Job Duties And Responsibilities
Returns Processing Operations
- Direct daily intake, sorting, verification, and disposition of returned pharmaceutical product across all shifts, ensuring work is completed within established service-level agreements.
- Manage the credit processing workflow end to end, from product receipt through submission to manufacturers and wholesalers, driving customer credit turnaround toward the 14-day standard.
- Coordinate the return of product to manufacturers and authorized returns processors, and schedule destruction of non-returnable product in line with company procedure.
- Monitor queue volume, aging, and backlog daily; reallocate staffing and adjust priorities to prevent bottlenecks and missed commitments.
- Maintain accurate inventory control and reconciliation for all product held in the department, investigating and resolving discrepancies promptly.
Compliance & Quality
- Ensure all processing activity complies with applicable federal and state regulations governing controlled substances, pharmaceutical distribution, and hazardous waste, as well as company standard operating procedures.
- Own departmental documentation and recordkeeping, including receipt records, inventories, transfer and destruction records, and chain-of-custody documentation.
- Enforce security controls over controlled substances, including restricted access, dual-employee verification where required, and timely reporting of discrepancies, losses, or thefts.
- Serve as the operational point of contact for internal audits, customer audits, and regulatory inspections; prepare records and respond to findings with documented corrective action.
- Partner with the Quality and Compliance functions to investigate deviations, complete root-cause analysis, and implement corrective and preventive actions.
Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and develop supervisors and processing technicians; set clear performance expectations and conduct regular one-on-ones and formal reviews.
- Own staffing for the department — forecasting labor needs, participating in hiring, and managing schedules, overtime, and temporary labor against budget.
- Design and maintain onboarding and ongoing training programs covering processing procedures, controlled substance handling, safety, and quality standards; maintain complete training records.
- Build a culture of accountability, safety, and continuous improvement, and act decisively on performance and conduct issues.
- Performance & Continuous Improvement
- Define, track, and report departmental metrics including throughput per labor hour, processing accuracy, credit cycle time, error and rework rates, and safety incidents.
- Analyze process and system data to identify constraints, then design and implement workflow, layout, and procedural improvements.
- Partner with IT and systems teams on enhancements to processing and inventory platforms, including testing and change management.
- Prepare and present operational performance summaries to leadership, with clear explanation of variances and corrective plans.
- Cross-Functional Partnership
- Coordinate with Transportation and Warehouse teams on inbound receipt scheduling and outbound manufacturer shipments.
- Support Sales and Account Management on customer questions, site visits, and reporting requests related to returns processing.
Required Education, Skills And Experience
- Five or more years of operations experience, including at least two years directly supervising or managing a team in a distribution, warehouse, laboratory, manufacturing, or pharmacy environment.
- Demonstrated experience working in a regulated environment with documented procedures, recordkeeping requirements, and external audits or inspections.
- Proven ability to manage to measurable performance standards — productivity, accuracy, cycle time, and cost.
- Strong working knowledge of inventory management systems and Microsoft Excel, with the ability to build and interpret operational reports.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to write clear procedures and communicate effectively with frontline staff, executives, customers, and auditors.
- High level of personal integrity and sound judgment; must be able to pass a background check and drug screen, and meet all requirements for handling controlled substances.
