Director, Operational Excellence

About this role

Job summary The Director, Operational Excellence is responsible for leading the Boulder site's Operational Excellence strategy and a global portfolio of continuous improvement initiatives, transformational projects, and Lean maturity programs that drive sustainable business performance and customer value. This role provides leadership to a team of Operational Excellence professionals and partners closely with business leaders across the organization to accelerate continuous improvement, strengthen organizational capabilities, and deliver measurable operational and financial results.

The Director serves as a catalyst for cultural transformation by embedding Operational Excellence principles into daily operations, developing Lean leaders at all levels, and empowering employees to identify and implement meaningful improvements. Through coaching, capability building, strategy deployment, and cross-functional collaboration, the Director ensures the successful execution of improvement initiatives while establishing robust, scalable, and sustainable business processes that support the organization's strategic objectives. This role is accountable for fostering a culture of continuous improvement, operational discipline, innovation, and accountability across the global network.

Job Responsibilities • Lead the development and deployment of the Operational Excellence (OpEx) framework and strategy to support business objectives and foster a culture of continuous improvement. • Identify, prioritize, and drive global, site, and functional improvement opportunities that enhance customer value, improve performance, and eliminate waste through Lean methodologies, Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, and Strategy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri). • Develop and manage a portfolio of transformational continuous improvement initiatives across the enterprise, ensuring alignment with global, site, and functional objectives. • Lead high-impact, cross-functional improvement projects from opportunity identification through implementation and sustainability, delivering measurable business results. • Build organizational capability through coaching, mentoring, training, and development of OpEx leaders, enabling teams to independently drive continuous improvement and operational excellence. • Lead and support a network of Operational Excellence practitioners, ensuring alignment in project execution, reporting, recognition, communication, and best practice sharing across the organization. • Partner with business and functional leaders to establish meaningful performance metrics, drive data-based decision-making, and improve operational effectiveness. • Design and deliver scalable OpEx tools, learning programs, and capability-building initiatives that accelerate adoption, competency development, and continuous improvement maturity. • Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to identify improvement opportunities, remove barriers, and ensure sustained achievement of project benefits. • Champion business process management principles to simplify workflows, eliminate non-value-added activities, and drive process standardization, innovation, and performance. • Support the integration of digital, automation, and AI-enabled solutions within the Operational Excellence framework to eliminate waste, improve productivity, enhance process visibility, and accelerate continuous improvement outcomes. • Develop and communicate compelling operational performance reports, dashboards, presentations, and visual management tools that support transparency, engagement, and decision-making. • Provide strategic guidance to ensure business transformations, organizational changes, capital investments, and operational initiatives align with the enterprise OpEx strategy. • Promote alignment between Operational Excellence initiatives and the organization's culture, values, and strategic priorities. • Support operational assessments, risk management activities, technology implementations, and manufacturing innovation initiatives as required. • Serve as a subject matter expert in Lean, Six Sigma, Change Management, Business Process Management, and Strategy Deployment methodologies. • Lead and support site leadership in reporting, KPIs, risk management, problem solving, and decision making • Lead and support site culture initiatives, events, communication, engagement, and recognition programs. • Act as a visible change leader by modeling Operational Excellence behaviors, advocating continuous improvement principles, and driving sustainable cultural adoption across the organization.

   Minimum Requirements • Demonstrated success leading enterprise-wide Operational Excellence, Lean, and Six Sigma transformations that deliver measurable and sustainable business results. • Deep expertise in designing, implementing, and sustaining Operational Excellence systems and tools, including Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, Standard Work, Visual Management, Kanban, Mistake-Proofing, Business Process Management (BPM), Strategy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri), and Continuous Improvement methodologies. • ·Proven ability to develop and execute Operational Excellence strategies, governance models, roadmaps, and maturity plans that align improvement efforts with enterprise objectives. • Experience leading large-scale business transformations that improve productivity, quality, delivery, customer experience, employee engagement, and financial performance. • Strong Business Process Management expertise, including process architecture, ownership models, process performance measurement, process standardization, and continuous optimization across end-to-end value streams. • Demonstrated capability to leverage digital technologies, advanced analytics, automation, artificial intelligence, and data-driven decision-making to accelerate operational performance and continuous improvement outcomes. • Proven ability to lead complex, multi-site, and global improvement

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