Continuous Improvement & Operations Excellence Team Lead

Here at Siemens, we take pride in enabling sustainable progress through technology. We do this through empowering customers by combining the real and digital worlds. Improving how we live, work, and move today and for the next generation! We know that the only way a business thrives is if our people are thriving. That’s why we always put our people first. Our global, diverse team would be happy to support you and challenge you to grow in new ways. Who knows where our shared journey will take you?

Transform the everyday with us!

About Smart Infrastructure – Electrification and Automation:

The Electrification and Automation (EA) Business Unit delivers a comprehensive portfolio of energy distribution systems and solutions across all markets and sales channels. We support today’s power distribution needs while investing in our Future Grids portfolio and digital applications to enable the power distribution grid of tomorrow.

The EA Business Unit’s U.S. headquarters in Wendell, North Carolina, specializes in medium‑voltage power distribution equipment, including primary and secondary switchgear, controllers, contactors, circuit breakers, as well as OEM and replacement/retrofit solutions and services. The facility also assembles low‑voltage motor control centers and low‑voltage switchboards. In addition, the factory has in‑house fabrication capabilities, including metal punching and bending, along with automated wire‑harness manufacturing processes.

We are looking for a Continuous Improvement & Operations Excellence Team Lead. This position will be based in Wendell, NC.

In this pivotal manufacturing professional leader role, you will drive transformational lean, agile, and continuous Improvement activity for all production, logistics, and fabrication processes at our SI EA Wendell Operations (Switchgear & Breakers) manufacturing site, collaborating across matrixed teams of technical, commercial, and engineering professionals to build more resilient, more sustainable systems of production value flow.

This role will have influence over the plant daily operational management system, ensuring that a performance-driven, managing-for-daily-improvement (MDI) approach is embodied by all work teams, and that people are supported by the right mix of lean enablers, toolsets, techniques, signals, processes, and developed competencies to promote daily Kaizen and unlock new levels of productivity. You will be responsible for planning and facilitating sprints, workshops, and other structured events which employ the right frameworks to build solutions, solve problems, and implement desired concepts in a sustained and scalable way.

In the age of industrial AI, it is crucial that you thrive across both the physical and digital planes, and can strategically partner with various business groups in a tech-forward environment to realize truly innovative and state-of-the-art solutions.

You’ll make an impact by:

• Shopfloor management system ownership: strengthening manufacturing capability and performance by providing new management system enablers such as but not limited to visual process controls, performance indicators, signals, escalation protocols, accountability, standardization, fast-response problem solving, process audits, and sustaining mechanisms.
• Kaizen / sprint / workshop facilitation: build customized work events employing best-fit approaches from relevant methodology, orchestrate pre-work and practical logistics, and guide all necessary contributing parties through a collaborative sequence of exercises to speed the flow of internal improvement projects from idea to execution, ultimately forming a revolving deck of continuous improvement activity which can become a defining feature of plant culture.
• Building organizational competency and fostering CI culture: Provide training, coaching, and pathways for staff and employees to learn, adopt, and practice principles of continuous improvement in alignment with business objectives. Support the proactive definition, documentation, and socialization of standards to increase operational maturity.
• Structured problem-solving and process stabilization: Owns, hosts, and socializes a system of RCA, PDCA, 8D, A3 techniques to address systemic gaps resulting in the effective implementation of well-crafted preventative measures. Maps key learnings and conclusions back into the organizational management system, leveraging tools like Standardized Work, 6S, pFMEA, and TPM.
• Roadmap and strategy development: Translating technical analysis into requirements, features, user stories, backlogs, roadmaps, and commercial value propositions to build momentum and clarity around strategic objectives and plans.

You’ll win us over by having the following qualifications:

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, or related technical discipline.
• 5+ years experience in Process Engineering, Operations Management, Lean Manufacturing / Continuous Improvement, including implementation responsibility within a production environment.
• Demonstrated practitioner of Lean/CI approaches and tools such as but not limited to 5S/6S, VSM, Standardized Work, 8D/A3, Yamazumi, TPM, Pull Systems, SMED.
• Proven ability to communicate across multiple disciplines and lead change in ambiguous and complex environments where alignment and accountability of multiple stakeholders is necessary for implementation success.
• Group facilitation experience / public speaking skills / presentation / coordination skills and strong ability to moderate discussions and guide teams toward success.
• Basic project management skills necessary for achieving coordinated activity on-time and within promised scope (Gantt/timeline, RACI, prioritization, dependency mapping, risk management).
• High proficiency in process mapping tools such as Visio or similar and the ability to communicate effectively across groups using data, models, and visuals.
• Basic knowledge of ERP systems (SAP preferred) and understanding of how ERP and master data interactions shape physical shopfloor flow conditions.
• Legally authorized to work in the United States on a continual and permanent basis without company sponsorship.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Microsoft Power Platform data modeling, visualization, and workflow automation
• Lean, Agile, and/or Six Sigma certification
• Experience in complex, high-mix manufacturing assembly environments (engineer-to-order)
• SAP experience (PP, WM)
• Scrum, Kanban, or similar Agile framework experience

About Siemens:

We are a global technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. From more resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains, and smarter buildings and grids, to sustainable transportation as well as advanced healthcare, we create technology with purpose adding real value for customers. Learn more about Siemens here .

Our Commitment to Equity and Inclusion in our Diverse Global Workforce:

We value your unique identity and perspective. We are fully committed to providing equitable opportunities and building a workplace that reflects the diversity of society, while ensuring that we attract the best talent based on qualifications, skills, and experiences. We welcome you to bring your authentic self and transform the everyday with us.

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