Global Operations Excellence Director

The Global Operations Excellence Director provides enterprise leadership to improve the effectiveness, capability, and maturity of the manufacturing function. This role defines and governs functional processes, systems, capabilities, and data in alignment with end-to-end value-stream performance goals. The Director leads improvement initiatives that deliver measurable business and customer outcomes, strengthens functional talent and learning strategies, and remains connected to relevant industries and leading practices to position the company for sustainable growth. This leader partners across Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Engineering, Health, Safety and Environment (HSE), and plant leadership to advance operational excellence across the global manufacturing network. This role is expected to be on-site at U.S. plants more than 50% of the time to drive Global Operational Excellence practices and provide hands-on leadership. The role is on-site with flexibility (preferred Cummins locations are Asheville, NC; Charleston, SC; Charlotte, NC Metro area) and relocation assistance is available for qualified candidates. 

In this role, you will make an impact in the following ways:

• Operations Excellence Strategy: Partner with business leaders, functional leaders, and end-to-end process owners to establish functional maturity goals and lead the strategy and roadmap required to achieve them.


• Performance Management: Define functional metrics that support Safety, Quality, Delivery, Cost, and Efficiency (SQDCE) objectives and the performance goals of internal value chains and end-to-end processes.


• Enterprise Governance: Lead enterprise governance of manufacturing processes, systems, capabilities, and data within the broader end-to-end operating framework.


• Operational Excellence Roadmap: Define and deploy the Operational Excellence (OE) roadmap across plants and regions, ensuring priorities are aligned with business objectives.


• Continuous Improvement and Lean Transformation: Champion Lean, Six Sigma, and OE processes and deliver measurable improvements in productivity, quality, inventory, lead time, cost, and customer outcomes.


• Standards and Assessments: Own the deployment of OE playbooks, assessments, skills matrices, and maturity evaluations, and ensure sites sustain key processes with clear accountability.


• Functional Capability and Learning: Define global position profiles, required competencies, learning and development needs, and recruiting strategies. Lead a learning strategy that includes experiential development, professional networks, industry associations, and formal training.


• Organizational Capability: Build OE capability through coaching, training, certification, and leadership development, and establish a network of site OE leaders and functional excellence champions.


• Cross-Functional Business Performance: Partner with Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Engineering, HSE, and plant leadership to remove systemic constraints, improve end-to-end value streams, standardize practices, and share leading practices across the global network.


• Industry and Customer Insight: Apply business and functional expertise to identify growth opportunities, improve customer outcomes, and advance practices through engagement with industry experts, peers, and relevant research.


• Program and Project Leadership: Prioritize improvement efforts, delegate assignments, monitor measures and milestones, and keep leadership informed of progress, risks, and developments.


• People Leadership: Lead, motivate, coach, and develop the team through clear performance, development, and career goals while building enterprise subject-matter expertise.

To be successful in this role you will need the following:

• Global Deployment and Site Enablement: Proven ability to bridge enterprise strategy and local execution by working directly with sites to resolve operational challenges, develop capability, and guide Operational Excellence leaders. Acts as a trusted coach and advisor, ensuring global standards are effectively deployed while adapting solutions to local business needs and operational realities.
• Strategic and Functional Leadership: A strategic mindset, strong business insight, and demonstrated ability to translate future possibilities into practical functional strategies and measurable outcomes.
• Operational Excellence Expertise: Deep knowledge of functional quality, Lean, Six Sigma, process redesign, governance, analytics, and continuous improvement, with the ability to teach, coach, and mentor others.
• Enterprise and Global Perspective: The ability to work across functions, regions, value streams, and organizational boundaries while navigating complex policy, process, and people dynamics.
• Customer and Business Focus: A record of building strong stakeholder relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions that advance organizational goals.
• Change and Transformation Leadership: Significant experience leading strategic change, sponsoring large and complex projects, managing ambiguity, and turning complex information into effective decisions.
• People Leadership and Engagement: Demonstrated success creating an environment in which people are motivated to perform, develop, collaborate, and contribute diverse perspectives.
• Execution and Adaptability: An action-oriented approach, disciplined process optimization, and the situational adaptability to respond effectively to changing demands.

Education/Experience:

• College, university, or equivalent degree required.
• Significant relevant experience required, including managerial and budgetary responsibility.
• Strong experience leading strategic initiatives and organizational change across multiple functional areas.
• Demonstrated experience sponsoring large, complex projects and leading process redesign.
• Broad knowledge of key manufacturing and functional processes and practices preferred.
• Command of functional quality practices and the ability to train and mentor others in their application.
• This position may require licensing for compliance with export control or sanctions regulations.

Compensation:

Please note that the salary range provided is a good-faith estimate of the applicable range. The final salary offer will be determined after considering relevant factors, including a candidate’s qualifications and experience, where appropriate.