Digital Automation and Analytics Lead

About Us

Symrise is a global supplier of fragrances and flavors, cosmetic active ingredients as well as functional ingredients. Its customers include perfume, cosmetics, food and beverage manufacturers, the pharmaceutical industry and producers of dietary supplements and pet food.

With sales of around €4.9 billion in the 2025 financial year, the company is one of the world's leading providers. The Group, headquartered in Holzminden, Germany, has more than 100 locations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Asia, the USA and Latin America.

Together with its customers, Symrise develops new ideas and market-ready concepts for products that form an indispensable part of everyday life. Economic success and corporate responsibility are inextricably linked.

Symrise – always inspiring more...

Your Role

The Global Operational Excellence Digital Automation & Analytics Lead (m/f/d) is responsible for driving digital enablement and adoption within the Global Operational Excellence (OE) function, supporting the advancement of factory performance along the Industry 4.0 maturity curve.
The role ensures that OE methodologies and business priorities are translated into clear, value-driven digital initiatives, in close collaboration with IT and other enterprise functions. Acting as a key business partner, the role aligns Operational Excellence, S&OP, and Engineering & Maintenance around a consistent and impactful digital roadmap.
As the primary business counterpart for digital topics, the role focuses on defining business needs, prioritizing initiatives, and ensuring successful adoption and value realization across sites. The role works in strong partnership with IT Digital Product Managers / Owners, who are responsible for solution design, delivery, and lifecycle management.
This requisition is a fulltime role to be located at any major Symrise site globally.

• Own the OE Digital Platform from a Business Perspective
  
  • Define and prioritize business requirements, use cases, and value drivers for the OE digital platform
  • Co-develop the digital roadmap in collaboration with IT and relevant business stakeholders
  • Monitor adoption, performance, and business value of implemented solutions
  • Drive continuous improvement based on business feedback and evolving needs
• Translate OE Methodologies into Digital Solutions
  
  • Translate OE methodologies (e.g., KPI frameworks, performance models, financial tracking) into clear business requirements for digital solutions
  • Ensure that required data, KPIs, and insights are accessible and support decision-making
  • Validate that digital tools effectively support operational processes and performance management
  • Act as business owner for key performance metrics (e.g., OEE, OTIF, utilization and loss analysis)
• Enable Industry 4.0 Transformation at Site Level
  
  • Apply and support the Industry 4.0 maturity model across sites, ensuring consistent assessment and prioritization
  • Identify and prioritize digital use cases that deliver measurable operational and financial value
  • Support sites in adopting automation, connectivity, sensing, and analytics capabilities from a business perspective
• Drive Business Adoption & Capability Building
  
  • Lead business implementation and ensure adoption of digital solutions across sites
  • Define success metrics and track usage, performance, and value realization
  • Build and sustain digital capabilities in collaboration with Culture & Capability and Operations teams
  • Drive change management and continuous improvement to ensure long-term impact
• Partnership & Governance
  
  • Act as the main business interface for digital topics within Global OE
  • Co-develop the digital roadmap with IT Digital Product Managers / Owners and the Global Automation Lead
  • Ensure strong alignment between business priorities, automation initiatives, and digital solution delivery
  • Work in close partnership with IT:
    
    • Business owns requirements, priorities, process alignment, and value realization
    • Shared responsibility with IT in the solution and architecture design, while IT is responsible for delivery, vendors, and lifecycle management and final decision making.
    • Roadmaps and priorities are jointly defined and aligned
  • Support investment decisions by defining business cases, value drivers, and prioritization criteria

About You

• 5+ years of experience in Operational Excellence, Supply Chain, Manufacturing Systems, Digital Operations, or a related field.
• Proven experience in developing and implementing digital solutions, ideally using the Mendix low-code platform.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing and supply chain processes combined with the ability to translate operational needs into technical solutions.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills with the ability to collaborate across functions, sites, and organizational levels.
• Fluent in both German and English, with the ability to communicate effectively in an international environment.

Our Offer

Become part of our open and transparent culture. It will give you the opportunity to flourish and to develop inspiring experiences that contribute to the health and well-being of consumers in 160 countries around the world. Putting our employees in the focus fuels our strong company growth above market rates and makes us an excellent place to develop your career.

Come join us and embark on a fascinating journey with Symrise.

If you feel that you fit the above criteria, then please apply by using our online application system. Your application will be treated confidentially.