Operational Excellence Manager

Category

Operational Excellence/Quality

Job Location

Glendale, AZ, US

Position Type

Full-Time/Regular

Job Summary

Radwell International is seeking an Operational Excellence Manager who is energized by improvement, motivated by impact, and passionate about helping teams deliver better outcomes for both customers and the business. This role is an opportunity to lead meaningful change at the site level, strengthen operational capability, and help translate customer expectations into disciplined, sustainable execution.

The Operational Excellence Manager is a hands-on leader, coach, and problem solver who works in close partnership with site leadership to improve how work gets done every day. By combining structured continuous improvement methods with strong engagement, this role helps teams remove friction, improve flow, and consistently deliver quality, reliability, and responsiveness that customers can feel.

This position offers high visibility, strong influence, and room to grow. It is ideal for someone who wants to deepen leadership skills, build a reputation as a trusted partner to site leadership, and grow alongside a company that values learning, improvement, and internal development.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

Strategy & Leadership

• Deploy and champion Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement (Lean/CI) roadmap that support site performance enhancements and customer expectations.
• Serve as a visible role model and change agent for Lean thinking, structured problem solving, and continuous learning.
• Keep improvement efforts focused on outcomes that matter—customer experience, safety, quality, delivery, efficiency and aligned to business value.
• Capture, track, and report improvement results, savings, and maturity metrics.
  
  

Improvement Execution & Enablement

• Lead and facilitate Kaizen events, RCCM activity, and project-based improvement initiatives.
• Manage & facilitate a RCCM process and develop teams clearly define problems, understand root causes, and implement effective countermeasures while improving performance.
• Ensure improvements are implemented thoughtfully, measured appropriately, and sustained over time.
• Bring discipline without slowing momentum, enabling teams to move from ideas to results.
• Ensure improvement initiatives are supported by clear baselines, targets, and benefit tracking aligned to business objectives.
• Monitor performance trends, identify emerging risks or opportunities, and proactively recommend corrective or preventive actions.
  
  

Performance Visibility & Accountability

• Establish and maintain clear performance visibility using KPIs, dashboards, and visual management.
• Lead site Operational Excellence (Lean/CI) operating mechanisms, including monthly Bowler Reviews and health assessments.
• Utilize KPIs, data analytics and trending insights to evaluate performance, surface opportunities, guide decisions, and prioritize improvement actions.
• Develop, manage, and maintain a healthy improvement funnel that delivers sustained productivity and performance gains.
• Ensure data integrity, consistency, and transparency across reporting systems used to manage continuous improvement efforts.
  
  

Coaching, Development & Culture

• Coach leaders and teams in Lean principles, problem solving, standard work, and tiered management and selection / use of appropriate improvement methodologies.
• Build local capability so teams can confidently own and sustain improvements.
• Provide leadership and guidance to Operational Excellence Specialists (SMEs) supporting improvement execution.
• Foster a culture of engagement, ownership, curiosity, and continuous improvement.
  
  

Collaboration & Site Leadership Support

• Elevate site Operational Excellence (Lean/CI) health through coaching, consultation, and disciplined execution.
• Share successes, lessons learned, and best practices to strengthen performance .
• Provide coaching and mentoring to leaders and teams on Lean principles, tools, data-driven decision-making, and lean leadership behaviors (“sensei-style” coaching) to build capability and bench strength to ensure sustainability.
• Engage employees at all levels to foster ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement mindset
  
  

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Directly manages Operational Excellence Specialists (SMEs) as assigned.
• Acts as a coach and mentor to teams and leaders involved in improvement efforts.
  
  

Required Skills

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS REQUIRED

• Strong working knowledge of Lean and Continuous Improvement principles
• Ability to lead through influence, coaching, and collaboration
• Comfort working with data, metrics, and performance trends
• Strong facilitation, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Curiosity, adaptability, and a bias for action
• Demonstrate thought leadership and systems thinking
• Persist through complexity and ambiguity with resilience
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and performance tracking tools
• Technical capabilities and understanding preferred
• Collaborate effectively across functions, levels and geographies.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% across locations
• Influence and negotiate with credibility, diplomacy, and trust.
  
  

Required Experience

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, STEM or a related field preferred, equivalent experience will be considered
• 5 years of experience in operations, quality, engineering, or continuous improvement roles
• Advanced Lean practitioner with 3 years’ experience in a recognized Lean business system (e.g., TPS, DBS, ABS or other recognized Lean business system models).
  
  

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• Lean Six Sigma certification preferred (Green Belt or Black Belt)