Manager, Continuous Improvement

Manager, Continuous Improvement

Status: Full time
Schedule: Monday – Friday
Additional Requirements: NA 
Number of positions: 1 
Internal Application Deadline: 16 July 2025

This vacancy is for an existing position.

This role is a full time one-year contract and is located at our Ontario office, 100 International Blvd, Toronto, ON location. Some travel required, both within and outside the province.

At LifeLabs, we are focused on our vision of building a healthier Canada! We are the largest community diagnostics laboratory in Canada with over 350 collection centres, 21 laboratories and service over 19 million patients each year.

Caring, Agile, Customer Driven, One Team - We live our values every day in what we do to help our patients and healthcare providers. With over 5,000 employees, we all make a difference and that’s why our people are so important to us.

This is an exciting time to join our LifeLabs team, grow your career with us and support numerous business initiatives, innovations, best practice and business development opportunities.

As the Manager Continuous Improvement you will collaborate with Operations and Support Group teams, to build operational robustness by supporting and facilitating the delivery of sustainable improvements. The Manager will develop and deploy Lean tools and methodologies to build LifeLabs capability to drive continuous improvement through employee engagement, and ensure the proper application of standardized process improvement across all CI initiatives

Key Responsibilities:

Continuous Improvement

• Lead and facilitate continuous improvement projects to enhance performance in safety, quality, delivery, cost, and employee engagement.
• Manage the development and deployment of Lean tools and methodologies that will raise the skills and knowledge of LifeLabs employees
• Build CI capabilities by training and mentoring staff at all levels in Lean/Six Sigma principles and problem-solving methods.
• Analyze data and business processes to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for cost reduction or productivity improvement.
• Collaborate with functional leaders to develop and maintain a culture of continuous improvement throughout the organization.
• Establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure impact and progress of CI initiatives.
• Support change management efforts and ensure stakeholder alignment and buy-in for process changes.
• Lead or support kaizen events, value stream mapping sessions, and root cause analysis workshops.

Enhancement Request Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for all system enhancement and feature requests.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather, document, and clarify enhancement needs and user stories.
• Maintain a centralized backlog and tracking system for all enhancement and feature requests.

Prioritization & Planning

• Facilitate prioritization sessions with stakeholders using data-driven frameworks (e.g., RICE, impact/effort).
• Align feature development with strategic business objectives, capacity constraints, and technical dependencies.
• Partner with product owners and development leads to scope features and assess feasibility and complexity.

Requirements:

• University degree in Engineering, Business, Science or equivalent
• At least 5-7 years of experience in a similar role
• Has access to a vehicle and valid driver’s license
• Proven ability to take strategic direction and objectives and develop and deploy supporting tactical plans, then providing direction and overall team management to execute the plans.
• Strong change leadership experience in a high volume, highly complex product/services mix environment with a passion for making significant improvements.
• Thorough knowledge of Lean concepts and tools, such as Value Added and Non-value Added Work, Work Flow, JIT, Jidoka, Visual Management, 5S, Value Stream Mapping, Standardized Work, Single Piece Flow, Quality at Source, Poka-Yoke and Problem Solving and minimum of 5 years of experience deploying the concepts and tools to drive improvements.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in leading and facilitating teams to implement new technologies or Continuous Improvement initiatives, such as kaizens, with a proven track record of delivering tangible benefits to the organization.
• Related experience in Lean with a proven track record of Lean deployment and driving improvements in a multisite environment. Proven ability to provide organizational excellence, guidance and tools to drive positive change. Six Sigma experience also an asset.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated experience in coaching and motivating teams and individuals, without direct authority, to perform at a high level.
• Good understanding of EHS and experience of related Regulatory Compliance