Director, Operational Excellence

RWE Americas, LLC
To start as soon as possible, full time, permanent

Functional area: Project Management
Remuneration: Exempt

The Director, Operational Excellence partners with XPM leadership and key business stakeholders to improve organizational performance, strengthen cross-functional execution, and support delivery of strategic priorities. Through practical business transformation, operating model development, governance, digital enablement, and organizational effectiveness initiatives, this role helps solve complex challenges and improve how work gets done across the organization.

This role leads strategic, cross-functional initiatives that strengthen execution, improve collaboration, and build the organizational capabilities needed to support continued growth. Success requires balancing strategic thinking with practical implementation, understanding the realities of how work is performed across the business, and developing solutions that are adopted, sustained, and valued by the teams responsible for executing them.

The Director serves as a trusted business partner who builds relationships, facilitates alignment, simplifies complexity, and helps translate business priorities into sustainable outcomes. As a key enabler of Excecution Excellence, this individual plays an important leadership role within the Operational Excellence team by coaching others, developing capabilities, and helping establish approaches that strengthen the team's effectiveness and long-term impact.

As the organization continues to grow and evolve, successful execution increasingly depends on effective cross-functional collaboration, clear decision-making, scalable operating practices, and strong organizational alignment.

This role helps shape how the organization works by partnering with leaders to strengthen execution, improve organizational effectiveness, and build capabilities that support sustainable growth and enable Execution Excellence. The successful candidate will help the organization mature its ways of working while enabling increasingly complex cross-functional business initiatives.

Role Responsibilities:

• Partner with XPM leadership and key stakeholders to identify opportunities that improve execution, organizational effectiveness, and business performance


• Lead strategic cross-functional initiatives that translate business priorities into practical, sustainable capabilities and measurable outcomes


• Facilitate alignment across organizations by helping leaders navigate complex business challenges, establish shared objectives, and improve collaboration


• Drive initiatives from concept through implementation, adoption, and sustained business impact


• Design and implement scalable operating models, governance frameworks, and decision-making processes that improve organizational performance and execution effectiveness


• Clarify roles, responsibilities, handoffs, and ways of working that strengthen accountability and cross-functional collaboration


• Establish practical performance measures and governance mechanisms that support informed decision-making and continuous improvement


• Evaluate business processes, organizational interfaces, and ways of working to identify opportunities that improve efficiency, collaboration, scalability, and execution


• Lead initiatives that simplify work, reduce organizational friction, improve handoffs, and strengthen overall business performance


• Partner with business and IT leaders to identify and implement digital capabilities that strengthen execution, collaboration, reporting, and decision-making


• Support business-led adoption of technology solutions that align with operating models, business priorities, and organizational readiness


• Evaluate opportunities to leverage analytics, automation, AI, and emerging technologies to improve organizational effectiveness and business performance


• Develop implementation approaches that enable successful adoption of new capabilities, technologies, and ways of working


• Build commitment and alignment through executive workshops, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative problem-solving sessions


• Coach, mentor, and develop Operational Excellence team members while strengthening organizational capabilities across XPM


• Develop improvement capabilities across the organization by coaching business partners, facilitating knowledge sharing, and promoting practical approaches to solving business challenges


• Build trusted relationships across XPM and partner organizations through credibility, partnership, sound judgment, and delivery of meaningful business outcomes

Job Requirements and Experiences: 

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Operations Management, Organizational Leadership, Project Management, or a related discipline


• MBA or other advanced business or technical degree preferred 


• Minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in operational excellence, organizational effectiveness, business transformation, business operations, engineering, project delivery, program leadership, process improvement, or related leadership roles


• Demonstrated success leading complex cross-functional initiatives that improve organizational performance and business outcomes


• Experience designing and implementing operating models, governance frameworks, organizational improvements, or business capabilities that support scalable execution.


• Demonstrated success implementing organizational or operational improvements in complex business environments 


• Experience leading organizational, operational, or business process improvements within growing or evolving organizations.


• Experience leading implementation or adoption of enterprise business systems, digital platforms, or technology-enabled business capabilities


• Experience partnering with business and IT organizations to implement technology-enabled business solutions


• Experience applying Lean, Six Sigma, Agile, Design Thinking, or other structured improvement approaches where appropriate to solve business challenges


• Experience within renewable energy, utilities, engineering, construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, or other asset-intensive industries


• Experience working directly with engineering, development, construction, operations, project delivery, or other execution-focused organizations


• Experience coaching, mentoring, and developing individuals or teams


• Strong communication, facilitation, stakeholder engagement, relationship management, and problem-solving skills


• Strong business acumen, systems thinking, organizational awareness, and sound judgment


• Ability and willingness to travel domestically as needed (approximately once per month) to support meetings, workshops, and other business activities

Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays. Eligible employees also participate in short-term incentives, in addition to salary.

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Any questions? Contact HR: [email protected]

We look forward to meeting you. Of course, you can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Xing, too.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

RWE Americas, a subsidiary of RWE, is a US-based energy company that is helping to meet the growing demand for energy across the United States. Backed by RWE’s 125-year global legacy of managing diverse power assets, RWE Americas operates approximately 13 GW of power projects across 27 states. With a talented workforce of 2,000 employees, RWE Americas develops, constructs and operates wind, solar and battery storage projects, along with natural gas-powered generation, that safely deliver affordable, reliable electricity to our customers. Committed to responsible development, RWE Americas invests in local and rural communities, creating jobs and partnering with stakeholders to support and strengthen the places where we live and work. This is complemented by RWE’s energy trading business. RWE is also a major offtaker of American liquified natural gas (LNG). Learn more about how RWE Americas is generating impact at americas.rwe.com.

At RWE Americas, we foster a culture defined by our Essential Behaviors - Have Courage, Create Impact and Actively Collaborate. We encourage bold thinking and continuous learning, and we value ownership, resilience and inclusion in everything we do. When you join us, you become part of a team that supports your development, respects your contributions and celebrates shared success. This is a place where you can grow your career and make a meaningful difference.