Senior Operational Excellence Manager

Who are we?

Lyka is an Australian founded pet wellness company that's shaking up an outdated industry and paving the way for happier, healthier pets. Despite medical advancements, animal lifespans are on the decline. Today, the average pet only reaches 37% of their full potential lifespan and statistics have shown us that many suffer from dental disease, cancer, and obesity. Simply put, the status quo is not enough.

As humans, we've experienced firsthand the positive impact fresh wholefoods can have on our health and wellbeing, and we believe our furry friends deserve the same. We're on a mission to do just that, starting with nutritionally balanced, wholefood meals delivered direct to doors around Australia. As the world's most sustainable pet wellness company, we're putting pets and our planet first - one bowl at a time.

Today, we are proud to share we've served 50 million meals to puppers and their parents across Australia, and this is just the beginning. Our vision is to create multiple nutritional products, adding disease prevention meals and supplements, and expand into new markets.

Currently, we have a team of 250+ pet-obsessed people and we're continuing to grow (yes, looking at you!). These carefully selected people are dedicated to building the next generation of technology and products to help empower pet parents to take control over their pet's wellbeing.

To date, we have raised over $60M in funding from venture capital investors and pet industry insiders, who believe in our mission and ability to drive change in a stagnant industry, providing nutrition that nourishes puppers from the inside out.

Are you ready to shake things up and give pets the life they deserve? Come join our pack!      

Our Mission:

The time we share with our pets is being cut short. Despite medical advancements, they're getting sicker earlier. They're dying prematurely. The industry has it backwards - prioritising treating symptoms instead of addressing the root cause. That's where we come in.

At Lyka, we take a preventative, holistic and personalised approach to pet care. We look at the full picture, factoring in the diet, lifestyle and environment of each individual animal.

We don't stop at symptoms, instead we dig for the root cause. We create nutrition plans unique to each pet, because it's not just about living longer, but living well too.

Our mission is to increase the lifespan of dogs and cats.

What you’ll do:

• Support, drive and role model Lyka’s human safety, food safety, and environmental procedures, policies and ways of working.
• Drive and collaborate with team to build a rolling time lined Operational Excellence Roadmap.
• Operational excellence tool & methodology utilisation (e.g. 5S, Tiered Accountability, SMED, VSM, 8-Wastes, GEMBA).
• Drive the Lyka manufacturing gross margin program.
• Collaborating with key functional and cross-functional stakeholders to identify cost saving opportunities through ideation facilitation.
• Facilitate regular review forums to tenaciously drive the on-time completion of in-flight initiatives and bring further initiatives into flight from the ideation funnel.
• Demonstrate strong & authentic people leadership skills through building frontline relationships which enable methodology implementation and embedment.
• Passionately lead the development of your immediate team and other key stakeholders
• Provide a challenging and value adding voice around the operational leadership team table in alignment with Lyka’s Values.

Requirements

• Tertiary qualified in Manufacturing, Engineering/Science, Business or allied areas.
• 3+ years' industry experience essential. 
• 2 years’ experience in lean manufacturing.
• Green Belt in Six Sigma is highly preferred.
• Fast-moving consumer goods industry desirable however not essential (e.g. automotive, pharmaceutical, other manufacturing sectors in similar role).
• Experience in streamlining processes to enable more efficient labour utilisation and/or throughput improvements.
• Experience in driving Gross Margin/Cost Efficiency initiatives from ideation to implementation and validation of savings, with the skillset to present results to executive leadership.
• Experience in establishing and coaching frontline team members to embrace lean manufacturing methodologies, CILs and PCLs.

Benefits

• Work in a fast-growing start-up, experiencing what goes behind the scenes to sustain hyper-growth for a start-up with a physical product!
• Growth and Development - Lyka is growing extremely quickly, which means you will have the opportunity to experience different challenges every day and progressively acquire more responsibilities as our facility and team expands. We provide an annual budget for you to continue your personal development.
• Work for a sustainability focused company - we care about the health of our pets and our planet. We’re proud to be Australia’s only carbon-negative and plastic-negative pet company and we’re always looking at ways for us improve sustainability practices.
• Be part of a diverse top talent team, coming from widely different backgrounds and geographies.
• Up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave top-up.
• Wellbeing assistance and tools to take care of your mental and physical wellbeing so you can do your best work.
• Pupper parent support to care for your furry friends - flexible arrangements for new pets, pet-friendly offices, discounts, and financial allowance for dog training & care to help them live their best life.

We are committed to building inclusive and diverse teams

Lyka is an equal opportunity employer devoted to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion. We celebrate diversity, are devoted to creating an inclusive environment for all staff and encourage people of all backgrounds to apply. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application.