Technical Operations Manager

Responsibilities:

• Lead implementation of technical improvements within the circularity pillars of EEA including repair, refurbishment, tech center management (tools, processes), testing and diagnosis.
• Technical support for deployment of tooling changes or NPI advised from R&D hardware – create and communicate processes and procedures related to all countries and implement with the technical teams in the countries.
• Support New Product Introductions (NPI) to all countries by creating content, serialization of new products (serial-number-board), ensuring readiness of technical centers tools and systems to launch, and disseminating to heads of operations and technical teams in the country through regular trainings.
• Work closely with related teams in R&D, China Operations, Product Management to define diagnosis, refurbishment and repair strategies for existing and new products. Work with countries to examine and implement centralized vs. decentralized diagnosis and refurbishment strategies to reduce turn-around-time and increase customer satisfaction.
• Track cost optimization opportunities on core processes in the product value chain of African operations including technical operations and capacity utilization, set up of tech centers and improvement of necessary tools and processes to bring most value to EEA on IQC/assembly, repairs, and refurbishment, testing and diagnosis, increase productivity to use more refurbished hardware for warranty - in liaison with the QA and CX team. 
• Support the improvement of Inventory control tools and procedures in the operating countries especially in the areas of technical operations, together with accounting and country operations heads, lead preparation and full adoption of inventory control guidelines for technical operations.
• Create policies, processes, and procedures to share tech center best practices to achieve highest levels of operational excellence and standardization across the tech centers. Maintain repository for critical technical operations related policies, guidelines, and procedures. Update and upgrade any as required periodically.
• Track and maintain consolidated records of product end-of-life (EOL) for each country; use appropriate standards to assist and advise on EOL management including finding, due diligence, auditing, and contracting of suitable recycling partners to work with EEA. Employ technical skills to find alternative use / repurposing of EOL items to reduce disposal and e-waste.
• Track and improve the reverse logistics with countries to ensure efficiency in returning of swapped products to the tech center for refurbishment and turning them around to the field for reuse. Reduce the turnaround time.
• Develop and implement standard score card metrics to monitor the health of operations of technical operations including backlog reduction, repair and refurbishment throughput rates, product quality metrics including pass/fail, data gathering and maintenance in critical tools, and disposal / e-waste management.
• Coach and train country operations teams on improvements / best practices as needed to elevate tech center activities.

At EEA, we have high expectations for our managers. Each manager plays a key role in creating an exceptional experience not only for our customers but for every person on our team. Our managers help EEA realize our ambitious goals while developing their own leadership skills and facilitating growth for their direct reports. 

We believe that great managers:

• Deliver ambitious results: As a high-performing and accountable leader, you create an enabling environment for effective action and bold decision which contribute to successful delivery of results.
• Act with integrity: As an ethical leader you are honest, respectful, objective, and transparent. You create and build upon a foundation of trust and openness.
• Inspire and mentor the team: As an inspirational leader you walk the talk. You empower and coach your team with trust and humility.
• Are accessible: as an accessible leader, you develop and maintain deep connections with stakeholders through approachability and active listening.
• Ensure diversity and inclusion: as an inclusive leader, you ensure diversity and foster a sense of belonging.

Knowledge and skills:

Experience:

• Minimum 4 years of experience in operations/operations excellence/operations improvements/supply chain related fields. 
• Ability to get hands-on, analyze processes, determine gaps, and formulate solutions to improve operations. 
• Technical knowledge of formulating policies, processes and procedures suiting multiple operations. 
• Ability to work with cross-cultural teams and bring together diverse teams – cut through barriers to achieve compliance.
• Stakeholder management and ability to interact with key external partners in recycling / disposal.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in operations/operations excellence/operations improvements/supply chain / engineering / technical projects management related fields.
• Professional certifications in lean / six sigma, engineering is an added advantage.
• Working knowledge of kaizen processes, project management, and improvements are also important.