Continuous Improvement Lead

Do you want to work for a global company that creates remarkable experiences through people, products, and food? If you want to be part of a rewarding People First culture that values relationships, trust, and taking the long view, then this is the place for you. Henny Penny was named the 2021 Dayton Business of the Year for many good reasons. Read on to learn more!

The Continuous Improvement Leader is responsible for executing the company's Continuous Improvement and Lean Six Sigma strategy in alignment with organizational goals and priorities. This leadership role is critical in driving sustainable improvements across the organization, fostering a culture of operational excellence, and reinforcing change that reflects our core values.

As a mentor and coach, the Continuous Improvement Leader supports Lean projects across the business, providing training to team members, departments, and leadership on Lean Six Sigma principles and methodologies. Additionally, this role facilitates Henny Penny Workouts and contributes to data collection and analysis to validate the impact of process improvement initiatives.


What We Offer:

• An opportunity to work for a company that is 100% employee-owned. As an employee-owner, you will be enrolled in our employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) program following one year of service.
• Annual company performance bonus in addition to base salary
• Flexibility to work from home 2 days per week
• Defined career paths so you’ll always know what’s next and what steps can get where you want to go
• Professional development opportunities including tuition reimbursement and unlimited free access to LinkedIn Learning courses
• A competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k) with company match, PTO, and paid holidays
• Expanded onsite wellness clinic offering preventive care services such as wellness screenings, annual physicals, and related lab work at no cost to employee-owners
• Achieve total well-being at our new Wellspring and Owners Hall facility, featuring 24/7 fitness center with a wide variety of cardio and strength training equipment. This facility reflects our continuous evolution in supporting our valued employee owners.
• Activities including department outings, holiday parties, and our annual company-wide Thanksgiving Dinner

What You'll Be Doing

• Develop and maintain a culture of continuous improvement through engagement, coaching, and guided mentorship.
• Build strong relationships across the organization and with the functional CI Coaches to support and leverage their skills to align to the needs of the business.
• Ownership of all assigned projects across the lifecycle of the CI Process from idea to delivery. Lead the kickoff of projects to ensure teams are aligned and expectations are clear and understood.
• Track and communicate the improvements realized across the organization.
• Facilitate / Co-Facilitate Henny Penny Workouts and Kaizen events.
• Ensure appropriate use of Continuous Improvement tools are used throughout the process of improving lifecycle.
• Lead teams through root cause analysis to identify underlying issues.
• Use data-driven approaches to solve complex problems.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and department leaders to recognize organizational change management issues and risks.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gain buy-in for improvement initiatives.
• Provide regular updates to senior management on project status.
• Consistently models the Company values and expected behaviors.
• Other duties as assigned.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor of Science (B.S) Engineering, Business or related field Required
• 5+ years business experience including process improvement, project leadership and/or process improvement delivery Required
• Ability to facilitate process mapping workshops.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to use BI applications to track, monitor and report benefits/business impact.
• Proven track record of problem solving.
• Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills.
• Ability to work independently and take initiative.
• Experience in the manufacturing industry is a plus.
• Commitment to continuous improvement and quality.
• Formal Project Management Certification is preferred.
• Knowledge and experience with Six Sigma methodology and lean process implementation is preferred.

About Us

We’re known in our industry for making the best commercial food equipment in the world. Every day, millions of people eat in restaurants operating Henny Penny equipment. We’re a behind-the-scenes engine in the world’s most demanding kitchens, including long-term partners like McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, KFC, and Wendy’s. We’re 1,000+ employee-owners who thrive by living a People First mission: to support employees in becoming the best version of themselves both personally and professionally.

We recently completed the largest expansion in our history with the addition of 150,000 square feet on our Eaton campus. This expansion drives development of the world’s most reliable, easy-to-use equipment with an innovative new space for global research and development. We have several collaborative spaces for our project teams, a dedicated electrical engineering lab for our hardware and software engineers, a full model shop for rapid prototyping, and a brand-new test lab that has 300 feet of hood space to test new equipment on our product roadmap. On top of that, we have a new state-of-the-art kitchen for our food science group to meet with our customers, understand what they need, and then dial in our equipment to help them make legendary menu items.

Henny Penny is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  Qualified applicants are considered without regard to race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability or handicap, sex or gender (including pregnancy, childbirth and pregnancy-related conditions), marital status, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, genetic information, gender identity or expression (including transgender status), or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.