Sr. Director Lean Excellence

nVent • St Louis, MN

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

We’re looking for people who put their innovation to work to advance our success – and their own. Join an organization that ensures a more secure world through connecting and protecting our customers with inventive electrical solutions. The Senior Director Lean Excellence is an enterprise leader that combines enterprise Lean architecture with functional Lean leadership. This leader serves as the accountable leader for nVent’s Lean strategy, governance, capability build, organization design, and career path across Integrated Supply Chain and related functions. Beyond traditional Lean deployment, this leader will establish the operating cadence that connects strategy to execution, from enterprise objectives to frontline performance management. The role will ensure that every level of the organization has clear priorities, standard management routines, actionable key performance indicators, and problem-solving processes that drive measurable business results. This is a highly influential enterprise leadership role focused on creating the Lean functional model, management system, leadership behaviors, performance visibility, and operating rigor necessary to accelerate growth, improve customer outcomes, expand margins, and generate cash. The successful candidate will operate as a strategic partner to the VP Operational Excellence, trusted advisor to the CSCO, and functional leader for the Lean organization. They will be an executive coach to senior leaders, and enterprise-wide catalyst for performance transformation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Operations Management or comparable required; MBA preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in manufacturing, supply chain, operations, Lean, and/or operational excellence.
• Proven experience building enterprise operating systems, Lean management systems, and functional governance models.
• Demonstrated success leading large-scale Lean transformations across complex, global manufacturing environments.
• Experience designing organization structures, role charters, career paths, competency models, and capability-building programs.
• Experience leading and influencing Lean professionals through direct and matrixed models.
• Experience deploying key performance initiative systems, Lean maturity models, and executive performance dashboards.
• Strong background in strategy deployment, organizational change, and leadership development.
• Ideally, Lean Master Black Belt.
• Expertise in Hoshin Kanri, Leader Standard Work, Daily Management Systems, Kaizen, Value Stream Transformation, and Lean capability development preferred.
• Strong financial acumen with ability to connect operational performance to margin, cash, growth, and productivity outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Lean Function and Operating Model: Own the enterprise Lean functional strategy, governance model, standards, and deployment roadmap. Create a scalable Lean organization design that clarifies roles, responsibilities, decision rights, resource allocation, and operating cadence across enterprise, region, segment, site, and functional levels. Establish the Lean career path, role charters, success profiles, competency expectations, and progression criteria for Lean practitioners and leaders. Partner with HR, Talent Development, and leaders across ISC to build a sustainable Lean talent pipeline and succession approach. Provide functional leadership to Lean leaders through direct, matrixed, and community-of-practice mechanisms. Serve as enterprise owner for Lean performance measurement and ISC performance management architecture in partnership with the VP Operational Excellence. Lead deployment of the ISC and OpEx strategy through a focused Lean management system.
• Design and Deploy the ISC Management Operating System: Own the design, deployment, and maturation of the enterprise supply chain management operating system. Establish the ISC operating system that links strategy, execution, problem solving, and accountability. Build tiered management systems that create visibility and accountability at the point of impact. Develop standard escalation processes for operational abnormalities.
• Build Enterprise Lean Capability: Develop Lean leadership capability throughout the supply chain and functional organizations. Create and govern Lean training, coaching, certification, and application standards in partnership with HR and Talent Development. Coach senior leaders, Lean leaders, and functional partners on Lean behaviors, problem solving, Gemba leadership, Leader Standard Work, and daily management. Build communities of practice and knowledge-sharing mechanisms to scale standard processes across sites and functions. Ensure capability-building is tied to measurable maturity, value realization, and talent outcomes.
• Accelerate Business Performance Through Lean Transformation: Use Lean principles as the foundation for improving flow, responsiveness, productivity, quality, safety, customer delivery, inventory, and cash. Identify systemic barriers to performance. Lead enterprise-level value stream assessments. Coach teams to solve root causes rather than symptoms. Support critical business performance turnarounds. Ensure Lean principles are embedded into planning, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, quality, engineering, EHS, digital, and support functions. Drive standardization, simplification, and waste elimination.
• Enterprise Performance Diagnostics: Serve as an independent advisor to the VP Operational Excellence and CSCO on organizational health, Lean maturity, and operational performance. Assess operational performance and management system maturity. Provide objective recommendations on priorities, resource allocation, and corrective actions.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision plans along with flexible spending accounts, short-term and long-term disability benefits, critical illness, accident insurance and life insurance.
• A 401(k) retirement plan and an employee stock purchase plan — both include a company match.
• Tuition reimbursement, caregiver, personal and parental leave, back-up care services, paid time off including volunteer time, a well-being program, and/or legal & identity theft protection.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director