Job Overview
1. The Lean Practitioner will apply Lean methodologies within the Hard Services delivery team to improve maintenance and engineering processes, eliminate waste, and embed standardised best practice across a regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing environment.
The role supports continuous improvement initiatives, drives operational excellence, and fosters a culture of proactive problem-solving and sustained performance optimisation
Main Duties
2. 1) Continuous improvement leadership (Hard Services)
Create and manage a site Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP), ensuring initiatives are scoped, prioritised, resourced, tracked and benefits realised/sustained. Lead structured improvement activity using Lean/Kaizen and Lean Six Sigma approaches (e.g., DMAIC/PDCA thinking, root cause analysis) to remove waste and reduce process variation in maintenance workflows. Apply practical Lean tools in the engineering environment including 5S (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardise, Sustain) to improve safety, compliance, and efficiency in workshops, stores, plant rooms, and maintenance areas. Use time-and-motion / workload-balancing techniques (e.g., Yamazumi-style analysis) to identify non-productive time, improve scheduling, and optimise resource deployment across the site.
2) Data-led performance insight & problem solving
3. Review operational data to understand trends, identify constraints and repeat failures, and target the highest-value improvement opportunities (reactive drivers, permit delays, spares bottlenecks, planning effectiveness, repeat defects).
4. Establish practical “feedback loops” (e.g., stakeholder feedback, satisfaction measures, helpdesk insights) and convert them into prioritised improvement actions.
5. Facilitate structured root cause investigations and ensure corrective and preventative actions are embedded into standard processes.
3) Engagement, coaching & culture
6. Coach and support engineers, planners, supervisors, and supply chain partners to use Lean tools in daily work (toolbox talks, huddles, short workshops, on-the-job coaching).
7. Promote standardised ways of working and share learning across teams to prevent reoccurrence and sustain improvements.
8. Support delivery of Lean / Operational Excellence capability-building (e.g., Yellow/Green Belt level development) to embed Lean behaviours across the hard services organisation.
4) Regulated site compliance & documentation discipline
9. Operate within the requirements of a regulated pharmaceutical environment (e.g., GMP/GLP areas), ensuring improvements strengthen audit readiness, documentation quality, and compliance behaviours.
10. Ensure improvement activity aligns with safe systems of work, permit-to-work controls, contractor controls, and local SSOW requirements, partnering with HSE/Compliance leads as required.
5) Governance & stakeholder management
11. Maintain an ongoing, collaborative dialogue with key site stakeholders to understand priorities, issues, and operational risk; translate these into CI deliverables and measurable outcomes.
12. Contribute to (and where required, facilitate) joint improvement forums/committees with stakeholders and supply chain to review progress, remove blockers, and agree next steps.
13. Produce clear reporting for governance packs: CI pipeline, benefits realisation, risks/issues, and actions to sustain improvements
What we are looking for
Essential
14. Demonstrable experience applying Lean / continuous improvement in an operational environment (engineering, maintenance, manufacturing, or facilities)
15. Strong working knowledge of core Lean tools (process mapping, 5 Whys, standard work, visual management, 5S) and facilitation of improvement workshops.
16. Confident using data to diagnose issues and evidence benefits (trend analysis, Pareto thinking, workload/time studies).
17. Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills—able to influence engineers and leaders and embed change on shift-based teams.
Desirable
18. Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt (or higher) and/or formal Operational Excellence training.
19. Experience working in regulated environments (pharma, life sciences, critical environments) with strong documentation discipline and audit readiness focus.
20. Understanding of maintenance best practice (planned maintenance optimisation, proactive/predictive mindset, reliability concepts)
Our market-leading offering provides you with benefits that suit your lifestyle.
We have a virtual GP on hand for you and members of your household. So you can get expert advice by video or phone without having to leave your home. We offer financial wellbeing assistance through our Salary Finance scheme. For example, you could access 50% of your earned pay before payday for a small fee. Salary Finance also offers competitive loans.
When you join us, we’ll give you a link to our flexible lifestyle benefits platform, Choices. You might choose to purchase up to five extra days’ holiday each year. You might buy critical illness insurance, seek dental treatment or buy technology products at an affordable cost. There are many choices!
We give you access to high street discounts from thousands of well-known retailers, gyms and more through our MiDeals platform. And we have a cycle-to-work scheme. Life cover of up to four times your salary is available. We also offer enhanced pension contributions, a save-as-you-earn scheme, and a Mitie Matching Share Plan (you could even be awarded free shares in Mitie).
We award our employees with Mitie Stars as recognition for their hard work. There are cash prizes up for grabs each month and at the end of the year there’s a chance to scoop a top prize of £10,!
Our success is a direct result of the experience and quality of our people. Progressing your career is therefore a top priority for us. We offer a diverse variety of training and development avenues via a wide selection of learning resources to suit you.
We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible to all. If you have a disability or long-term condition (for example dyslexia, anxiety, autism, a mobility condition or hearing loss) and need us to make any reasonable adjustments, changes or do anything differently during the recruitment process, please let us know by emailing Sophie Willson at .