Operational Excellence Lead

Overview

In this role you will lead Norton’s Operational Excellence strategy across manufacturing and support functions, driving continuous improvement and embedding a customer-first mindset. You will coach Lean and Six Sigma, guide cross-functional initiatives, and establish governance for sustainable gains. You’ll promote a quality culture, advanced problem-solving, and performance monitoring. This is a chance to shape manufacturing excellence for a historic brand entering a new era.

Pay / Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 33 days holiday (incl. Bank Holidays)
• Generous pension with personalized advice
• Private medical insurance and cash-back programme
• Life insurance (4x salary)
• WeCare employee assistance programme with mental health support and GP services”,”Electric bicycle hire and on-site charging points”,”On-site free parking”),

Responsibilities

• Lead the Operational Excellence strategy and deployment roadmap
• Drive continuous improvement across manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, quality, maintenance, and support functions
• Identify opportunities via data analysis, process assessments, and value stream mapping
• Facilitate cross-functional teams to improve safety, quality, cost, delivery, productivity, and morale
• Establish governance to monitor projects and sustain gains
• Embed TQM principles into daily operations and champion a quality culture
• Facilitate PDCA, A3, 8D, root cause analysis, and CAPA problem solving
• Promote standardisation and process discipline; drive zero defect and right first time initiatives
• Develop KPIs and dashboards for operational performance and decision making
• Lead Lean transformation and deploy tools such as 5S, Kaizen, VSM
• Coach on Lean thinking and problem-solving methodologies
• Lead DMAIC projects to improve performance and reduce defects
• Map, analyse, redesign, and optimise business processes and remove non-value-added activities
• Support digitalisation and automation initiatives and ensure process sustainability
• Monitor performance through OEE, productivity, and first pass yield; drive risk-based thinking
• Lead change management initiatives and sustain improvement efforts
• Develop operational excellence competency frameworks and training programs
• Mentor Green Belts, Yellow Belts, and improvement champions
• Build internal capability for sustainable improvement
• Ensure adherence to quality, environmental, and safety management systems
• Establish improvement review mechanisms and celebrate achievements
• Drive supplier and internal quality collaboration
• Encourage employee participation via suggestion schemes and Kaizen events

Key requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, or related field
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt required; Black Belt preferred
• 8+ years in manufacturing, operations, quality, or industrial engineering
• Minimum 5 years leading Operational Excellence or similar initiatives in OEM/high-volume settings
• Experience in automotive or heavy manufacturing environments
• Strong data analysis, process mapping, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to coach and lead cross-functional teams
• Experience with QA, CAPA, and process standardisation

• leadership
• collaboration
• problem-solving
• Lean Six Sigma
• PDCA
• A3

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