Job Summary

The Senior Director of Continuous Improvement (CI) is responsible for building, leading, and sustaining a culture of operational excellence across all facilities. This role drives simplification, standardization, waste elimination, and data-driven decision-making, ensuring teams improve every day through disciplined execution, visible metrics, and cross-functional collaboration. The leader will champion the GRIT mindset—Growth through Relentless Improvement & Teamwork—while enabling teams to identify opportunities, remove barriers, and deliver consistent, measurable results.

Responsibilities and Tasks

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Culture Building

• Serve as the enterprise champion for continuous improvement, fostering a unified, sustainable CI culture across all sites.
• Embed GRIT behaviors into daily operations, ensuring simplification, standardization, and operational excellence become integrated into how teams work.
• Partner with leaders across Production, Quality, Engineering, Supply Chain, and functional teams to drive cohesive improvement efforts.

Continuous Improvement Program Ownership

• Develop and deploy enterprise CI frameworks, including tiered daily management, visual performance boards, SQDCP metrics, and waste-elimination practices.
• Lead root-cause problem-solving, RCCA effectiveness, Pareto-based defect analysis, and workflow redesign to reduce downtime and non-value-added activities.
• Facilitate Kaizen events and process audits, and standardize documentation of GRIT initiatives, including the development of cost models for measured improvements.
• Monitor key CI indicators, including HPU, cycle time versus takt time, OTD trends, defect visibility, and manpower planning, and ensure corrective actions address root causes.
• Support cross-functional collaboration through Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) to rapidly address barriers such as material shortages and production bottlenecks.
• Mentor and empower site-level CI practitioners, GRIT Champions, and operational leaders to build problem-solving capabilities and promote collaboration. Teach the use of lean tools, the DMAIC method, Value Stream Mapping, and other CI methodologies.
• Promote the sharing of best practices across sites to accelerate improvement and unify operational standards.

Knowledge (Education, License, Certification, and Prior Experience)

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, or a related field.
• Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
• 12+ years of relevant experience, including 7+ years of formal management experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex CI initiatives across functions or sites.

Preferred

• Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, or regulated manufacturing environments.
• Experience with strategy deployment (Hoshin Kanri), daily management systems, or operating-system design.
• Experience leading enterprise-level CI maturity, governance, or operating-system structures.

Skills and Abilities

Skills & Abilities

• Executive-level written and verbal communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.
• Ability to professionally interact with all levels of the company, from executives and leaders to cross-functional teams and factory employees.
• Strong analytical and statistical data-analysis skills.
• Ability to influence, coach, and develop employees at all levels.
• Demonstrated ability to drive change and lead through resistance.
• Deep working knowledge of CI tools, including Kaizen, 5S, A3, VSM, Standard Work, Kanban, and DMAIC.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in manufacturing, operations, or continuous-improvement leadership roles.
• Demonstrated success implementing lean principles, visual-management systems, and structured CI programs.
• Strong analytical approach supported by data interpretation, KPI management, and problem-solving methodologies.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive cross-functional collaboration.
• Experience developing high-performing teams and coaching both leaders and frontline employees.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and change-management skills.

Travel/Physical Requirements

• Remote with 25–50% travel to Twenty-Six Defense sites as needed for CI deployment and coaching, depending on home location.

#LI-BL1

Here Are Some of the Great Benefits We Offer:

• Most locations offer a 9/80 schedule, providing every other Friday off
• Competitive compensation & 401(k) program to plan for your future
• Robust medical, dental, vision, & disability coverage with qualified wellness discounts
• Basic Life Insurance and Additional Life & AD&D Insurances are available
• Flexible Vacation & PTO
• Paid Parental Leave
• Generous Employee Referral Program
• Voluntary Benefits Available: Longer Term Care, Legal, Identity Theft, Pet Insurance, and more
• Voluntary Tricare Supplement available for military retirees

This job description does not list all the duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. The job description is not an employment contract. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position. Twenty-Six Defense is an equal opportunity employer as to all protected groups, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

*For Virginia-based positions only* In accordance with Virginia DOL requirements, the listed salary range reflects the anticipated base pay range for this role. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including skills, experience, education, certifications, business needs, internal equity, and geographic location. Compensation may vary in different locations based on market conditions and cost-of-labor considerations.

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