Position Summary
The Multi-Site Continuous Improvement (CI) Leader will be responsible for driving Lean manufacturing principles, tools, and strategies across multiple food manufacturing facilities. This leader will partner with site leadership and plant teams to identify performance gaps, standardize best practices, and execute projects that improve operational efficiency, reduce waste, increase throughput, and strengthen safety and quality outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
- Act as the CI subject matter expert and lead improvement efforts across several manufacturing locations.
- Collaborate with Operations and Plant Managers to evaluate performance and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Deploy Lean methodologies such as 5S, Visual Management, Standard Work, SMED, Value Stream Mapping, OEE, and Root Cause Analysis.
- Use data analysis to uncover performance trends, cost-saving opportunities, and productivity enhancements.
- Lead cross-site Kaizen events, CI workshops, and problem-solving sessions.
- Establish and track KPIs to measure the effectiveness of CI initiatives, ensuring best practices are shared across sites.
- Support operational goals in throughput, downtime reduction, labor efficiency, yield improvement, and cost savings.
- Train employees at all levels on Lean tools and CI methodologies.
- Partner with Quality and Food Safety teams to ensure compliance with industry regulations (GMP, HACCP, USDA, FDA).
- Work with Maintenance and Engineering to advance equipment reliability and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) initiatives.
- Drive standardization of processes across facilities, building a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and teamwork.
- Provide CI support for capital projects and automation initiatives.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, Food Science, or related field.
- 5+ years of experience in food, beverage, or consumer goods manufacturing, with emphasis on operations and CI.
- Prior multi-site leadership experience.
- Lean Six Sigma certification (Green or Black Belt).
- Proven success implementing CI programs with measurable ROI (OEE, cost reduction, efficiency gains).
- Experience with digital manufacturing tools or automation integration.
- Strong knowledge of Lean systems, manufacturing KPIs, and process improvement strategies.
- Excellent leadership, facilitation, project management, and communication skills.
- Ability to influence and drive change across diverse teams and multiple facilities.
- Comfortable with frequent travel and hands-on work in plant environments.
- Experience with highly regulated manufacturing environments and standards (GMP, HACCP, USDA, FDA, FSMA, SQF, BRC, GFSI).
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) skills are a plus.
