Activity Manager
mars · USA-Ohio-Lewisburg, United States
Job Description:
The Activity Manager leads integrated planning and execution of Pet Center activities—including sourcing/homing, warehouse management, sample management, research protocols, global methodologies, pet panels, facility projects, and Ecosystem initiatives—to maximize resource planning, diet logistics, data quality, and business value. The role connects internal customers and cross-functional teams, balances competing priorities and constraints, and provides clear visibility of schedules, capacity, risks, costs, and performance from request through delivery.
What are we looking for?
Bachelor’s degree in a scientific, operations, business, or related discipline, or equivalent relevant experience. Formal project-management, Lean, or continuous-improvement training is preferred. People management experience preferred.
- Experience coordinating multiple concurrent R&D, operational, or cross-functional projects in a resource-constrained environment.
- Experience managing cross-functional teams or groups.
- Strong analytical and data-quality skills, with the ability to translate operational data into clear insights, scenarios, and recommendations.
- Working proficiency with Excel, Power BI, Smartsheet, SharePoint, and related project or portfolio management tools.
- Excellent written, verbal, facilitation, organization, and stakeholder-management skills; able to influence without direct authority.
- Experience in cat and dog nutritional testing, animal research, panel management, or pet-care operations is preferred.
- Familiarity with IACUC, USDA, animal welfare, and Good Laboratory Practice expectations is preferred.
- Ability to manage detailed, deadline-driven work, adapt to changing priorities, and maintain sound judgment when information is incomplete.
What will be your key responsibilities?
Leadership- Manage a team of associates delivering key categories such as Homing/Sourcing and Warehouse/Coating. Demonstrate the ability to set clear goals and expectations within the team that align against business priorities.
- Engage a high performing team by providing coaching, feedback and opportunities for growth.
- RLE Site Leadership Team member driving culture, engagement, vision, purpose and strategy.
Lead site activity planning and portfolio governance
- Own the end-to-end intake, feasibility assessment, prioritization, scheduling, and tracking of research protocols, standard methodologies, background feedings, facility activities, and Ecosystem projects.
- Translate business demand into an integrated site plan that balances pet population, panel readiness, associate capacity, facility constraints, testing requirements, welfare considerations, and delivery commitments.
- Maintain forward-looking demand, capacity, and animal-use forecasts; identify constraints, scenarios, and trade-offs early and recommend actions to site leadership.
Coordinate pet panels, population, and project resources
- Partner with research, global methods, behavior, welfare, veterinary, and protocol execution teams to maintain balanced, validated, study-ready cat and dog panels.
- Coordinate acquisition strategy, census planning, utilization, panel balancing, life-plan inputs, and allocation of pets across competing business needs.
- Ensure required diets, samples, laboratory services, equipment, supplies, and facility support are available when needed.
Enable disciplined project execution
- Facilitate cross-functional project planning from request through delivery of quality data to the principal investigator or business partner.
- Establish timelines, milestones, decision points, responsibilities, dependencies, risks, and recovery actions; follow through on commitments and escalate issues appropriately.
- Recommend whether activities should proceed, pause, be re-sequenced, or stop based on feasibility, resources, welfare, quality, cost, and business priority.
Deliver stakeholder alignment and visibility
- Serve as the primary planning interface for RLE customers and ecosystem partners, including Royal Canin R&D, Waltham, other pet centers, Champion, laboratories, manufacturing sites, and external research partners.
- Provide timely communication on activity status, capacity, decisions, constraints, risks, and delivery outlook.
- Build collaborative relationships and facilitate alignment when stakeholder priorities compete.
Own systems, data & KPIs
- Own and continuously improve site activity-management tools, dashboards, planning standards, and governance routines.
- Define, monitor, and communicate KPIs for schedule adherence, capacity and pet utilization, throughput, data delivery, and planning effectiveness through the Pet Center MOS.
- Oversee project coding, cross-charges, and activity-related cost visibility in partnership with Finance and project owners.
Drive quality, compliance, and continuous improvement
- Ensure planning and execution align with the Mars Quality Management System, applicable SOPs, animal welfare standards, IACUC and USDA requirements, an approved study protocols.
- Use data, lessons learned, and stakeholder feedback to reduce lead times, remove inefficiencies, standardize ways of working, and improve predictability and customer experience.
- Perform other activities, project work, and responsibilities as assigned.
What can you expect from Mars?
- Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.
- Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
- A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
- An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.