Continuous Improvement Leader - all genders – fixed term contract 31.12.2026

At a glance

Our teams produce and deliver over 4 billion units of medicines and vaccines every year, ensuring every breakthrough gets to the people who need it most.
Our state-of-the-art facilities, AI-powered smart factories, and cutting-edge automation are redefining what’s possible: ensuring treatments reach patients faster, safer, and more sustainably than ever before. This is where your skills, ambition, and passion can shape the future of healthcare.

About Sanofi:

We’re an R&D-driven, AI-powered biopharma company committed to improving people’s lives and delivering compelling growth. Our deep understanding of the immune system – and innovative pipeline – enables us to invent medicines and vaccines that treat and protect millions of people around the world. Together, we chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives.

About the job

Our Team:

As an Continuous Improvement Leader, you will play a pivotal role in transformational initiatives and driving continuous improvement principles (SMS, Lean) across the organization.

Your mission encompasses deployment and monitoring of SMS 2.0, driving continuous improvement, diagnosing area performance, developing improvement solutions, fostering a performance-oriented culture, and ensuring alignment with strategic goals, at all levels of the organization.

The Continuous Improvement Leader will collaborate with the APU, areas management, shopfloor teams and process owners to initiate and implement performance improvement projects/initiatives.

You will be serving either as a project lead, coach, empowering other employees on site to drive change, applying the lean and continuous improvement principles consistently and effectively, assuring impactful and quantified performance improvement, as well as sustainability.

Main responsibilities:

Transformation & programs deployment and sustainment:

• Drive performance & transformation initiatives (e.g., SMS 2.0 deployment, Factory 4.0 solutions, etc.), actively supporting impact quantification, ensuring impact delivery and sustainability.

• Ensure inclusion of the effective use of Digital to transform site operations.

Continuous improvement:

• Work with business leaders to identify process gaps that will be captured in continuous improvement plans and facilitated by the continuous improvement teams for impactful results.

• Lead waste elimination to build teams’ skills at identifying and eliminating waste.

• Support execution, CI (Continuous Improvement) standard deployment, problem solving, Operational Excellence (LEAN) methods.

• Maturity of the Sanofi Manufacturing System (SMS) 2.0: ensure process confirmation and sustainment of SMS standards (planning, owner, follow up, prioritization).

Standardization:

• Ensure alignment to Global SMS 2.0 standards, including continuous improvement to standards and maturity of standards, replicating best practices across departments, and sharing across the organization.

• Ensure teams are utilizing the appropriate improvement methodology including training on tools and application as required.

Industrial culture:

• Drive a performance-oriented culture & instill a continuous improvement mindset throughout the organization.

• Ensure alignment with strategic goals, at all levels of the organization.

About you

Education / Experience:

• Bachelor of Science, Engineering, Business or Operations.

• 5+ years manufacturing experience or LEAN industrial experience with good understanding of overall business operations knowledge and Good Manufacturing Practices.

• Experience in leading complex and cross-functional initiatives.

• Project Management and Change Management experience preferred.

Soft and technical skills:

• Highly Proficient in MS Office Applications including Excel, PowerPoint & PowerBi.

• Excellent Interpersonal and Influential Leadership Skills, and strong end-to-end Business Acumen. Demonstrates Leadership behavior for challenging status quo and driving Transformation.

• Ability to function within a diverse team, from shop floor to leadership.

• Ability to train and coach.

• Ability to adapt within rapidly changing business environment.

• Pragmatic, analytical and data driven with systematic problem-solving capabilities.

Languages:

• Excellent Communication Skills both in English and German (verbal, written and presentation)

Why choose us?

• Discover endless opportunities to grow your talent and drive your career, whether it’s through a promotion or lateral move, at home or internationally.
• Benefit from a well-thought-out benefits package that rewards your contribution and commitment.
• We take care of you and your family with a wide range of health and social such as high-quality healthcare, numerous prevention programs and coverage for long-term illness. Our 14-week paid family leave for both parents is outstanding as well as a wide range of childcare benefits.
• Start your career at an attractive location in the center of Germany and experience our modern working environment and benefit from hybrid, flexible working time models.