Job Description – Operational Excellence Lead
Function: Operational Excellence (OpEx)
Role: Operational Excellence Lead
Role Family: Operational Excellence
Senior Operational Excellence practitioner responsible for driving the maturity and consistency of the Maersk Way of Working (TMW) while leading complex cross-functional business optimization and transformation initiatives across the Area. The role applies advanced Operational Excellence expertise to diagnose business challenges, shape practical improvement approaches, and deliver high-value outcomes in line with direction set by Area OpEx leadership.
Acts as a senior partner to business leaders and a lead practitioner within Operational Excellence, taking on more complex, higher-impact initiatives than the specialist role while ensuring solutions are scalable, standardized, sustainable, and aligned to enterprise expectations. The role combines hands-on improvement leadership with strong facilitation, coaching, and cross-functional coordination to move initiatives from problem definition through implementation and value realization.
- Leads complex Operational Excellence and business optimization initiatives aligned to Area priorities and improvement opportunities.
- Provides senior expertise on TMW deployment, process transformation, operating model redesign, and cross-functional problem solving.
- Acts as an escalation point and lead practitioner for higher-complexity initiatives beyond the typical scope of the specialist role.
- Builds alignment across stakeholders to support effective diagnosis, solution design, adoption, and delivery of sustainable outcomes.
- Guides Operational Excellence resources and supports delivery of digital-enabled and cross-functional transformation priorities.
- Support Area-wide deployment and maturity of TMW, ensuring alignment to standards, methodologies, and behaviours.
- Provide senior guidance on structured problem solving, diagnostics, and process improvement approaches including Lean, Kaizen, the TMW A3 problem-solving approach, and root cause analysis.
- Act as a train-the-trainer resource for TMW tools and methodologies, building practitioner capability and consistency of application across the Area.
- Apply these methods on more complex or ambiguous issues that require deeper analysis, facilitation, and stakeholder alignment.
- Act as a trusted advisor on complex operational and transformation issues while supporting sustainment of Operational Excellence practices.
- Lead complex business optimization initiatives aligned to Area priorities and measurable improvement opportunities.
- Take ownership for business framing, design guidance, implementation leadership, and value realization on higher-complexity cross-functional transformation efforts.
- Drive end-to-end process and operating model optimization, including simplification, role clarity, control effectiveness, and scalability.
- Provide senior problem-solving support, challenge, and direction on initiatives requiring deeper expertise, judgement, and stakeholder management.
- Work closely with initiative owners and business stakeholders to translate problems into practical solutions and implementation actions.
- Partner with project and program management support to enable effective implementation, governance, and benefit realization.
- Build Operational Excellence capability across the Area by setting expectations for methods, quality, and practical application.
- Coach practitioners, initiative leads, and business partners in problem solving, facilitation, initiative design, and change execution.
- Serve as a train-the-trainer for TMW tools and methodologies, including the TMW A3 problem-solving approach, to strengthen capability and consistency across teams.
- Facilitate senior workshops and alignment forums to strengthen sponsorship, ownership, and adoption of major transformation efforts.
- Define and prioritize digitalization, automation, and analytics opportunities linked to business problems and transformation goals.
- Translate business needs into clear requirements and partner with Digitalization, Automation, and Data teams on roadmap and implementation decisions.
- Ensure digital-enabled improvements are scalable, standardized, and embedded into day-to-day operations.
- Area leadership and senior stakeholders across Operations, CX, SCM, Finance, Product, and Technology.
- Operational Excellence specialists, project and program management support, and business initiative owners involved in transformation delivery.
- Digitalization, Automation, and Data teams responsible for solution realization and capability support.
- Cross-functional governance bodies, transformation forums, and decision-making groups used to align direction and implementation choices.
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, Logistics, or related discipline; advanced qualifications are advantageous.
- Significant experience in operational excellence, continuous improvement, business transformation, or related operational environments.
- Strong track record in leading complex cross-functional initiatives, building capability, and delivering measurable business impact.
- Deep practical knowledge of Lean, Six Sigma, the TMW A3 problem-solving approach, Kaizen, DMAIC, root cause analysis, and value stream mapping, with experience influencing senior stakeholders in matrix environments.
- Advanced expertise in TMW, Operational Excellence methods, end-to-end process optimization, and delivery of complex transformation initiatives.
- Strong stakeholder influencing, facilitation, coaching, and train-the-trainer capability in complex cross-functional environments.
- Ability to translate direction into practical execution and sustainable business outcomes.
- Strong coaching capability with focus on standardization, consistency, and uplift of Operational Excellence practice.
- Maturity and consistency of TMW deployment across the Area.
- Delivery of business optimization and transformation outcomes with measurable impact on efficiency, quality, and customer results.
- Scalability and sustainability of solutions delivered across teams and functions.
- Effectiveness of stakeholder alignment, initiative execution, and capability uplift across the Area.
Maersk is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we embrace different styles of thinking. Maersk is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants without regard to race, colour, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy or parental leave, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with all legal requirements.
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