Sr. Director-Continuous Improvement Jobs

The Sr Director – Continuous Improvement (CI) is responsible for building and leading a center of excellence for continuous improvement at Darigold. The Leader – CI reports to the Chief Transformation Officer and serves in a dual role, project managing cross-functional continuous improvement initiatives and serving as a thought leader, designing Darigold’s CI Strategy, building, and integrating CI best practices into Darigold’s culture. This person should be a true Lean transformation leader and Kaizen coach with in-depth knowledge of rapid improvement methodologies with tools acquired through hands-on implementation.

What You Will Do

• Builds standard operating procedures and defines best practices for Darigold’s continuous improvement efforts. Provides consulting and tools to other continuous improvement teams, including operations (Darigold Performance System) and supply chain to leverage consistent methods and share information and tools.
• Lead high-impact process improvement teams and ensure standardization of Lean Six Sigma and drive Kaizen methodologies across Darigold to deliver value. Serve as an internal consultant working across functions to develop strategies for the organization to identify ways improved processes, eliminate costs, and find workflow efficiencies. Project focus on core business processes working with sales, customer service, supply chain, finance, and IT functions, but may extend across the business.
• Leverages lean skills, tools, and best practices to identify opportunities for improvement and methods to improve (including Six Sigma, Agile). Ensures fit and right size solutions for the organization.
• Develops Darigold’s Continuous Improvement strategy and owns the execution of CI resources and initiatives across Darigold.
• Manages project timelines and deliverables.
• Train team members on continuous improvement methods, supporting ongoing learning around continuous improvement within the organization.
• Responsible for overseeing a portfolio of complex multi-dimensional CI projects across Darigold, ensuring that for CI Projects the CI team:
• Establishes metrics and standards tied to project objectives and use these metrics throughout the project to track success.
• Effectively coordinate and align people, resources, and tools.
• Serve as a thought leader, mentor, and coach on continuous improvement tools. Partnering across the company to embed a continuous improvement philosophy into Darigold’s culture.
• Influence and support diverse teams to identify process improvement opportunities, gain buy-in from business partners and leaders to get the support needed for project success.
• Deliver data using effective methods for visualizing data and reporting out to business leaders and partners on their progress.

What You Bring

• Demonstrated experience in a consulting and hands-on project management capacity with ownership of complex cross-functional projects.
• 5+ years’ experience leading and supervising others.
• Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Engineering, Business, IT, Finance, or a related field required. A Master’s Degree or MBA is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated success embedding a CI framework in an organization, building processes, and policies that influence a cultural shift towards CI.
• Strong TPM deployment leadership deployment required.
• 12+ years’ experience in Manufacturing, Logistics, CPG, or related field with at least 5 years owning continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lean Six Sigma, Black Belt preferred.

Nice to Have’s

• Excellent communicator both in writing and verbal communications including the ability to present and train others.
• Exceptional analytical skills, able to engage business groups to gain a deep understanding of current business processes and root causes of issues. Capable of understanding business requirements and translating them into the right-sized solutions.
• Strong emotional intelligence with the ability to understand business partner needs, influence others and gain buy-in.
• Brings expert-level knowledge of CI methods, (TPM, Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen) and can effectively apply these techniques to assess, design, and deliver efficiency and complex organizational change.
• Ability to travel 75% of the time.
• Effectively works with employees and leaders at all levels of the organization, able to coordinate across different functions to align resources and people to drive CI efforts.
• Able to build tools and dashboards that share data and information in a meaningful way that drives business decisions and provides relevant information about project status and effectiveness.
• Able to independently define, lead and manage the delivery of multiple large projects with competing priorities. Owns meeting project deadlines and delivery.
• Proficient in the use of Microsoft Office, including Project, Visio, Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint
• Values diversity and leverages different perspectives to build best-in-class CI solutions.

Benefits Of Working At Darigold

We understand that as an employee, benefits that support you and your family in and out of work are important. We’re proud to offer eligible positions a competitive total rewards package – that includes:

• Employer 401K contribution of up to 9%
• Community giving through matching donations.
• Access to great dairy products & participation in our employee butter purchase program.
• Sponsorship provided if approved.
• Education assistance
• This role is eligible to participate in our incentive program.
• Flexible working arrangement where applies (up to 2 days/week after initial 90 days and approval by hiring manager and HR)
• Employee assistance program
• Paid time off and paid holidays.
• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision benefits
• 8 weeks paid parental leave.
• Relocation offered if approved.
• Employer paid life & disability coverage.

Our Commitment to Diversity

Achieving our vision to Lead Dairy Forward requires cultivating and supporting a team with varying backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. We are committed to providing a workplace based on mutual respect where all employees feel included and can bring their best and authentic selves to work every day. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer and Affirmative Action Employer. We welcome all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran status, disability, marital status, creed, religion, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. As a condition of employment applicants offered a role will be required to successfully pass our pre-employment background screen, receive a negative drug screen result & confirm eligibility to work in the U.S. We participate in E-Verify - please follow the links for details, English / Spanish & view our Right to Work Statement, English / Spanish.