Operational Excellence Specialist

TalentMinded•Toronto, ON

7d•CA$77,000 - CA$82,000•Onsite

About The Position

Our GTA-based manufacturing client is hiring an Operational Excellence Specialist. In this role, you will own the end-to-end performance management system across Operations and Commercial functions, ensuring KPI integrity, performance visibility, rigorous root-cause analysis, and sustained corrective action. This role is ideal for someone who understands how work gets done today and enjoys redesigning it through data, automation, and AI. Working across Operations, Commercial, Business Intelligence, and leadership, you'll help build the systems, processes, and insights that improve decision-making and enable more scalable ways of working. This job posting is for an existing full-time vacancy.

Requirements

You have a bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
You have several years of experience improving operational performance within manufacturing, supply chain, or operations environments, including operational excellence, continuous improvement, manufacturing performance management, supply chain analytics, S&OP support, or operations analytics. You know how to break down complex processes, identify root causes, and implement practical improvements that deliver measurable business results.
You are comfortable working with operational data, defining and validating KPIs, and turning information into actionable insights. You understand KPI governance, inventory management, supply chain flows, S&OP planning, and structured problem-solving methodologies such as root cause analysis and corrective actions. You have advanced Excel skills and experience with business intelligence tools such as Power BI, Qlik, or Tableau.
You have hands-on exposure to AI, automation, or low-code technologies and are interested in applying AI to solve business problems. Experience with platforms such as Microsoft Copilot Studio, Power Automate, Power Apps, Python, RPA, or similar low-code/no-code platforms would be an asset, but most importantly, you think in terms of workflows, systems, and scalable solutions rather than manual processes.
You don't stop at identifying problems, you implement solutions. You are motivated by seeing ideas through to execution, measuring results, and continuously improving how work gets done.
You build strong relationships across all levels of the organization, from shop floor teams to business leaders and technical specialists. You can communicate fluently between operational teams and technical stakeholders, simplify complex ideas, facilitate productive conversations, and help drive adoption of new processes and technologies.

Nice To Haves

Experience in complex manufacturing environments
Inventory or materials analysis
Lean or Six Sigma
Project management methodologies
ERP/MRP/MES platforms
AI-enabled workflows
AI and automation certifications

Responsibilities

Own data integrity. You will act as the single point of accountability for operational KPI data integrity across Operations and Commercial teams. You will validate data from multiple systems and functional owners before executive review, identify recurring data quality issues and structural gaps, and establish the governance, validation controls, and standard work that ensure leadership decisions are based on trusted information.
Lead BI partnership. You will serve as the business owner for KPI logic and reporting requirements. You will translate operational needs into clear BI and dashboard specifications, validate calculations, data sources, and definitions before automation, and ensure reporting drives action, accountability, and decision-making.
Drive inventory analysis. You will analyze inventory performance across raw materials, WIP, and finished goods. You will identify drivers of excess, obsolescence, shortages, and instability, translate insights into corrective actions and process improvements, and support S&OP governance by ensuring planning data is decision-ready and aligned to KPI targets.
Analyze, redesign, and improve operations. You will immerse yourself in end-to-end operational, supply chain, and manufacturing processes to understand how work actually gets done today. You will identify inefficiencies, manual work, bottlenecks, and performance gaps, translate findings into measurable business cases, and partner with stakeholders to redesign processes that improve productivity, reduce cycle times, and create lasting operational improvements.
Design and implement AI-enabled solutions. You will partner with operational and technical teams to translate business challenges into practical automation and AI solutions. Using Microsoft Power Platform and Copilot Studio, you will design and implement workflows, automations, and agent-based solutions that improve efficiency, strengthen decision-making, and create scalable ways of working across the business.