Director, Continuous Improvement

Howmet Aerospace • Cleveland, OH

6d

About The Position

Howmet Aerospace seeks an experienced Continuous Improvement Director to drive the implementation and sustained use of Lean principles, enhance operational efficiency, and foster a culture of continuous improvement across the business segment. The role serves as a teacher, coach, and mentor, working with employees at all levels to build long-term adoption of continuous improvement practices. The Director partners with senior leadership to align improvement initiatives with business objectives and achieve measurable impact on productivity, capacity, and overall business-segment performance. The role may support continuous improvement activities at other sites and requires travel of up to 50%, including domestic and international travel. This position is subject to ITAR requirements and requires U.S. person status. Employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States; visa sponsorship is unavailable.

Requirements

• At least 10 years of experience in manufacturing environments, such as Operations, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, or Operational Excellence.
• At least 7 years of experience in leadership roles in Operations or Continuous Improvement.
• Experience in aerospace, automotive, or another manufacturing environment requiring significant Lean strategies.
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
• Willingness to travel up to 50%, including domestic and international travel.
• Strong working knowledge of Continuous Process Improvement methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• U.S. person status as defined by ITAR: U.S. citizen, U.S. permanent resident, political asylee, or refugee.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s and master’s degrees from an accredited institution in Engineering or Supply Chain are highly desired.
• Project Management certification or earned certificate.
• Experience developing operations leadership development programs in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience in manufacturing improvement techniques, including Hoshin, flow principles, Jidoka, Kanban, 5S, and Plan for Every Part (PFEP).
• Strong skills in value stream mapping and associated improvement methodologies.
• Understanding of Toyota Production System pillars, including JIT and Jidoka.
• Experience evaluating takt time versus cycle time and determining work-area constraints, including cycle-time, periodic-work, and downtime constraints.
• Shop-floor experience working with employees to enhance manufacturing processes.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to resolve conflicting interests and obtain cooperation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including use of structured approaches to identify root causes and recommend resolutions.
• Demonstrated project leadership and project management skills, including the ability to manage multiple projects and meet objectives and deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and enhancement of the Howmet Business System journey, including the Lean Execution Systems Assessment process and plant gap-closure plans.
• Facilitate sharing of Howmet Business System best practices within locations and across teams using a sustainable, searchable electronic system.
• Lead Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) improvement deep dives with leaders and enable best-practice sharing.
• Lead implementation of continuous improvement initiatives and waste reduction using Lean principles and methods.
• Facilitate Hoshins, Kaizens, problem-solving activities, and rapid improvement events with internal personnel, consultants, customers, and suppliers as needed; support follow-through to sustain improvements.
• Analyze Profit and Loss statements to identify cost-reduction, revenue-enhancement, and margin-improvement opportunities.
• Lead and collaborate with cross-functional teams on factory and shop-floor improvements, potentially including capital expenditure projects.
• Assist team leaders in developing skills in meeting management, project management, improvement methods, results measurement, problem solving, and related team practices.
• Monitor key performance indicators to track progress and measure the impact of improvement initiatives.
• Drive change management to implement and sustain process improvements.
• Identify and share best practices, lessons learned, and success stories to promote organizational knowledge sharing and continuous learning.
• Coach and mentor team members across the organization to develop a continuous improvement mindset.
• Participate in or lead other targeted initiatives or Kaizens as directed by the business unit or Segment Vice President.
• Support continuous improvement activities at other sites as needed, including training, project work, and best-practice support.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director