International Director, Performance Excellence

Seaboard Overseas and Trading Group•Merriam, KS

13h•Hybrid

About The Position

Seaboard Overseas and Trading Group (SOTG), a division of the Fortune 500 Seaboard Corporation, is a globally integrated leader in agricultural commodity trading, processing, and logistics. With milling facilities in 14 locations across 10 countries and 10 trading offices in 9 countries, we produce approximately two million metric tons of grain-based products annually. Our vertically integrated approach—spanning procurement, transportation, and processing—ensures quality, consistency, and supply chain efficiency. We manage bulk freight and chartered vessels, overseeing logistics for both in-house and third-party customers. Every year, we source, transport, and market around 14 million metric tons of diverse commodities, supporting food security and economic growth in the regions we serve. At SOTG, we are driven by innovation, collaboration, and sustainability. Our business model fosters an entrepreneurial mindset, empowering our teams to take ownership, find creative solutions, and drive impact.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree: Supply Chain, Engineering Discipline or Milling/Feed Sciences
10+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing environments
Black Belt minimum.
Strong background using influencing skills to deliver Continuous Improvement tools
Demonstrated project portfolio and governance skills including identifying and aligning value drivers to govern decision making in a portfolio
High levels of analytical capabilities, organizational and strategic thinking skills and systems thinker with focus on Execution
Strong communication, organizational, facilitation, change management and mentoring skills
Operational Excellence knowledge
Fluency in English required
Experience working with or in developing countries and remote locations
Ability to travel internationally 30% (multiple trips/year of varying duration)
Physically fit to navigate challenging site conditions (e.g. climbing stairs, tight spaces)

Nice To Haves

Master Black Belt Preferred
French is a plus

Responsibilities

Execute strategic plans and partner in development of road maps by site and region for the deliberate intent of improving continuous improvement and reliability excellence maturity.
Advise on the deployment of performance excellence processes (including CI tools) within facilities to ensure successful and sustained process deployments and drive the improvement of key metrics to ensure successful and sustainable outcomes.
Stand up a sustainable value creation process and foster a culture that will enable safe and efficient operational practices and a continuous improvement mindset.
Support the deployment of project identification and daily improvement programs, including a systematic tracking and reporting mechanism.
Enable improvements by championing and leading operational practices by helping define and monitor key performance indicators for safety, quality, reliability, cost and productivity across all SOTG channels (milling, feed, pasta, etc.)
Be a trusted partner with stakeholders at multiple levels of the organization in driving the use of data and analytics to increase operational intelligence and ultimately sustainable performance.
Work with OD (Organizational Development Resources) to establish a program to identify, train and certify Continuous Improvement Belt Programs and Root Cause Analysis Facilitators across the business.
Partner with the Automation, Electrical and Instrumentation lead and site resources to support the identification and implementation of automation and digital improvement solutions in the production environment.
Identify areas of improvement in different locations, prioritizing them according to the value creation and identifying commonalities that can be leveraged across sites / regions.
Prioritize, support and deploy leading practices and ensure proper implementation designed to drive process confirmation efforts.