- Job Title: Site Head
- Hiring Manager: Philippe Escoffier - Head of Manufacturing & Supply - AMEA
- Location: Virginia, Brisbane
- Job Type: Permanent
You’ve built experience, now use it where bold ideas meet real impact. At Opella, we’re challenging how self-care works for millions of people and need leaders and experts ready to shape what’s next. As an experienced Site Head , you’ll bring your skill, your curiosity and your drive to make health simpler, smarter and more human.
The Site:
This is a strategic site supporting primarily Australian market and New Zealand, with also some export activity to China, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia.
A key industrial partner supporting business growth, ensuring agility, responsiveness and service excellence to markets and consumers.
Supporting strong and dynamic innovation pipeline inherent to VMS category.
- 220 SKU (3 brands)
- Tablets, soft gels, capsules
Partnering closely with Commercial, Marketing and Development Centre teams to accelerate innovation, industrialize new products and ensure successful launches.
Key Figures:
- Supervised staff: approximately 220 people
- Investment budget: 2.5M€
- Number of sales units produced: 16 M bottles (2.5 billion tablets)
- Operating budget: 65 million €
Driving sustainable performance by balancing service, quality, cost competitiveness and environmental impact.
The Mission:
The Site Head ensures a high level of responsibility and supervision of the site teams to perform on the multiple dimensions of industrial excellence (safety, quality, service, costs, involvement, projects) and to deliver an ambitious performance.
- Deliver outstanding service to customers and consumers, ensuring product availability, flexibility and responsiveness to business needs.
- Acts as a strategic partner for Commercial, Supply, Quality and Development Centre teams, enabling innovation, accelerating industrialization and supporting sustainable growth of the VMS portfolio.
- Leads organizational and cultural transformation projects and drives a medium- and long-term industrial strategy.
- Integrates sustainability ambitions into the site strategy, embedding environmental performance, resource efficiency and responsible operations into daily decisions and long-term investments.
- Creates an inclusive and high-performing culture where people are empowered, engaged and accountable for delivering value to patients, consumers and customers.
Key Responsibilities:
General Organization and Management
- Translate business strategy into clear site priorities, ensuring alignment between manufacturing, commercial ambitions and customer needs.
- Ensure customer satisfaction by delivering products in quantity on time and following good manufacturing practices throughout the entire process.
- Strong results-oriented and change management
- Develop a culture of operational excellence where performance, simplification, innovation and sustainability are embedded in everyday ways of working.
- Support Opella Performance Systems' continuous improvement initiatives and best practices across all departments and set ambitious goals for best-in-class performance, reduced cycle time, optimized spend and production costs.
- Ensure the digital transformation of the site aimed at deploying the company's roadmap and ensure an appropriate cultural change to take full advantage of it.
Hygiene, Security, Environment
- Build a proactive safety culture where everyone takes ownership of protecting themselves, colleagues and the environment in line with our HSE policy.
- Strengthen quality mindset across the organization, ensuring right-first-time execution and consumer trust.
- Ensures the site permanently conforms to laws and rule applying to hygiene, security and environment.
- Accelerate the site's sustainability roadmap by reducing carbon footprint, optimizing resource consumption, minimizing waste and contributing to circular economy ambitions.
- Communication
- Lead the transformation of the site and promote the Opella Challenger Mindset culture.
- Build a culture of ownership, collaboration and continuous learning, enabling teams to grow while delivering exceptional performance.
- Foster employee engagement and development at all levels, ensure talent development and drive succession plans.
- Develop strong partnerships with key stakeholders including Commercial, Development Centre, Supply Chain, Quality and global manufacturing networks to enable business success.
About You:
- 15+ years’ experience within manufacturing or production environments, including at least 4 years in a senior site leadership role such as Site Head, Manufacturing Director, Head of Manufacturing, or Head of Production.
- Demonstrated success leading large-scale manufacturing operations, with full accountability for safety, quality, delivery, cost, and people performance.
- Experience working within a global organisation is highly regarded, with exposure to complex stakeholder environments and matrix structures.
- Background in FMCG manufacturing is preferred; however, experience within pharmaceutical manufacturing will also be considered.
- Proven track record of leading and successfully delivering major industrial projects, including site expansions, capacity increases, operational transformations, or new product launches.
- Strong understanding of core manufacturing business processes, with expertise across Health, Safety & Environment (HSE), Quality, Operational Excellence, Performance Management, and Continuous Improvement.
- An inspiring people leader with the ability to build high-performing teams, drive engagement, and foster a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
- Commercially minded, with strong analytical and decision-making skills and the ability to balance strategic priorities with operational execution.
Leadership & Personal Attributes
- Strategic and forward-thinking leader who can anticipate future challenges and opportunities, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation while maintaining a practical, results-focused approach.
- Ambitious and career-driven, with a strong desire for continuous personal and professional growth and a passion for leading transformational change.
- Customer and consumer-centric mindset, with the ability to translate commercial objectives and market insights into clear operational priorities and business outcomes.
- Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to build trusted partnerships and collaborate effectively across Commercial, Supply Chain, R&D/Development, Quality, and other cross-functional teams.
- Influential leader who can create alignment among diverse stakeholders, navigate complex environments, and drive outcomes through collaboration rather than authority alone.
- Strong communicator with the ability to articulate vision, inspire teams, and engage employees at all levels of the organisation.
- Resilient and adaptable, capable of leading through change, managing competing priorities, and maintaining focus in a fast-paced environment.
- Collaborative and inclusive leadership style, fostering a culture of accountability, engagement, continuous improvement, and high performance.
People Development
- Builds and develops high-performing teams by recognising and leveraging individual strengths, fostering collaboration, and creating an environment where people can thrive.
- Establishes a strong culture of continuous feedback, coaching, and development, empowering employees to reach their full potential and achieve their career aspirations.
- Promotes open communication, knowledge sharing, and mutual respect, ensuring team members feel valued, engaged, and accountable for delivering results.
- Demonstrates a commitment to talent development, succession planning, and building future leadership capability across the organisation.
This is more than the next step in your career, it’s a chance to lead change and help reinvent self-care for the world. If you’re ready to challenge, inspire and deliver impact that matters, we’re ready for you. We are challengers. We are Opella.
Opella is the self-care challenger with the purest and third-largest portfolio in the Over The Counter (OTC) & Vitamins, Minerals & Supplements (VMS) market globally.
Our mission is to bring health in people’s hands by making self-care as simple as it should be. For half a billion consumers worldwide – and counting.
At the core of this mission is our 100 loved brands, our 11,000-strong global team, our 13 best-in-class manufacturing sites and 4 specialized science and innovation development centers. Headquartered in France, Opella is the proud maker of many of the world’s most loved brands, including Allegra, Buscopan , Doliprane ,Dulcolax, Enterogermina , Essentiale and Mucosolvan .
As a globally certified B Corp company, we are active players in the journey towards healthier people and planet . Find out more about our mission at www.opella.com .
