Focused Improvement Specialist

Mars • North Sioux City, SD

21h

About The Position

The Site Focused Improvement Specialist drives structured loss elimination and sustainable performance improvement across a manufacturing site. The role identifies operational losses, solves root causes, and implements practical improvements to reduce waste, improve quality, increase throughput, and strengthen cost performance. It works closely with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, Planning, Continuous Improvement, and Industrial Engineering teams to turn data and production-floor observations into measurable improvement actions.

The position leads and supports focused improvement initiatives, analyzes operational data and KPIs, facilitates cross-functional problem-solving, and helps ensure that improvement actions are assigned, tracked, verified, and sustained. It also supports the development of standards and continuous improvement routines, coaches associates and leaders in problem-solving methods, and spends significant time on the manufacturing floor. Travel of up to 25% is required for training, benchmarking, and network support activities.

Requirements

• 2 to 3+ years of experience in manufacturing, operations, continuous improvement, quality, engineering, maintenance, production support, or industrial engineering.
• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Strong understanding of manufacturing operations, production systems, and performance loss drivers.
• Experience using structured problem-solving tools such as RCA, DMAIC, 5 Why, fishbone, A3, or similar methodologies.
• Ability to collect, analyze, and translate operational data into practical improvement actions.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing KPIs such as waste, scrap, downtime, throughput, efficiency, quality losses, labor productivity, schedule adherence, or equipment performance.
• Strong communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills across hourly associates, supervisors, managers, and support functions.
• Comfort spending time on the production floor across shifts to understand problems at the source.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple improvement actions and follow through to completion.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in food, beverage, consumer products, aerospace, automotive, pharmaceutical, packaging, logistics, or regulated manufacturing environments.
• Bachelor's degree within Supply Chain function.
• Green Belt, Black Belt, Lean, TPM, Six Sigma, or equivalent continuous improvement certification.
• Experience with SPC, production reporting systems, loss trees, waste reporting, value stream mapping, or daily management systems.
• Experience supporting continuous improvement, operational excellence, focused improvement, TPM, or manufacturing excellence programs.
• Strong ability to influence laterally in a relationship-based team environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support focused improvement initiatives to reduce waste, quality losses, downtime, production inefficiencies, and other operational cost drivers.
• Use structured problem-solving tools and floor observations to identify and eliminate root causes.
• Partner with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Maintenance, Planning, Continuous Improvement, and Industrial Engineering teams to turn identified losses into action plans and measurable improvement projects.
• Analyze production data, waste reports, downtime trends, quality losses, process performance, and other operational KPIs to identify recurring issues and improvement opportunities.
• Make losses visible, prioritize high-impact opportunities, and drive improvement actions to completion.
• Facilitate cross-functional problem-solving sessions and ensure actions are assigned, tracked, verified, and sustained.
• Work with line teams, supervisors, and area owners to validate problems at the source and build ownership for improvement actions.
• Help develop and sustain standards, routines, controls, and best practices that prevent recurrence of losses.
• Coach associates and leaders on basic problem-solving methods and continuous improvement routines.
• Connect improvement activities to site priorities, operating standards, and performance management routines.
• Observe processes on the manufacturing floor, validate data, engage teams, and confirm countermeasure effectiveness.
• Collaborate with local and regional Continuous Improvement and Industrial Engineering networks to share best practices and support improvement activities.
• Travel up to 25% for training, benchmarking, and support activities across the network.

Benefits

• Industry-competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.
• Learning and development support from day one, including access to Mars University.
• Work with diverse and talented Associates guided by The Five Principles.
• Join a purpose-driven company striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: High school or GED