Operational Excellence Manager (Manufacturing)

Position located in Rockville, MD

Salary Range: $120-135K/annually

Responsibilities:

• Lead the development for Operational Excellence program focused on improving manufacturing performance and delivering measurable business results.
• Work directly with plant and functional leadership to identify performance gaps, prioritize improvement opportunities, and establish clear action plans.
• Lead complex, cross-functional improvement projects involving productivity, quality, cost, throughput, capacity, inventory, delivery, and working capital.
• Apply Lean and Six Sigma methodologies to analyze processes, identify root causes, eliminate waste, and implement sustainable solutions.
• Establish consistent continuous improvement practices across manufacturing sites, including performance management, visual controls, daily accountability, and structured problem solving.
• Conduct site assessments to identify operational opportunities and develop improvement roadmaps based on site-specific needs and business objectives.
• Facilitate Kaizen events, process improvement workshops, value-stream analysis, and other Lean initiatives.
• Partner with plant managers, engineering, quality, supply chain, finance, and other functional leaders to ensure improvement projects are aligned with business priorities.
• Develop and coach site-based teams and continuous improvement champions, building internal capability to independently identify and resolve operational issues.
• Work with Finance and business leaders to establish project baselines, quantify financial impact, validate savings, and ensure improvements are sustained.
• Utilize manufacturing data, KPIs, dashboards, and analytical tools to identify trends, constraints, process variation, and opportunities for improvement.
• Serve as a change leader, helping manufacturing organizations adopt new processes, management systems, and behaviors required to sustain operational improvements.
• Travel to North American manufacturing sites on a regular basis, with occasional international travel.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related field.
• 5+ years of progressive experience in Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, Lean Manufacturing, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Operations, Quality, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated success leading continuous improvement initiatives that resulted in measurable improvements in cost, quality, productivity, throughput, delivery, or operational performance.
• Hands-on experience working in a manufacturing or production environment.
• Strong working knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, root-cause analysis, process improvement, and structured problem-solving methodologies.