Process Engineer I - Office of Operational Excellence

University of Mississippi Medical Center; Jackson (MS); On-site; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, MS seeks a Process Engineer I to support the Office of Operational Excellence. You will apply lean, six sigma, and change management methods to drive quality, safety, efficiency, and patient satisfaction.

You will partner with process engineers, facilitate continuous improvement projects, collect data, and help standardize work while developing your skills toward becoming a higher-level engineer.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in healthcare, engineering, business, or process field with 1–2 years improvement work.
• Lean or Six Sigma and healthcare experience preferred.
• Lean belt certification within 12 months.

Responsibilities

• Actively perform self-evaluation to become a change agent.
• Support the vision of the office as it relates to the high reliability journey.
• Build understanding of organizational structure to standardize and remove waste in processes.
• Evolve professionally by creating a new future state.
• Compare alternatives, weigh costs/benefits/risks of decisions.
• Engage project stakeholders and monitor project progress against commitments.
• Apply PI tools and develop standard work where none exists.
• Assist teams by teaching data collection, interpretation, and use.

Skills

PC skills

Communication

Facilitation

Emotional intelligence

Present data

Direction taking

Team building

Problem solving

Lean/Six Sigma knowledge

Project management awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Job Requisition ID

R00050374

Job Category

Professional and Technical

Organization

Office of Operational Excellence

Location/s

Main Campus Jackson

Job Title

Process Engineer I - Office of Operational Excellence

Job Summary

Drive change as it relates to Operational Excellence, Quality, Safety, Efficiency, and Patient Satisfaction. Use applied knowledge of lean, six sigma, and/or change management to support process engineer II's in their assigned quality improvement team, working toward the established goal with regards to a given scope. Change agent, methodology liaison, and catalyst to move UMMC forward toward a high reliability organization.

Education & Experience Required

• Bachelor's degree in healthcare, engineering, business, or a process related field and 1-2 years involvement with improvement projects.
• Lean or six sigma and healthcare experience preferred.

Certifications, Licenses, or Registration Required

Lean green belt within 12 months.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Skilled in the use of personal computers and related software.
• Excellent verbal and written communication.
• Facilitation skills.
• High level of emotional intelligence.
• Ability to present information and respond to inquiries.
• Ability to take direction and execute accordingly.
• Team building skills.
• Demonstrate sound problem solving skills.
• Ability to research industry standards and best practices and integrate those into the team process.
• Formal training in one or more of the following preferred: lean, six sigma, change management, and/or project management.

Responsibilities

• Actively perform self-evaluation to become a change agent.
• Develop a mind set and thought capacity to support the vision of the CMO office as it relates to the high reliability journey of UMMC.
• Build an understanding of the organizational structure and their role within it to exert influence wherever possible for the purpose of standardization and waste removal in healthcare processes.
• Constantly evolve professionally by creating a new future state for themselves.
• Systematically compares and objectively analyzes alternatives, and weighs costs, benefits, and risks of decisions.
• Rounds on project stakeholders to seek perspective, identify strengths and risks.
• Look for variation and waste daily.
• Practice advanced problem solving techniques in regards to all aspects of daily work.
• Actively apply pi tools as appropriate.
• Work with process engineer II's to create standard work where there is none.
• Support assigned quality improvement team through meetings by acting as the resource for process engineer ii. This responsibility will include assuring the value and efficiency of each meeting is established and delivered upon. It will also include monitoring the group dynamic and making quick adjustments throughout the meeting to create an atmosphere conducive to team work and safety.
• Prepare for these meetings and follow up afterwards as appropriate.
• Incorporate accountability into the culture of team.
• Keep abreast of organizational objectives and assure project activities align with such.
• Understand the direction of the organization to keep the project on pace to support the success of the organization.
• Utilize work breakdown structure methods to organize complex efforts into milestones, tasks, subtasks, and achieve clarity around specific work, including the who, how, when by whom.
• Foster positive professional relationships with a cross functional coalition of practitioners and colleagues.
• Resolve problems that arise with speed and emotional intelligence to support the movement of the project and the success of UMMC.
• Manages up colleagues, informs leadership of both success and barriers, and utilizes a standard template to maintain project documents and reports.
• Demonstrates ability to meet stakeholders where they are, by identifying information and framing it appropriately to be persuasive to others.
• Drive change related to quality goals through the use of standardization and the research and adoption/integration of industry best practices.
• Collect, track, analyze data and apply proper intervention where needed.
• Assist qi teams by teaching them how to collect, interpret, and use data.
• Regularly and completely tracks project progress against stated commitments.
• Accept and deliver upon special projects as assigned that support the forward movement of the pi department. (power points, error prevention, hand hygiene observations, pi tools, GEMBA training, etc.)
• Accountable to put in place for measured improvement of the metric associated with the scope of work assigned.
• Demonstrates urgency and a high capacity for making visible progress against stated goals.
• Develops project plans for each initiative and provides up-to-date status reports.
• Help Process Engineer II’s in delivering a sustainability plan at the end of projects.

