Who are we?
Lyka is an Australian founded pet wellness company that’s shaking up an outdated industry and paving the way for happier, healthier pets. Despite medical advancements, animal lifespans are on the decline. Today, the average pet only reaches 37% of their full potential lifespan and statistics have shown us that many suffer from dental disease, cancer, and obesity. Simply put, the status quo is not enough.
As humans, we’ve experienced firsthand the positive impact fresh wholefoods can have on our health and wellbeing, and we believe our furry friends deserve the same. We're on a mission to do just that, starting with nutritionally balanced, wholefood meals delivered direct to doors around Australia. As the world’s most sustainable pet wellness company, we’re putting pets and our planet first - one bowl at a time.
Today, we are proud to share we’ve served over 50 million meals to puppers and their parents across Australia, and this is just the beginning. Our vision is to create multiple nutritional products, adding disease prevention meals and supplements, and expand into new markets.
Currently, we have a team of 250+ pet-obsessed people, and we're continuing to grow (yes, looking at you!). These carefully selected people are dedicated to building the next generation of technology and products to help empower pet parents to take control over their pet’s wellbeing.
Our Mission
The time we share with our pets is being cut short. Despite medical advancements, they’re getting sicker earlier. They’re dying prematurely. The industry has it backwards - prioritising treating symptoms instead of addressing the root cause. That’s where we come in.
At Lyka, we take a preventative, holistic and personalised approach to pet care. We look at the full picture, factoring in the diet, lifestyle and environment of each individual animal.
We don’t stop at symptoms, instead we dig for the root cause. We create nutrition plans unique to each pet, because it’s not just about living longer, but living well too.
Our mission is to increase the lifespan of dogs and cats.
The Role
As our Operational Excellence (OPEX) Lead, you’ll be joining our Manufacturing and Supply Chain (M&SC) Leadership Team and play a pivotal role in ensuring Lyka continually improves in alignment with our OPEX Roadmap. This is a supporting and enabling role, predominantly teaching, coaching and mentoring M&SC team members (with the support of 1 direct report) at all levels to embrace lean manufacturing, to improve efficiencies and reduce operational costs and waste.
Responsibilities
- Lead OPEX initiatives, working collaboratively with cross functional teams to ensure lean manufacturing tools are embedded, to drive manufacturing process improvements (workforce and labour utilisation, facility layouts, leveraging lean principles including 5S, SMED, DMAIC, RCA, Value Stream Mapping, TIMWOOD)
- Work with operational teams to determine root cause of inefficiencies and assist in embedding preventive actions
- Teach, coach and mentor direct team, peers and manufacturing team members to drive the short-term OPEX roadmap, eg PCLs, CILs
- Work in the medium to longer term to assist in embedding lean at the conceptual and design stages, as Lyka’s M&SC's network continues to scale
- Scope, develop and execute on projects that help determine the responsibilities of workers and work units, and on how best to deploy them across the facilities
- Develop specifications for facility layouts and equipment, and determine the requirements required to execute on the specifications
- Develop and establish policies and procedures that will help us embed the OPEX mindset across our facilities
- Continuously measure and monitor processes, risks, and controls by conducting post-implementation reviews and project follow-up
- Actively support the site to achieve a cohesive, flexible and goal focused culture in alignment with Lyka’s values
- Degree Qualifications in Manufacturing, Engineering/Science, Business or allied areas; minimum Green Belt in Six Sigma (highly preferred)
- 3+ years' industry experience, with 2+ years in lean manufacturing in a similar position within FMCG, automative, pharma or similar industries
- Strong facilitation skills with a track record of engaging and coaching frontline stakeholders to embrace lean manufacturing methodologies, CILs and PCLs
- Experience in setting up standard procedures (one-point lessons), on new and existing plant
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), and people skills, with the ability to build effective cross functional relationships with internal and external stakeholders across all levels
- Excellent IT skills are essential, with strong capability at being able to capture and trend data to identify emerging trends and opportunities
- A strong appetite for innovation and the capacity to challenge the status quo
- High degree of process discipline and attention to detail, with experience streamlining and embedding process improvements
- Flexibility to adjust working hours in response to emergencies; calm under pressure, with the ability to ideate and implement practical solutions to time-sensitive problems
- Self-motivated and reliable team player, who will actively support the site to achieve a cohesive, flexible and goal focused culture, in alignment with Lyka's values and to achieve M&SC team goals
- Able to travel to Sydney M&SC sites and HQ occasionally as required
- Work in a fast-growing start-up, experiencing what goes behind the scenes to sustain hyper-growth for a start-up with a physical product!
- Growth and Development - Lyka is growing extremely quickly, which means you will have the opportunity to experience different challenges every day and progressively acquire more responsibilities as our facility and team expands. We provide an annual budget for you to continue your personal development.
- Work for a sustainability focused company - we care about the health of our pets and our planet. We’re proud to be Australia’s only carbon-negative and plastic-negative pet company and we’re always looking at ways for us improve sustainability practices.
- Be part of a diverse top talent team, coming from widely different backgrounds and geographies.
- 12 weeks of paid parental leave for primary and secondary carers, alongside 2 weeks of miscarriage leave in the first twenty weeks. We also offer 18 paid weeks to both primary and secondary carers if you have been at Lyka for over two years.
- Wellbeing assistance and tools to take care of your mental and physical wellbeing so you can do your best work.
- Pupper parent support to care for your furry friends - flexible arrangements for new pets, pet-friendly offices, discounts, and financial allowance for dog training and care to help them live their best life.
We are committed to building inclusive and diverse teams
Lyka is an equal opportunity employer devoted to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion. We celebrate diversity, are devoted to creating an inclusive environment for all staff and encourage people of all backgrounds to apply. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application.
