About the Role:
We are seeking a high-caliber, transformative leader to join our organization as the Director of Strategic Supply Chain Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence . This critical in-house role bridges the gap between top-tier management consulting and enterprise execution.
Leveraging your background in supply chain continuous improvement and operational excellence, you will own the architectural design, deployment, and governance of our end-to-end global supply chain optimization roadmap. You will partner directly with executive stakeholders to transition our strategic sourcing, logistics, and supplier management functions from transactional operations into a world-class, digitally enabled competitive advantage.
Key Responsibilities
Capacity, Delivery & Data Management
- Operational Diagnostics: Conduct comprehensive, consultant-grade operations maturity assessments across global strategic sourcing, contract management, inventory planning, and distribution frameworks.
- Spend & Process Analytics: Leverage data-driven methodologies to dissect current category management strategies, identify direct/indirect leakage, and isolate operational bottlenecks.
- Business Case Architecture: Synthesize diagnostic findings into high-impact business cases, calculating complex total cost of ownership (TCO), ROI, and net-present-value (NPV) metrics for executive approval.
- Develop and implement systems to inform SIOP process with supplier capacity and lead time to support operation planning.
Supplier Performance Management
- Implement supplier performance metrics and measurement to inform continuous improvement and suppler performance management.
- Hire and lead two direct reports, and coordinate among other strategic directors and operational supply chain teams in manufacturing locations to lead data management and supplier performance management functions.
Strategy Deployment & Lean Transformation
- Continuous Improvement Frameworks: Establish and institutionalize an enterprise-wide CI process for implementing Category and Supplier Strategies, Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain execution. Leverage tools (e.g., Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen, Kanban, Root Cause Analysis) to drive data and process driven improvement projects with ROI delivery.
- Strategic Sourcing Excellence: Redesign sourcing processes to embed advanced supplier relationship management (SRM), risk mitigation, and predictive cost-modeling into the organizational DNA.
- Process Standardization: Author and deploy standard operating procedures (SOPs), playbooks, and standardized negotiation strategies across a decentralized organizational footprint.
Change Management & Stakeholder Alignment
- Consultative Influence: Operate as the internal partner of choice, seamlessly navigating matrixed organizations to align corporate strategy with local plant or regional supply chain execution.
- Capability Building: Architect and facilitate structured capability-building programs, coaching internal sourcing teams, category managers, and supply planners in operational excellence practices.
- Culture Transformation: Shift organizational behavior from reactive firefighting to a proactive culture of perpetual efficiency and value creation.
Digital Transformation & Analytics Governance
- Systems Optimization: Partner with IT and Finance to maximize return on enterprise investments (e.g., ERP, TMS, WMS, and e-Sourcing suites).
- KPI Architecture: Design, implement, and govern global executive-level supply chain dashboards, managing critical metrics (e.g., Perfect Order Rate, Supplier OTIF, Spend Under Management, Category Cost Savings).
Preferred Background & Qualifications
Experience
- This person will be creating a new organization that will be responsible for the following tasks and will need to start as a hand-on contributor that will be able to build and lead their own team.
- Leadership: This is a role for a hands-on leader, team builder, consensus builder and leader of change.
- Supply Chain Transformation Management: Experience project managing change and continuous improvement projects in a manufacturing company within the strategic supply chain organization.
- Management Consulting Foundation: Experience working in supply chain continuous improvement either alongside or within a premier management consulting firm or boutique supply chain advisory outfit, specifically executing supply chain, operational excellence, or strategic sourcing transformations. We are looking for this person to build this internal know-how and CI culture.
- Corporate Transferability: Combined or foundational exposure to in-house operational environments (Manufacturing, CPG, Energy, or Automotive) is highly valued.
- Proven Impact: A documented track record of delivering substantial annualized margin expansions, working capital improvements, structural lead-time reductions and synergistic sourcing across multiple manufacturing locations in US and Mexico.
Education & Certifications
- Academic Baseline: Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Engineering, Operations Research, Business Administration, or a highly quantitative discipline. An MBA or advanced MS degree is strongly preferred.
- Technical Credentials: Highly value Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (LSSBB) certification or equivalent formal continuous improvement training.
- Professional Accreditations: APICS (CPIM, CSCP) or ISM (CPM, CPSM) certifications are considered a significant advantage.
Competencies & Skillsets
- Advanced Problem Solving: Mastery of structured problem-solving frameworks (e.g., MECE structuring, hypothesis-driven analytics).
- Data Synthesis: Advanced proficiency in data-driven tools and dashboard development for KPI’s (e.g., Alteryx, Tableau, Power BI) and complex financial modeling.
- Communication Mastery: Executive presence with the ability to distill highly technical operational concepts into razor-sharp, compelling presentations for C-suite alignment.
Why Will You Love Working Here?
- A collaborative culture.
- Opportunities to make a real impact as we grow.
- Competitive pay, great benefits, and a great team.
- Celebrations, volunteer days, and moments that make work more than just “work”! Are You Ready to Join the Team?
Steele Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer and participates in E-Verify. We are committed to maintaining a lawful workforce and verify employment eligibility for all newly hired employees in accordance with federal requirements.
