Director of Global Continuous Improvement

Company Overview:

Nelson Global engineers, manufactures, and distributes clean and efficient Air & Fluid Transfer, NVH, Complex Structural, Acoustic, and Thermal Management Solutions. Nelson Global partners with the world’s leading OEMs. With 22 global manufacturing and distribution facilities and unparalleled engineering and innovation capabilities, Nelson Global provides mission-critical solutions with the highest degree of reliability at the lowest cost. Our dedication to serving our employees, partners, and the planet responsibly is realized across three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and governance. By empowering our people, reducing waste, and developing innovative and efficient systems, we support the communities and resources that spur the industries and technologies of the future.

Position Overview:

The Director of Global Continuous Improvement is accountable for developing, deploying, and sustaining the Nelson Excellence System across global operations. The role converts continuous improvement from isolated activities into a consistent operating capability that improves safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, inventory, capacity, and customer performance while building internal leadership capability.

Primary Responsibilities & Duties:

Global Operating-System Ownership

• Develop, maintain, and govern the Nelson Excellence System, including standards, playbooks, deployment requirements, audit methods, and management routines

 
Operating Profile Deployment

• Classify plants, lines, value streams, and products by operating profile and establish the appropriate flow, daily-management approach, and performance measures for each profile

 
Strategy & Roadmap Execution

• Create and execute a multi-year global CI roadmap with sequenced deployment waves, pilot locations, regional ownership, milestones, resources, and executive decision points

 
Value Creation

• Build and manage a prioritized global improvement portfolio tied to productivity, margin, quality, on-time delivery, inventory and cash, OEE, setup reduction, throughput, capacity, and cost of poor quality

 
Daily Management & Governance

• Standardize tiered meetings, visual management, KPI definitions, escalation, countermeasure follow-up, plant and regional reviews, and executive reporting

 
Benefit Validation

• Partner with Finance to define baselines, validate forecast and realized benefits, track timing, distinguish hard and soft savings, and confirm sustainability

 
Capability Development

• Create role-based learning, coaching, certification, and leader-standard-work methods that develop plant, regional, and functional leaders through live improvement work

 
Regional & Site Leadership

• Coach regional CI leaders, plant managers, functional leaders, and site CI resources; clarify ownership and ensure local adoption without losing global standards

 
Best-Practice Replication

• Capture proven improvements, convert them into reusable standards, and accelerate transfer across similar plants, product families, and operating profiles

 
Transformation & Integration

• Apply the operating-system playbook to plant stabilization, major launches, business transfers, network optimization, and acquisition integration

 
External Partner Management

• Select and manage outside CI or operational-excellence resources when needed, with clear deliverables, knowledge transfer, and transition of ownership to Nelson teams

 
Cross-Functional Improvement

• Extend CI methods beyond operations into appropriate business processes in engineering, quality, supply chain, commercial, HR, Finance, and IT

Culture & Recognition

• Promote employee engagement, practical problem solving, recognition of measurable results, and a culture in which teams improve the standard every day

Safety & Compliance

• Ensure improvement activities support safe work, legal and regulatory obligations, ethical conduct, and applicable Nelson Global policies

Key Outcomes & Measures of Success: 

• Global CI charter, governance model, standards, and deployment roadmap approved and active


• Plants and priority value streams classified by operating profile with defined flows, KPIs, and ownership


• Common daily-management routines and dashboards operating from line and business-unit level through plant, region, and executive review


• Finance-validated project funnel and realized benefits delivered against annual operating and value-creation plans


• Improvement in relevant safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, OEE, setup, lead-time, inventory, and capacity measures


• Qualified internal CI leaders and project leaders developed through applied learning and certification. 


• Proven improvements replicated across comparable sites, with sustained results after handoff


• Reduced reliance on outside resources as Nelson capability, standards, and ownership mature

Required Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, operations, business, supply chain, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience


• Progressive leadership experience in continuous improvement, operational excellence, manufacturing engineering, operations, or plant transformation in a multi-site manufacturing environment


• Demonstrated success deploying and sustaining an operating system or CI management system across multiple facilities, regions, or business units. 


• Practical expertise in Lean systems, daily management, value-stream design, standard work, structured problem solving, visual management, setup reduction, OEE, flow, and inventory improvement


• Ability to translate operational improvement into financial impact and partner effectively with Finance on benefit validation 


• Experience leading through influence across senior leaders, plant managers, functional teams, and frontline operations


• Strong written, verbal, facilitation, coaching, data-analysis, and executive-presentation skills.


• Ability to work effectively across cultures, time zones, and varying levels of operational maturity


• Willingness and ability to travel regularly to manufacturing locations globally

 
Preferred Education & Experience:

• Master's degree in engineering, operations, or business


• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Master Black Belt, Shingo, Toyota Production System, or comparable advanced CI credentials


• Experience in fabricated metal products, tubing, welding, assembly, high-mix manufacturing, shared capacity centers, or complex global supply networks


• Experience with acquisition integration, plant turnaround, network optimization, or major product and process transfers


• Experience selecting and managing external operational-excellence partners with explicit knowledge-transfer requirements


• Working knowledge of digital performance management, ERP, Power BI or comparable analytics tools, and project portfolio systems


• Additional language capability relevant to Nelson Global operations

Work Environment & Physical Requirements:

• Combination of office, remote, and manufacturing-plant environments


• Frequent presence on the manufacturing floor, including walking through production areas and observing equipment and work processes


• Use of required personal protective equipment and compliance with site safety rules


• Ability to travel by air and ground, including international travel and multi-day site visits


• Ability to work across global time zones as business needs require