Senior Director Operational Continuous Improvement

Elbit Systems of America, LLC; Fort Worth (TX); Remote; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Elbit Systems of America, LLC is seeking a Senior Director of Continuous Improvement to lead a culture of operational excellence across all facilities. You will drive standardization, waste elimination, and data-driven decisions while guiding cross-functional teams toward measurable daily improvements.

The role focuses on GRIT—Growth through Relentless Improvement & Teamwork—empowering leaders to remove barriers, deploy robust CI programs, and sustain performance gains across the enterprise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required in engineering, operations, or related field.
• Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
• 12+ years in manufacturing/ops with 7+ years in management.
• Experience leading complex CI initiatives across functions or sites.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise CI programs and standardize documentation of initiatives.
• Develop and deploy enterprise CI frameworks and metrics.
• Mentor site CI practitioners, GRIT Champions, and leaders.
• Lead Kaizen events and root-cause problem solving (RCCA).
• Facilitate IPTs to address barriers like material shortages and bottlenecks.
• Promote sharing of best practices across sites to unify standards.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Lean Six Sigma

DMAIC

Kaizen

VSM

Cross-functional work

Data analysis

Change management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, or related field

Lean Six Sigma Green Belt

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (preferred)

Job description

Job Summary

The Senior Director of Continuous Improvement (CI) is responsible for building, leading, and sustaining a culture of operational excellence across all facilities. This role drives simplification, standardization, waste elimination, and data-driven decision-making, ensuring teams improve every day through disciplined execution, visible metrics, and cross-functional collaboration. The leader will champion the GRIT mindset—Growth through Relentless Improvement & Teamwork—while enabling teams to identify opportunities, remove barriers, and deliver consistent, measurable results.

Responsibilities and Tasks

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Culture Building

• Serve as the enterprise champion for continuous improvement, fostering a unified, sustainable CI culture across all sites.
• Embed GRIT behaviors into daily operations, ensuring simplification, standardization, and operational excellence become integrated into how teams work.
• Partner with leaders across Production, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, and functional teams to drive cohesive improvement efforts.

Continuous Improvement Program Ownership

• Develop and deploy enterprise CI frameworks, including tiered daily management, visual performance boards, SQDCP metrics, and waste-elimination practices.
• Lead root-cause problem-solving, RCCA effectiveness, Pareto-based defect analysis, and workflow redesign to reduce downtime and non-value-added activities.
• Facilitate Kaizen events and process audits, and standardize documentation of GRIT initiatives, including the development of cost models for measured improvements.
• Monitor key CI indicators, including HPU, cycle time versus takt time, OTD trends, defect visibility, and manpower planning, and ensure corrective actions address root causes.
• Support cross-functional collaboration through Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) to rapidly address barriers such as material shortages and production bottlenecks.
• Mentor and empower site-level CI practitioners, GRIT Champions, and operational leaders to build problem-solving capabilities and promote collaboration. Teach the use of lean tools, the DMAIC method, Value Stream Mapping, and other CI methodologies.
• Promote the sharing of best practices across sites to accelerate improvement and unify operational standards.

Knowledge (Education, License, Certification, and Prior Experience)

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, or a related field.
• Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
• 12+ years of relevant experience, including 7+ years of formal management experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex CI initiatives across functions or sites.

Preferred

• Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, or regulated manufacturing environments.
• Experience with strategy deployment (Hoshin Kanri), daily management systems, or operating-system design.
• Experience leading enterprise-level CI maturity, governance, or operating-system structures.

Skills and Abilities

• Executive-level written and verbal communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.
• Ability to professionally interact with all levels of the company, from executives and leaders to cross-functional teams and factory employees.
• Strong analytical and statistical data-analysis skills.
• Ability to influence, coach, and develop employees at all levels.
• Demonstrated ability to drive change and lead through resistance.
• Deep working knowledge of CI tools, including Kaizen, 5S, A3, VSM, Standard Work, Kanban, and DMAIC.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in manufacturing, operations, or continuous-improvement leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success implementing lean principles, visual-management systems, and structured CI programs.
• Strong analytical approach supported by data interpretation, KPI management, and problem-solving methodologies.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive cross-functional collaboration.
• Experience developing high-performing teams and coaching both leaders and frontline employees.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and change-management skills.

Travel/Physical Requirements

• Remote with 25–50% travel to Twenty-Six Defense sites as needed for CI deployment and coaching, depending on home location.

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