Senior Lean Leader

Job Description Summary

The Nuclear Engineering Lean Leader is responsible for developing and leading a culture of applying lean principals and techniques to Engineering processes across the Nuclear portfolio. Specifically, the Lean Leader will work closely as a partner with the business functions and internal Engineering teams to advocate for lean solutions, teach/develop lean skills across all Engineering resources, drive Hoshin Kanri and the lean strategic playbook and facilitate the operational mechanisms to ensure success (e.g. KPIs/bowler charts, communications, employee feedback)

Job Description

Essential Responsibilities

The Lean Leader will serve as facilitator, educator, advocate, consultant and accountability partner to the business and the Engineering teams to ensure the application of lean to Engineering and cross-functional business processes. They will also be responsible for driving projects across Engineering to create value through lean while coaching the leadership of those organizations.

• Create a culture of "Lean Thinking" among the Engineering People Leaders focused on Servant Leadership, Customer Focus & Employee Empowerment
• Broaden the application of problem solving & continuous improvement tools & daily management in a way that will improve quality, efficiency, capacity and process reliability
• Enable & empower the Engineering resources to identify lean opportunities & locally act upon and drive process simplification/efficiency
• Celebrate and share Engineering application of lean principles and techniques to recognize success and leverage lessons learned.

• Build organizational awareness and adoption of Lean as the business/functional operational model
• Develop expertise and experience in the applicable lean principles, concepts & tools across the Engineering organization
• Collaborate with subject matter experts across GE Vernova to leverage existing training and/or create additional training for the Nuclear Engineering organization using the quality application of the tools and techniques

• Partner with the Nuclear Lean Leaders to facilitate the Hoshin Kanri & Transformational Action Planning processes across the Engineering teams to define & drive the necessary objectives and improvement actions aligned with the Nuclear strategy
• Focus on applying Lean principles to the Engineering organization and solve critical issues identified by the Nuclear Engineering leadership team relating to safety, quality, delivery, and cost
• Facilitate and ensure the linkage of lean improvements to real business priorities/impact.
• Drive the necessary process standardization/harmonization for one integrated and streamlined Nuclear Engineering organization
• Maximize employee driven process simplification and improvements through empowerment, local problem solving and continuous improvement tools

• Own the monthly Engineering Operating Review and Daily Management rollup tied to the Engineering improvement strategy roadmap
• Monitor overall lean activities across Engineering to gauge rate of adoption; develop internal metrics where necessary to quantify business impact
• Routinely pulse employees on progress of lean culture and areas to improve operational deployment of Lean
• Own visual management strategy for Engineering Organization

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, or similar technical degree from an accredited university or college
• 5+ years of experience leading teams with lean techniques in a matrixed environment with particular emphasis on transactional process versus manufacturing process.
• 5+ years of experience leading large-scale programs/projects
• 10+ years of industrial related experience

• The required work location is the GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy headquarters in Wilmington, NC (relocation assistance available)
• This role requires access to U.S. export-controlled information. If applicable, final offers will be contingent on ability to obtain authorization for access to U.S. export-controlled information from the U.S. Government.

• Prior experience in regulated industries, such as Nuclear
• Prior experience in Power, Energy industries
• Practitioner and expert of Lean models, concepts & tools. Fluent in the language of lean, SME in this area. This is a coaching and teaching role.
• Strong experience in structured problem-solving techniques using tools like TOPS 8D, A3, PSR, Root Cause Analysis and more
• Appropriate experience driving business transformation and/or lean adoption, preferably within an Engineering organization. The ideal candidate is a change agent that has led through tough situations and brings a will to win
• Relentless desire to challenge status quo, not accept "as-is" and find a better way ... focus on continuous improvement
• Proven to be effective driving outcomes in large matrixed organizations - understands how to navigate geographies, cultures, relationships, etc. Can drive work globally.
• Comfortable with conflict but leads as a collaborator, facilitator and strong partner.
• Critical, systems thinker with the ability to bring others along, even those with conflicting priorities.
• Data-driven but decisive despite ambiguity
• Follows the principles of how we work together ... the Vernova way with focus on Innovation, Customers, Lean, One Team and Accountability
• Customer-focused with clear, concise written and oral communications to the appropriate level
• Candidates must be willing to travel if/as needed