Operational Excellence Principal Engineer

Cambrex•Charles City, IA

12h

About The Position

The Principal Engineer, Operational Excellence is a senior technical improvement leader responsible for identifying, leading, and sustaining high-impact operational improvements across manufacturing and support functions. The role aims to increase capacity and throughput, reduce cycle time, improve yield and schedule attainment, and eliminate waste. Serving as a subject matter expert in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, engineering, and operational performance improvement in a regulated pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, the Principal Engineer works with cross-functional teams to apply chemical engineering principles and data-driven problem solving. The role removes production constraints, optimizes process performance, and delivers measurable business results.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from an accredited institution.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification at minimum.
7+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing, process engineering, operational excellence, or continuous improvement.
Demonstrated experience leading significant cross-functional projects that delivered measurable improvements in operational or financial performance.
Advanced knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and operational excellence systems.
Strong chemical engineering fundamentals and the ability to apply them in a manufacturing environment.
Demonstrated ability to lead large, cross-functional improvement initiatives with measurable results.
Understanding of process capability, variation reduction, bottleneck management, and waste elimination.
Strong project leadership, facilitation, coaching, and change-management skills.
Financial acumen and the ability to quantify, communicate, and validate business impact.
Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.

Nice To Haves

Lean Six Sigma certification at a higher belt than Green Belt.

Responsibilities

Inspire and drive a site culture focused on safety for all employees, in keeping with the commitment that “Safety is non-negotiable.”
Develop improvements that release incremental capacity from existing assets, systems, workflows, and labor resources.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve process robustness, equipment utilization, reliability, and manufacturing efficiency.
Apply statistical analysis, root-cause analysis, FMEA, process capability analysis, regression, and Design of Experiments to complex operational problems.
Analyze process flow, chemistry, variability, constraints, and resource utilization to improve manufacturing predictability and performance.
Lead DMAIC, PDCA, Kaizen, and other structured problem-solving efforts.
Evaluate automation, digital, and emerging technology opportunities that simplify work and improve operational visibility or control.
Support process transfers, scale-up, capital projects, technology implementation, and operational readiness activities.
Establish baselines, define success measures, and validate realized savings and operational benefits with process owners and Finance.
Support sustainment of Lean Manufacturing, TQM Daily Management, leadership standard work, visual management, tiered accountability, 6S, and structured problem-solving systems.
Mentor Lean Six Sigma practitioners and cross-functional project teams to strengthen site capability.