Continuous Improvement Manager

Barnes Aerospace

East Granby

Description

Key Responsibilities

  • Business Partnership & Strategy
  • Act as a strategic business partner to site leadership to identify opportunities for operational and financial performance improvement.
  • Analyze current processes, workflows, and systems to identify inefficiencies and develop improvement strategies that drive measurable results.
  • Operational Excellence & VITAL Ownership
  • Lead the deployment, sustainment, and continuous evolution of the VITAL Operating System at the site.
  • Ensure alignment with enterprise CI standards, tools, and methodologies through close collaboration with the Director of Continuous Improvement.
  • Project Leadership & Execution
  • Identify, prioritize, and lead high-impact CI projects and initiatives that deliver quality, operational, financial, and customer satisfaction improvements.
  • Drive successful execution of projects from concept through implementation and sustainment.
  • Frameworks & Capability Building
  • Establish and deploy structured CI frameworks, governance, and standard work across the organization.
  • Build organizational capability by training, coaching, developing and mentoring employees at all levels in CI methodologies and tools.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Partner with operations, engineering, quality, supply chain, finance, safety and other functions to enhance productivity and drive cross-functional improvements.
  • Facilitate workshops, kaizen events, training and problem-solving sessions.
  • Performance & Analytics
  • Utilize data-driven methodologies to identify root causes, track performance, and validate improvement outcomes.
  • Develop and maintain key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure CI effectiveness.
  • Continuous Learning & Best Practices
  • Stay current with industry trends, tools, and best practices in continuous improvement and operational excellence.
  • Drive standardization and sharing of best practices across the organization.

Qualifications

  • Minimum of 5-7 years of experience delivering measurable, step-change improvements in business or operational performance.
  • Proven hands-on experience with continuous improvement tools and methodologies (e.g., Lean, Theory of Constraints, Kaizen), with relevant certifications preferred.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead and influence across multiple levels of the organization.
  • Strong understanding of operational excellence principles across manufacturing or industrial environments.
  • Analytical, data-driven approach to problem solving with strong attention to detail.
  • Excellent communication, facilitation, and interpersonal skills.
  • Strong numerical and analytical capability.
  • Project Management certification preferred, but not required, or a strong project management background.
  • Six Sigma certification (Green Belt or Black Belt) is a plus.

Education Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, or a related technical discipline preferred.