-improvement methods.
- Communicate complex technical and program information in a concise, executive-ready manner.
Experience & Education
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Science, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Business, or a related discipline.
- Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in Quality, Supplier Quality, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Program Management, or Process Excellence within the medical device, pharmaceutical, combination-product, or another highly regulated industry.
- Minimum of 5 years of experience leading complex cross-functional programs, transformation initiatives, portfolio governance, operational excellence, or supplier lifecycle processes.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence in a global, matrixed organization without direct reporting authority.
- Experience establishing governance models, project-management standards, dashboards, executive reporting, and escalation routines.
- Experience designing or improving supplier selection, qualification, monitoring, change, segmentation, development, or exit processes.
- Experience developing project charters, business cases, implementation plans, resource models, risk registers, and benefit measures.
- Working knowledge of medical device quality systems, supplier controls, purchasing controls, risk management, process validation, and change control.
- Demonstrated experience using data and structured problem-solving to make decisions and deliver measurable improvement.
- Experience presenting recommendations, portfolio status, risks, and decisions to senior leadership.
Preferred
- Master’s degree in Engineering, Business Administration, Quality, Supply Chain, Operations, or a related field.
- Project Management Professional certification or equivalent program-management training.
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.
- ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence, Certified Quality Auditor, or equivalent certification.
- Formal change-management certification or demonstrated experience applying a structured change-management methodology.
- Experience establishing or leading a department-level or enterprise project management office.
- Experience leading digital, analytics, automation, quality-system, or operating-model transformation.
- Experience supporting supplier-related regulatory inspections, notified-body audits, or compliance assessments.
- Experience with new-product introduction, product or process transfer, external manufacturing, acquisitions, network optimization, supplier consolidation, or supplier exits.
- Experience working across multiple global sites, business units, and regulatory jurisdictions.
Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
- Expert knowledge of program, portfolio, and project governance.
- Strong knowledge of supplier quality management and end-to-end supplier lifecycle controls.
- Strong understanding of continuous-improvement, Lean, Six Sigma, process-excellence, and problem-solving methods.
- Strong understanding of the Quality Management System Regulation under 21 CFR Part 820, ISO 13485, the European Union Medical Device Regulation, risk management, and applicable current good manufacturing practices.
- Ability to design practical governance systems that balance compliance, risk, speed, scalability, and business value.
- Ability to translate strategy into executable roadmaps, charters, milestones, resource plans, and operating mechanisms.
- Strong business-case development, financial-acumen, prioritization, and value-realization skills.
- Advanced analytical skills and the ability to convert complex data into clear insights and recommendations.
- Strong change-leadership, stakeholder-management, facilitation, negotiation, and influencing skills.
- Ability to establish credibility with technical experts, functional leaders, executives, and external partners.
- Exceptional written, verbal, and executive-presentation skills.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities, operate independently, and make sound decisions in a fast-paced global environment.
- High level of integrity, judgment, accountability, and commitment to patient safety, product quality, compliance, and reliable supply.
Required Skills:
Preferred Skills:
Compliance Management, Consulting, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Mentorship, Organizing, Performance Measurement, Product Testing, Quality Control (QC), Quality Management Systems (QMS), Quality Standards, Quality Validation, Relationship Building, Stakeholder Management, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Technical Credibility, Vendor Selection
The anticipated base pay range for this position is :
$122,000.00 - $212,750.00
Additional Description for Pay Transparency:
Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).
This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s long-term incentive program.
Subject to the terms of their respective policies and date of hire, employees are eligible for the following time off benefits:
Vacation –120 hours per calendar year
Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado –48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year
Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays –13 days per calendar year
Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
Parental Leave – 480 hours within one year of the birth/adoption/foster care of a child
Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 40 hours for an extended family member per calendar year
Caregiver Leave – 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period10 days
Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year
Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year
For additional general information on Company benefits, please go to: - https://www.careers.jnj.com/employee-benefits