Global PMO Manager, Operational Excellence

About the role

Within IFF's Taste Business Unit, Operational Excellence covers Continuous Improvement, Digital Operations, AI and analytics, Automation, Smart manufacturing, Supply Chain Excellence and other strategic operations priorities. As Global PMO Manager, Operational Excellence, you will own the governance and management system for the global portfolio and its link to broader operations priorities. This is a PMO and portfolio-governance role for a strategic leader who creates structure, aligns initiatives and accelerates business value. The role can be based in Asturias, Barcelona, Gebze or Skofja Vas, with hybrid arrangements depending on the country.

Key responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end governance framework for the global Operational Excellence portfolio and maintain a consolidated portfolio of initiatives, programs and commitments across functions, regions and sites.
• Run a structured demand-intake and evaluation process, then prioritize initiatives by strategic contribution, business value, urgency, feasibility, risk and other criteria, and turn approved priorities into a multi-year roadmap.
• Consolidate plans, milestones and schedules into a single roadmap, and show resource requirements, capacity constraints and competing demands; resolve resource conflicts and bottlenecks through governance forums.
• Work with Finance on business cases, budgets, forecasts, CAPEX/OPEX and value-realization tracking, and monitor performance against approved baselines.
• Define portfolio-health criteria, track risks, issues and decisions, and connect Operational Excellence governance with broader operations priorities.
• Maintain a single source of truth for portfolio status, build executive dashboards and analytics, capture lessons learned and simplify PMO processes.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Business Administration, Finance, Project Management or a related discipline.
• 7+ years of experience in PMO, portfolio management, program governance, transformation office or enterprise planning roles.
• Proven experience governing a complex portfolio in a global, multi-site, matrixed operations or manufacturing environment.
• Strong knowledge of portfolio intake, prioritization, roadmaps, governance design, resource planning, risk and dependency management, and executive reporting.
• Proven experience in financial and value governance, including business cases, budgets, forecasts, savings tracking and benefit validation.
• Excellent stakeholder management, analytical and communication skills in English.

Required skills

• Portfolio management, reporting, dashboarding and data visualization tools
• PMP, Lean Six Sigma or comparable certification is a plus
• Experience in food, ingredients, consumer goods, specialty chemicals or process manufacturing is a plus