Physical and Environmental Demands

Requires occasional handling or working with potentially dangerous equipment, occasional exposure to biohazardous conditions such as risk of radiation exposure, blood borne pathogens, fumes or airborne particles, and/or toxic or caustic chemicals which mandate attention to safety considerations, occasional working hours significantly beyond regularly scheduled hours, occasional travelling to offsite locations, occasional activities subject to significant volume changes of a seasonal/clinical nature, frequent work produced subject to precise measures of quantity and quality, occasional bending, occasional lifting and carrying up to 25 pounds, occasional climbing, occasional crouching/stooping, occasional driving, occasional kneeling, occasional pushing/pulling, occasional reaching, constant sitting, occasional standing, occasional twisting, and frequent walking. (occasional-up to 20%, frequent-from 21% to 50%, constant-51% or more)

Time Type

Full time

FLSA Designation/Job Exempt

Yes

Pay Class

Salary

FTE %

100

Work Shift

Day

Benefits Eligibility

Grant Funded: No

Job Posting Date

08/10/2026

Job Closing Date (open until filled if no date specified)

Equal Opportunity Statement

UMMC is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin (including limited English proficiency and primary language), disability, age, sex (as that term is defined in applicable laws such as 45 CFR § 92.101(a)(2) and binding court decisions), religion, genetic information, veteran’s status and any other status protected by applicable law. UMMC also prohibits retaliation against those who report discrimination or harassment and against those who participate in the Medical Center’s investigation and handling of such reports. Further, UMMC complies with all applicable statutes, regulations and executive orders regarding sex discrimination, sexual harassment, domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, including but not limited to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and its implementing regulations which prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity UMMC operates including in admission and employment, the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistic Act (“Clery Act”) and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (“SaVE Act”). UMMC’s commitment to nondiscrimination applies to all of its programs, services, opportunities and activities, including but not limited to all employment, academic, research and clinical care practices and extends to all students, applicants for admission, employees, applicants for employment, affiliates, subcontractors, on-site contractual staff, third party or community members, visitors to any of our campuses and others participating in UMMC programs or receiving UMMC services. With respect to employment in particular, this commitment applies to all employment decisions including but not limited to recruitment, employment, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, disciplinary actions and termination. UMMC maintains an affirmative action program in accordance with applicable laws. Consistent with these laws, UMMC takes affirmative action to recruit, employ, advance and prevent discrimination against qualified individuals.

In compliance with Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and other federal civil rights laws and to ensure individuals with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to, have an equal opportunity to participate in and have an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of our programs, activities, services and other benefits, UMMC provides the following in a timely manner and free of charge: reasonable modifications to our policies, practices, or procedures for qualified individuals with disabilities when such modifications are necessary to avoid discrimination on the basis of disability; appropriate auxiliary aids and services for individuals with disabilities (including individuals’ companions with disabilities) which may include qualified sign language interpreters and written information in other formats including braille and large print and language assistance services for individuals with limited English proficiency (including individuals’ companions with limited English proficiency) which may include qualified interpreters and information written in other languages.

Complaint Process You may request additional information, accommodation or file a complaint through the applicable process identified below. Inquires or complaints relating to discrimination or other employment issues may be referred to the Office of Employee Relations, 2500 North State Street, Jackson, Mississippi 39216-4505 or emailed to [e-mail]. If you are a UMMC Student who needs more information or needs to file a complaint, please click here. You may also report any allegations of UMMC’s noncompliance with any legal requirement using UMMC’s Compliance Line. If you are anyone who has experienced, witnessed or otherwise has knowledge of any alleged violation of UMMC’s Title IX policy, please click here. If you are a Visitor/Patient who needs more information or needs to file a complaint, please click here.