Sr. Manager, Supply Chain Operational Excellence

Lactalis LHD • Chicago, IL

2d • $115,000 - $140,000

About The Position

Ready for more than just a job? Build a career with purpose. At Lactalis in the USA, we’re committed to providing meaningful opportunities for our people to learn, grow, and thrive—whether you’re just starting your journey with us or looking to take the next step in your career. From day one, we offer the tools and support to help you succeed. As the world leader in dairy, Lactalis is a family-owned company with over 85,000 pragmatic and ambitious professionals across the globe. Each day, we’re proud to produce award-winning dairy products that bring people together. In the US, we proudly offer an unrivaled house of beloved brands, including Galbani® Italian cheeses and ricotta, Président® specialty cheeses and butters, Kraft® natural and grated cheeses, Breakstone’s® cottage cheese, Cracker Barrel®, Black Diamond® cheddar, and Parmalat® milk. Our yogurt portfolio includes siggi’s®, Stonyfield Organic®, Brown Cow™, Oui®, Yoplait®, Go-Gurt®, :ratio®, Green Mountain Creamery®, and Mountain High®, along with a growing family of ethnic favorites like Karoun®, Gopi®, and Arz®. At Lactalis, we live by our core values—Ambition, Engagement, and Simplicity. We foster a workplace where innovation thrives, diverse perspectives are celebrated, and everyone’s unique background and ideas are valued. Even if you don’t meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. We want to hear about your PASSION, your STORY, and how your EXPERTISE can help us shape the future of dairy. From your PASSION to ours Lactalis USA, part of the Lactalis family of companies, is currently hiring a Sr. Manager, Supply Chain Operational Excellence (Network, Integrations & Continuous Improvement based at one of our corporate offices (Bedford, NH, Buffalo, NY, or Chicago, IL). The Lactalis USA (LUSA) Supply Chain Operational Excellence team views problem-solving and leadership as the keys to driving continuous improvement, ultimately leading to overall business transformation. The Senior Manager, Supply Chain Operational Excellence for Netwok, Integrations & Continuous Improvement plays a key role in executing projects that bring value and efficiency in operations across our business units and shared services teams. This role identifies opportunities and strategies across people, processes, and technology and plays a lead role in partnering with and influencing across internal and external stakeholders to ensure delivery of projects. They are responsible for delivering supply chain operational transformation through the strategic deployment of CI tools and techniques – supporting the business to improve and simplify existing processes and ensure capability of new processes to drive reliability, predictability and efficiency while making the best use of available resources. They lead our Network S&OP process, driving visibility to combined business unit forecasted needs across our logistics network and ensuring improvement opportunities advance – and they lead network modeling for strategic planning.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree is required.
• Majors in supply chain, engineering, business, logistics, or a related field are favored.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in supply chain or operational excellence roles.
• Minimum 2–3 years in supply chain disciplines (Planning, Warehouse, Transportation, Procurement, Customer Service).
• Experience in forecasting, capacity planning, S&OP processes
• Familiarity with CI methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma)
• Proficiency in Excel and MS Office, SAP experience preferred.
• Skilled in project management, risk assessment, and driving actions to completion.
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams and lead initiatives in a matrixed environment.
• Strong leadership, collaboration and team building skills, people management experience.
• Ability to prioritize effectively and drive actions to completion
• Critical thinking, proactive mindset, and ability to prioritize effectively
• Process improvement mindset - strong ability to assess problem situations, identify root causes and propose recommendations
• Manage project timelines, action plans and risks of the project.

Responsibilities

• Project Execution & Value Delivery o Lead and manage strategic supply chain projects that enhance operational efficiency and deliver measurable value.
• Ensure timely and successful implementation of initiatives across logistics and supply chain functions, including activities to support acquisitions o Lead 3PL and logistics network projects, including facilitating project meetings to ensure effective participation and progress.
• Streamline recurring meetings with 3PL IT/technical teams to manage shared project lists and ensure timely execution
• Continuous Improvement Leadership o Expand and standardize business unit-specific continuous improvement programs – leading the processes that drive focused improvement at all levels.
• Help apply Lean, Six Sigma, and other CI tools to identify root causes and optimize processes. Provide training and coaching to build organizational CI capability.
• Establish KPIs to measure success and sustain improvements.
• Process Optimization & Cross-Functional Collaboration o Partner with internal and external stakeholders to align on goals, share best practices, and drive integrated solutions.
• Influence cross-functional, cross-business unit teams to adopt and sustain improvements.
• Assess current supply chain processes and systems to identify opportunities for enhancement.
• Ensure new processes are designed for scalability, reliability, and resource efficiency.
• Network S&OP Leadership o Lead the Network Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process to align logistics capabilities with business unit forecasts.
• Track progress and ensure accountability for network improvement actions.
• Strategic Network Modeling o Develop and maintain supply chain network models to support long-term strategic planning and business integrations.
• Use data-driven insights to inform decisions on capacity, location, and optimization in collaboration with warehouse, transportation and BU teams.

Benefits

• At Lactalis, we offer a comprehensive Total Rewards Program with a variety of affordable benefits and coverage options.
• We support insurance costs significantly, contribute generously to retirement plans, and offer Paid Time Off from day one.
• We are committed to your professional growth, providing training and development opportunities, including Education Reimbursement.
• Lactalis is an equal employment opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants with regard to any legally-recognized basis including, but not limited to: veteran status, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, and physical or mental disabilities.
• Further, any division of the Company that is an Affirmative Action Employer will comply with all related legal obligations.

What This Job Offers

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