Operations Manager Food Testing Belgium

In a nutshell: Are you a passionate leader with experience in operational excellence within the food industry? Do you excel at driving productivity, quality, continuous improvement and managing teams? Are you motivated by the challenge of leading two of our food microbiology laboratories? If so, this might be the role for you!

We are looking for an Operations Manager to oversee daily operations at two microbiology labs in Belgium. This role will report to the Managing Director Food, Feed & Water Testing Belgium and will be responsible for leading a team of over 30 employees, implementing operational excellence strategies and supporting business growth.

What team will I be part of?

You will be part of the leadership team at Food Testing Belgium, reporting directly to the Managing Director. You will lead the operations of key departments, ensuring high standards of efficiency, compliance and continuous improvement while managing day-to-day laboratory functions.

As an Operations Manager, you will:

• Lead the Food Microbiology departments, ensuring efficient daily operations and adherence to regulatory standards.
• Drive initiatives around productivity, cost reduction and optimisation and improving turnaround times to enhance service offerings and client loyalty.
• Oversee the bottom line for the business.
• Foster a team-oriented environment, encouraging open communication, creativity, and collaboration in problem-solving.
• Lead lean management and continuous improvement efforts to optimise laboratory workflows and increase efficiency.
• Develop and monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure that operational goals are achieved.
• Ensure cross-selling synergies with other Eurofins laboratories across Europe, leveraging expertise and resources.
• Maintain compliance with all relevant legal, contractual, and quality standards, ensuring that the lab remains fully accredited and in line with industry best practices.

Are you our kind of extraordinary?
You are a leader with strong people management and operations management skills, capable of driving operational excellence in a fast-paced, regulated environment. You thrive on optimising processes, leading teams, and ensuring the highest standards of service delivery.

Background: You bring at least 5 years of experience in an operations/production/manufacturing role, preferably in a food production environment. You have successfully led continuous improvement projects and managed budgets, showing a proven ability to increase productivity and profitability.

Education:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a relevant scientific field 

Skills:

• Excellent people management skills with the ability to manage, motivate, and develop teams. 
• Experience in Lean management and driving continuous improvement initiatives.
• Strong scientific and organisational skills with a focus on process optimisation and operational efficiency.
• Knowledge of Dutch and English is a strong advantage, and French is a plus.
• Strong communication skills (oral and written), with attention to detail and the ability to work closely with cross-functional teams and external stakeholders.

Location: Ghent area, Belgium, or willing to relocate, and are comfortable working from our laboratory site.

We support your development! Do you feel you don’t match 100% of the requirements? Don’t hesitate to apply anyway! Eurofins companies are committed to supporting your career development.

We embrace diversity! Eurofins network of companies believe in strength and innovation through diversity, being an Equal Opportunity Employer. We prohibit discrimination against employees or applications based on gender identity and/or expression, race, nationality, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and everything else that makes employees of Eurofins companies unique.

Sustainability matters to us!  We are well on our way to achieving our objective of carbon neutrality by 2025, through a combination of emission reduction and compensation initiatives. We encourage our laboratory leaders to make sustainable changes at their local level, and in addition to their initiatives we also count on our dedicated carbon reduction team to help us to achieve this goal!

Find out more in our career page: https://careers.eurofins.com/

Company description: Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins laboratories work with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate.

The Eurofins network of companies is the global leader in food, environment, pharmaceutical and cosmetic product testing and in discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and agroscience contract research services. It is one of the market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies, as well as having an emerging global presence in Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisations. It also has a rapidly developing presence in highly specialised and molecular clinical diagnostic testing and in-vitro diagnostic products.

In over 35 years, Eurofins has grown from one laboratory in Nantes, France to ca. 62,000 staff across a decentralised and entrepreneurial network of more than 900 laboratories in 62 countries. Eurofins companies offer a portfolio of over 200,000 analytical methods to evaluate the safety, identity, composition, authenticity, origin, traceability and purity of biological substances and products.

In 2023, Eurofins generated total revenues of EUR 6,515 million, and has been among the best performing stocks in Europe over the past 20 years.