Director Automation Solution Lead

Viatris is a global healthcare company uniquely positioned to bridge the traditional divide between generics and brands, combining the best of both to more holistically address healthcare needs globally. With a mission to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life, we provide access at scale, currently supplying high-quality medicines to approximately 1 billion patients around the world annually and touching all of life's moments, from birth to the end of life, acute conditions to chronic diseases.

We have been included on number of award lists that demonstrate the impact we are making.

Every day, we rise to the challenge to make a difference and here’s how the Director Automation Solution Lead role will make an impact:

Key responsibilities for this role include:

Core Planning Capability Leadership

• Own and continuously develop the global manufacturing and laboratory planning capability across the network.

• Act as the business lead and subject matter expert for planning processes, including production planning, scheduling, capacity planning, supply-demand balancing, and laboratory planning coordination.

• Define, maintain, and evolve the future-state planning process model, ensuring alignment with operational priorities, supply chain requirements, site needs, and regulatory expectations.

• Drive standardization of planning processes across sites while ensuring solutions remain practical for real manufacturing and laboratory constraints.

Planning Systems Ownership and Deployment

• Lead the business-side deployment, adoption, and continuous improvement of advanced planning solutions across manufacturing and laboratory environments.

• Translate operational planning requirements into solution capabilities, working closely with IT, vendors, site planning teams, supply chain, manufacturing, quality, and laboratory stakeholders.

• Support and guide planning system implementation activities, including requirements definition, process design, testing, data readiness, training, go-live support, and hyper care.

• Ensure planning systems are effectively embedded into daily operations and deliver measurable improvements in responsiveness, service levels, resource utilization, planning accuracy, and operational transparency.

AI, RPA, and Analytics Use Case Development

• Identify, prioritize, and develop high-value AI, robotic process automation, and data analytics use cases within manufacturing and laboratory planning.

• Lead the business definition of use cases such as automated planning alerts, exception management, planning scenario analysis, capacity bottleneck prediction, schedule optimization, laboratory workload forecasting, and automated planning data checks.

• Work with data, analytics, automation, and IT teams to translate planning pain points into practical digital solutions that improve speed, accuracy, decision quality, and planner productivity.

• Champion the use of analytics and AI to move planning from manual, reactive processes toward more predictive, automated, and exception-based ways of working.

• Ensure AI, RPA, and analytics solutions are designed around measurable business value, user adoption, data quality, compliance, and sustainable operational ownership.

Business Value and Continuous Improvement

• Define value measures for planning improvements, including schedule adherence, service level performance, planning cycle time, capacity utilization, inventory impact, laboratory throughput, and reduction in manual effort.

• Monitor adoption and performance of planning solutions after deployment, identifying opportunities for further optimization.

• Capture lessons learned across implementation waves and convert them into improved standards, deployment approaches, and planning best practices.

• Partner with site and global teams to ensure planning tools and processes support operational excellence, lean manufacturing, and broader digital transformation goals.

Cross-Functional Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Act as the primary interface between planning teams, site leadership, supply chain, manufacturing, laboratory operations, quality, IT, data/analytics teams, automation teams, and external vendors.

• Build strong relationships with site planning and operational leaders to ensure solutions are business-led and adopted effectively.

• Resolve cross-functional process issues that impact planning performance, ensuring decisions are made with clear ownership and alignment.

• Communicate planning strategy, progress, risks, decisions, and value delivery clearly to senior leadership and operational stakeholders.

Leadership Within the Operations Automation & Analytics Team

• Play a senior leadership role within the Global Operations Automation & Analytics team, contributing to strategy, priorities, governance, and capability development.

• Represent the planning workstream within the broader operation’s digital transformation agenda, ensuring planning is connected to manufacturing, laboratory, engineering, data, and analytics initiatives.

• Provide coaching, direction, and support to team members, site leads, business SMEs, and project resources involved in planning transformation.

• Help shape team ways of working, including standards for business ownership, use case development, deployment readiness, adoption, value tracking, and stakeholder engagement.

• Act as a role model for business-led digital transformation, combining operational credibility with strong collaboration across technical and functional teams.

The minimum qualifications for this role are:

• Minimum of a Bachelor's degree (or equivalent) and 10 years of relevant experience.   However, a combination of experience and/or education will be taken into consideration. 

• Superior communication skills required.

• Proficiency in speaking, comprehending, reading and writing English is required.

Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location. The salary range for this position is: $112,000 - $236,000.

At Viatris, we offer competitive salaries, benefits and an inclusive environment where you can use your experiences, perspectives and skills to help make an impact on the lives of others.

Viatris is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, religion, age, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by local, state, or federal laws, rules, or regulations.