Vice President, Operational Excellence
Trane Technologies · Davidson, NC
- Level
- Director+
- Team
- Lean / CI
- Base pay
- $314k–$410k
- Travel
- 30%
- Experience asked
- 15+ years
- Certification
- Black Belt preferred
- Industry
- Industrial
- Posted
- 30+ days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A director-level continuous improvement role at Trane Technologies (industrial) in Davidson, NC. You will own the enterprise Business Operating System (BOS), lead the global lean and continuous improvement strategy, and build the capabilities, standards, and operating rhythms that elevate performance across all regions, SBUs, and plants.
- They ask for
- 15+ years · Black Belt preferred
- Tools it names
- Lean, Value stream mapping, OEE, Root cause, Automation, Time studies
- Base pay
- $314k–$410k
- Day to day
- about 30% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Lean / CI team at Trane Technologies
We found 2 people at this company and state: 2 on the team. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Keith → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Is CI run from the plant floor or from a corporate OpEx group?
- Which metrics does leadership actually watch: OEE, scrap, cost per unit?
- The posting says about 30% travel. Between which sites?
- The posting mentions a Black Belt. Does the company sponsor certification?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
About the role
What you will do
The VP, Operational Excellence is the enterprise leader responsible for defining, governing, and advancing the Business Operating System (BOS) and operational excellence capabilities across Trane Technologies’ Global Integrated Supply Chain. Reporting to the SVP of GISC, this role sets global standards for lean, daily management, problem solving, flow, productivity, and operational performance management.
This leader defines performance standards, drives measurable productivity improvement, and creates an integrated roadmap that advances cost, quality, delivery, and safety outcomes across the enterprise. They will partners deeply with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain Planning, Logistics, Procurement, Sustainability, and Digitization to ensure that operational excellence is embedded into every stage of the value chain—from product design through finished goods delivery.
The role is accountable for delivering year-over-year productivity gains, supporting structural COGS improvement, building global lean capability, accelerating automation and digital tools, and enabling factories and SBUs to achieve world‑class performance.
What You Will Do
Build Global Lean and Operational Excellence Capability
- ◆Define and execute the enterprise Operational Excellence strategy aligned to COGS, growth, and efficiency objectives.
- ◆Champion a culture of continuous improvement, problem-solving, and operational accountability.
- ◆Strengthen leadership behaviors at all levels to drive reliability, discipline, and data-driven decision making.
- ◆Establish global standards for value stream mapping, problem solving, waste elimination, flow, and standard work.
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Be a part of our mission! As a world leader in creating comfortable, sustainable, and efficient climate solutions for buildings, homes and transportation, it's our responsibility to put the planet first. For us at Trane Technologies , and through our businesses including Trane® and Thermo King , sustainability is not just how we do business—it is our business. Do you dare to look at the world's challenges and see impactful possibilities? Do you want to contribute to making a better future? If the answer is yes, we invite you to consider joining us in boldly challenging what's possible for a sustainable world.
Learn about our benefits designed for you to Thrive at work and at home.
We boldly go.
Where is the work
Monday to Thursday, work onsite with your colleagues. Fridays, choose your work location, balancing what your work requires.
What's in it for you
Be part of our mission. As Trane Technologies accelerates its GISC transformation, Operational Excellence is a critical enabler of our growth, productivity, and sustainability goals. As we build the future supply chain—more digital, more reliable, more resilient, and more scalable—our factories and distribution centers must operate at world‑class levels of flow, stability, quality, and efficiency.
As the VP of Operational Excellence, you will own the enterprise Business Operating System (BOS), lead the global lean and continuous improvement strategy, and build the capabilities, standards, and operating rhythms that elevate performance across all regions, SBUs, and plants. You will deliver measurable business results through standardized processes, lean problem‑solving, waste elimination, and digital enablement—empowering our operations to scale for future growth.
If you are inspired to build world‑class operational systems and drive measurable performance improvement, we invite you to boldly challenge what’s possible.
Drive Measurable Productivity & COGS Improvement
- •Deliver year-over-year productivity gains through lean methods, automation, line balancing, and waste reduction.
- •Partner with SBUs and plant leaders to improve OEE, labor productivity, flow, and bottleneck elimination and reduce waste, rework, and variability.
- •Provide targeted Operational Excellence support for enterprise-level initiatives, capacity expansions, automation deployments, and footprint optimization.
- •Provide enterprise visibility into productivity performance, root causes, and improvement plans.
Improve Plant Stability, Flow, and Operational Discipline
- •Lead enterprise initiatives to improve flow, takt alignment, standard work adherence, and cycle‑time stability.
- •Drive consistency in production system execution across SBUs and plants.
- •Strengthen stability and adherence to standard work to reduce variability and improve throughput.
Enable Digital Lean, Automation and Advanced Productivity Tools
- •Partner with the Supply Chain Digitization team to deploy:
- •Real-time performance dashboards
- •Digital work instructions
- •Computer vision–enabled process control
- •IoT‑based loss analysis
- •Collaborate with Manufacturing Engineering to align automation with standard work and flow design.
- •Ensure the BOS integrates seamlessly with automation technologies and digital tools.
Lead the Global Business Operating System (BOS)
- •Own and govern the enterprise BOS architecture, standards, tools, leader routines, and performance management rhythm.
- •Define and deploy common processes, visual management, daily management systems, and performance rhythms.
- •Maintain governance and clarity on roles, expectations, and leadership behaviors across SBUs, plants, and functions.
Leadership, Talent & Culture
- •Ensure operational excellence principles are embedded in cross-functional processes, including new product development and supplier collaboration.
- •Drive alignment across the global Operational Excellence network to ensure consistency, shared learning, and accelerated scaling of best practices.
- •Establish a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement.
- •Build a global, high performing enterprise Operational Excellence organization, with a credible brand and clear roles across regions, SBUs, and plants.
What you will bring
- •15+ years of progre