Lab Operations Manager - Project and Service Operations

Job description

The name Sotera Health was inspired by Soteria, the Greek goddess of safety, and reflects the Company’s unwavering commitment to its mission, Safeguarding Global Health®. Sotera Health Company is a leading global provider of mission-critical sterilization and lab testing and advisory services for the healthcare industry. With a combined tenure across our businesses of nearly 200 years and our industry recognized scientific and technological expertise, we help to ensure the safety of millions of patients and healthcare practitioners around the world every year. Across our 64 facilities worldwide, we have over 3,000 employees who are dedicated to safety and quality. We are a trusted partner to more than 5,800 customers in over 50 countries, including more than 40 of the top 50 medical device companies and 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies. Job Summary The Project & Service Operations Manager leads a team responsible for coordinating customer projects and delivering a consistent, responsive service experience throughout the testing lifecycle. This position is primarily focused on attracting, developing, and retaining employees while establishing clear expectations for customer communication, project execution, issue resolution, and service delivery. The manager provides day-to-day leadership and operational oversight for project and service activities, including workload management, resource planning, performance metrics, and process improvement. This role works closely with customers and cross-functional partners to remove barriers, resolve escalated concerns, and ensure commitments are met. Essential Duties Customer Experience and Service Delivery Establish and reinforce customer service standards across the PSO team. Ensure customers receive timely, clear, and consistent communication. Monitor service performance, including turnaround time, response time, project progress, and customer satisfaction. Address escalated customer concerns and coordinate timely resolution. Identify recurring service issues and implement corrective and preventive improvements. Partner with laboratory operations, commercial teams, quality, finance, and other functions to support successful customer outcomes. People Leadership and Development Recruit, onboard, train, develop, and retain employees. Conduct regular one-on-one meetings and provide ongoing coaching and feedback. Establish clear performance expectations and hold employees accountable for results. Partner with Human Resources to address employee concerns and support performance improvement. Develop succession plans and strengthen team capabilities through cross-training, mentoring, and development planning. Build a collaborative, customer-focused culture centered on accountability and continuous improvement. Project and Service Operations Oversee the effective assignment, coordination, and completion of customer projects and service activities. Balance workload and resources across the team based on volume, complexity, priorities, and customer needs. Monitor project milestones, outstanding actions, risks, backlog, and service commitments. Ensure issues are documented, escalated, and resolved at the appropriate level. Establish clear ownership and effective handoffs across PSO, laboratory operations, and supporting functions. Support consistent use of systems, processes, and standard work. Operational Excellence Develop and monitor operational and customer-service metrics. Use performance data and customer feedback to identify trends and improvement opportunities. Lead initiatives that improve efficiency, communication, consistency, and the overall customer experience. Support department planning, staffing, and resource decisions. Promote effective change management and adoption of new processes and systems. Competencies Strong people-leadership and employee-development capabilities Demonstrated commitment to customer service Strong written and verbal communication Ability to manage competing priorities and organize work Conflict-resolution and difficult-conversation skills Sound judgment and structured problem-solving Ability to manage escalations calmly and effectively Cross-functional leadership and relationship-building skills Change leadership and continuous-improvement mindset Ability to use data and metrics to drive decisions Proficiency with Microsoft Office and customer or project-management systems Education and Experience Bachelor’s degree in business, operations, project management, life sciences, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience. People-management experience required. Experience leading customer service, project management, customer operations, or service-delivery teams strongly preferred. Experience in laboratory testing, life sciences, healthcare, contract services, or another regulated environment preferred. Project-management, continuous-improvement, or customer-experience training preferred. Sotera Health goes to market through its three best-in-class businesses – Sterigenics®, Nordion® and Nelson Labs®. Sterigenics is a leading global provider of outsourced terminal sterilization and irradiation services for the medical device, pharmaceutical, food safety and advanced applications markets. Nordion is the leading global provider of Co-60 and gamma irradiators, which are key components to the gamma sterilization process. Nelson Labs is a global leader in outsourced microbiological and analytical chemistry testing and advisory services for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries.