Operational Excellence Engineer

Arcwood Environmental, LLC•Orange, TX

22h

About The Position

The Operational Excellence Engineer is a strategic partner to plant leadership, leading plant-level continuous improvement to deliver measurable year-over-year gains in cost and productivity, with savings that at minimum offset inflation. The role translates company initiatives into prioritized plant-floor projects and owns KPIs for cost, maintenance, automation, and reliability. It is part of the Operational & Engineering Center of Excellence and has a dotted-line relationship to the local Plant Leader. The engineer identifies waste and improvement opportunities, develops and implements solutions to increase operational efficiency and lower cost, and uses data to prioritize work. The role manages capital, plant, improvement, and cost-reduction projects from scoping through completion; investigates performance issues with lean and Six Sigma methods; and leads root-cause analysis and corrective actions. The role also develops and sustains process documentation, builds a culture of continuous improvement, and trains and coaches employees at all levels. It incorporates safety and health considerations into improvement work, monitors and reports initiative results to leadership, and shares knowledge and potential new technologies and methods with plant resources, engineering, sister plants, and consultants.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering.
10+ years in engineering, maintenance, reliability, project management, Six Sigma/Lean, productivity, or continuous improvement roles.
Track record of delivering measurable cost and productivity savings in a plant or operations setting.
Hands-on experience with lean and Six Sigma problem-solving tools, including DMAIC, VSM, 5-Why, Ishikawa, FMEA, and Kaizen.
Working knowledge of statistical process control (SPC).
Experience managing capital and cost-reduction projects.
Experience developing KPIs and tracking improvement initiative results.
Ability to lead and coach teams and drive cross-functional change without direct authority.
Strong analytical skills, including gathering and accurately interpreting data from multiple sources and documenting results precisely.
Comfort presenting results to senior leadership and connecting plant-level details to broader business objectives.

Nice To Haves

Six Sigma Black Belt certification.

Responsibilities

Review plant practices, workflows, and systems to identify waste and opportunities that affect production and business results.
Design and implement solutions that improve operational efficiency, reduce cost, and maximize EBITDA.
Use data to evaluate and prioritize improvement opportunities.
Manage capital, plant, and cost-reduction projects from scoping through completion.
Lead cross-department improvement projects using standard operational excellence tools and methods.
Investigate performance issues using DMAIC, value stream mapping, 5-Why, Ishikawa diagrams, FMEA, and Kaizen, then develop and execute action plans.
Lead root-cause analysis and implement corrective actions for process problems.
Create and update process documentation and workflows and ensure they are sustained.
Partner with cross-functional teams to foster a culture of continuous improvement.
Train and coach employees at every level on operational excellence principles, processes, and tools.
Incorporate safety and health considerations into improvement work.
Develop and track KPIs for cost, maintenance, automation, and reliability.
Monitor implemented initiatives and adjust them when results fall short.
Report FPP initiatives and their impact to leadership.
Share knowledge with plant resources, engineering, sister plants, and internal or external consultants, and identify new technologies and methods to test.