Operational Excellence Lead

Work Location Type:Hybrid

As a leading industrial distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom, We Keep The World Working by serving more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with products delivered through innovative technology and deep customer relationships. With 2023 sales of $16.5 billion, we're dedicated to providing value for customers, fostering an engaging culture for team members and driving strong financial results.

Our welcoming workplace enables you to learn, grow and make a difference by keeping businesses running and their people safe. As a 2024 Glassdoor Best Place to Work and a Great Place to Work-Certified company, we're looking for passionate people to join our team as we continue leading the industry over our next 100 years.

Position Details:

The Operational Excellence team ensures that Grainger's Merchandising and Supplier Management department (MSM) understands how value is created for our customers and is persistently increasing that value while eliminating waste. As an individual contributor, the Operational Excellence Lead, will lead strategic initiatives to develop new operating models to transform how Grainger delivers value to customers and improving existing operating models to deliver more value to customers and eliminate non-value-added activities. You will report to the Manager, Operational Excellence.

Opportunity to work hybrid 3 days per week in the office from either our Lake Forest, IL office or downtown Chicago office at the Merchandise Mart. Individuals based in the Chicago office may still visit the Lake Forest, IL office on an occasional basis.

You Will:

• Use analytics and partnerships to quickly accumulate and learn new business processes

• Provide expertise and oversight to partners during the initiation, planning, implementation, and control phases of project work.

• Develop baselines for metrics and assist teams in identifying goals and action plans to improve metrics.

• Work with partners, subject matter experts, and different levels of leaders across the organization to advance project goals

• Create documentation of current processes for internal and cross-departmental use, including process maps, RACI models.

• Test new and better ways to solve problems using relevant Continuous Improvement/Lean tools and principles.

• Design and operationalize a model (process, tools, and governance) rooted in continuous improvement principles by instituting project management best practices by using PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Adjust) or relevant methodology.

• Prioritize work, guide targeted progress, anticipate and remove barriers, and communicate clear project status to multiple levels.

• Use analytics and judgment to identify, prioritize and solve complex business problems with recommendations to leadershipconsidering upstream and downstream impacts, risks and data.

• Identify opportunities for improvement in existing processes and automate processes using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software; maintain automated RPA processes where they already exist.

You Have:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

• 3+ years of experience in continuous improvement, project management, internal consulting, or related experience

• Lean Six Sigma, or equivalent, working experience.

• Experience with Robotics Automation Technology (RPA) (e.g. Automation Anywhere, BluePrism, and/or UIPath)

• Direct or indirect leadership experience

• Demonstrated continuous improvement and project management experience; especially of large-scale, cross-departmental projects

Rewards and Benefits:

With benefits starting day one, Grainger is committed to your safety, health and wellbeing. Our programs provide choice to meet our team members' individual needs. Check out some of the rewards available to you at Grainger.

• Benefits starting on day one, including medical, dental vision and life insurance

• 6% 401(k) company contribution each pay period with no personal contribution required

• Employee discounts, parental leave, tuition reimbursement, student loan refinancing, free access to financial counseling, education and more.

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible environment that includes both providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout the course of one's employment. With this in mind, should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.