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Salary: USD 122,000 - 212,750 / annual
Johnson & Johnson MedTech (DePuy Synthes) seeks a Senior Manager, Strategic Supplier Management to lead supplier quality transformation, governance, and lifecycle management across a global supply base. This is a strategic individual contributor role—no direct reports, but you will lead cross-functional teams through influence, technical credibility, and structured governance.
You will own three core pillars:
1. Continuous Improvement & Transformation: Develop and execute the Supplier Quality transformation strategy, roadmap, and multi-year deployment plan. Identify, scope, and lead high-impact programs aligned with patient safety, product quality, compliance, supply reliability, and business priorities. Build business cases, establish intake and prioritization processes, and apply Lean, Six Sigma, and structured problem-solving to simplify processes, reduce variation, and drive harmonization across business units and regions. Partner with Digital, Data, and Quality Systems teams to deploy automation, dashboards, and predictive-risk capabilities. Establish control plans and sustainment measures to ensure improvements stick.
2. Supplier Quality Project Management Office: Serve as the central PMO lead, maintaining the authoritative portfolio of departmental projects and strategic initiatives. Establish standard project-management methods, templates, stage gates, governance routines, and escalation pathways. Maintain integrated roadmaps covering scope, milestones, resources, funding, dependencies, risks, and benefits. Lead portfolio intake, prioritization, and rebalancing. Facilitate steering committees and executive governance forums. Develop fact-based executive reporting on portfolio health, progress, resource constraints, and required leadership actions. Coach project leaders in planning, risk management, and governance. Ensure completed programs have clear ownership, documented standard work, training, controls, and transition plans.
3. Supplier Lifecycle Governance: Design and maintain the Supplier Quality lifecycle governance model from identification through disengagement. Define lifecycle stages, decision points, quality requirements, approval authorities, and accountability. Establish consistent governance for due diligence, selection, onboarding, qualification, monitoring, segmentation, development, change management, escalation, requalification, and exit. Co-lead supplier selection with Procurement. Maintain standard criteria and tools for due diligence and risk assessment. Coordinate onboarding and qualification activities. Establish risk-based supplier segmentation. Define governance for ongoing monitoring and performance escalation. Co-own structured supplier-exit processes. Monitor lifecycle-process effectiveness through metrics and audit findings.
Additional responsibilities include process ownership and standardization, metrics and analytics, and cross-functional leadership. You will work in a global matrix organization, partnering with Supplier Quality, Procurement, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Engineering, R&D, Regulatory Affairs, Quality Systems, Compliance, Finance, and Digital teams.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Science, Quality, Operations, Supply Chain, Business, or related discipline
- Minimum 10 years of progressive experience in Quality, Supplier Quality, Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Program Management, or Process Excellence within medical device, pharmaceutical, combination-product, or highly regulated industry
- Minimum 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 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 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
KEY SKILLS:
- 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, and process-excellence methods
- Strong understanding of 21 CFR Part 820, ISO 13485, EU Medical Device Regulation, risk management, and cGMP
- Ability to design practical governance systems balancing compliance, risk, speed, scalability, and business value
- Ability to translate strategy into executable roadmaps, charters, milestones, and resource plans
- Strong business-case development, financial acumen, prioritization, and value-realization skills
- Advanced analytical skills and ability to convert complex data into clear insights
- Strong change-leadership, stakeholder-management, facilitation, negotiation, and influencing skills
- 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 integrity, judgment, accountability, and commitment to patient safety, product quality, compliance, and reliable supply
