Operational Excellence Manager

Rehrig Pacific Company; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Rehrig Pacific Company seeks an Operations Excellence Manager to drive scalable standards and daily management systems. You will lead data-driven improvements, coach leaders, and align safety, quality, delivery, cost, and customer expectations across functions.

You will develop roadmaps, implement lean practices, and build KPI dashboards to track progress and sustain gains. Occasional travel is expected to support multiple sites and ensure durable results.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in operations excellence or continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional improvement initiatives.
• Strong capability in change leadership, facilitation, and coaching.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain an operations excellence roadmap and site plans.
• Standardize processes using lean principles and visual management.
• Coach leaders to embed continuous improvement in daily ops.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives improving safety, quality, service, and cost.
• Facilitate root cause analysis, kaizen, PDCA, and A3 problem solving.
• Ensure countermeasures have owners, due dates, and sustainment.
• Develop KPI dashboards and review routines for visibility and action.
• Analyze trends and communicate progress to leadership.
• Own governance for SOPs, work instructions, and audits.
• Create training materials and coach teams in lean tools and execution.

Skills

Lean principles

Standard work

Gemba

PDCA

A3 problem solving

Root cause analysis

Cross-functional leadership

Data analysis

KPI dashboards

Executive-ready communication

Change leadership

Project management

Microsoft 365

Education

Bachelor's degree preferred

Tools

Microsoft 365

Reporting/visualization tools

AI-enabled productivity analytics

Job description

Purpose of the Role

The Operations Excellence Manager improves operational performance by establishing scalable standards, strengthening daily management systems, and leading data-driven continuous improvement initiatives. This role works cross-functionally with Operations leaders to simplify processes, build problem-solving capability, sustain measurable gains, and align execution with safety, quality, delivery, cost, and customer expectations.

Areas of Accountability

Operational Excellence Deployment

• Develop and maintain an operations excellence roadmap, site-level improvement plans, and measurable performance targets based on assigned business priorities.
• Standardize and simplify processes using Lean principles, standard work, visual management, and leader routines.
• Coach leaders and teams to embed continuous improvement practices into daily operations and sustain adoption.
• Lead cross-functional improvement initiatives that increase safety, quality, service, productivity, and cost performance.
• Facilitate Gemba, root cause analysis, kaizen, PDCA, and A3 problem solving; ensure countermeasures have clear owners and due dates.
• Validate benefits, remove barriers, and establish controls that prevent regression.
• Develop and refine KPI dashboards, scorecards, and review routines that create visibility to performance and drive timely action.
• Analyze trends, quantify opportunities, prioritize the improvement pipeline, and communicate progress, risks, and realized value to leadership.
• Align metric definitions, reporting cadence, escalation triggers, and accountability across Operations and support functions.
• Own governance for SOPs, work instructions, standard work, audits, and corrective actions, including approval, version control, implementation, and sustainment.
• Develop practical training, job aids, and facilitation materials; coach teams in Lean tools, KPI interpretation, and disciplined execution.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Bachelor's degree preferred, or equivalent relevant experience; 5+ years in operations excellence, continuous improvement, manufacturing, service operations, quality, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional improvement initiatives and applying Lean, root cause analysis, PDCA, A3, kaizen, Gemba, and standard work.
• Strong capability in change leadership, facilitation, coaching, project management, data analysis, KPI dashboards, and executive-ready communication.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365, reporting and visualization tools, and AI-enabled productivity and analytics solutions, including effective prompting, responsible use, output validation, and practical workflow automation; Lean Six Sigma certification preferred.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and travel approximately 30-40%.