Sr Manager, Continuous Improvement

Sr Manager, Continuous Improvement

Chicago, IL

Founded in 2013, Home Chef is the leading meal solutions company with both a retail and online presence. Available online at  and in retail at more than 2,100 Kroger grocery stores, Home Chef is committed to inspiring and enabling more people to cook simple, delicious meals, no matter how busy they are.

In 2023, Home Chef introduced a new brand, Tempo! Tempo features a rotating selection of ready-to-heat meals delivered directly to your door. These meals are better-for-you versions of familiar favorites, designed to save you time and reduce stress while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Our Tempo menu includes options that are protein-packed, fiber-rich, calorie and carb conscious, keto-friendly, and dietitian-approved.

Similar to our recipes, we recognize that variety is the spice of life, and therefore, our employees also bring their uniqueness and color to our fantastic team. We're eager to work with humble team players and pragmatic next-level thinkers to innovate on Home Chef's offerings.

The Senior CI Manager will serve as a strategic leader in Home Chef's National CI team designing and implementing process improvement strategy, managing multi-site project portfolios, and collaborating with cross functional teams to deliver high-level business goals. As a leading strategist on the National CI team, this role is a plant facing, change driver that is constantly assessing plant performance and distance from target, assessing best practices, and leveraging the necessary plant process expertise to deliver continuous improvement to the plant fulfillment network.

This role will support the CI Project Management team and process standardization and optimization initiatives across the program. This role will require strong leadership and analytics skills to create and deliver on the vision of enhanced operational efficiency, establishing priorities for CI Project Managers and Site CI teams to deliver lasting business impacting results. This hands-on leader will own Home Chef's Plant Impact processes, delivering clear communication, transparency, and smooth implementation of changes across the network.

Detailed Responsibilities

Setting Strategic Priorities

• Leverage outputs from CI analytics, fulfillment scorecards, and on site KPI reviews to identify opportunities for improvement at site and network levels.
• Develop and lead a structured approach to CI Project Management delivering clear goals, data driven recommendations, and project implementations.
• Balance business priorities and to deliver critical projects on time and within budget. Support establishing project charters, baseline metrics for project success, and reporting tools.

Process Ownership and Optimization

• Design and drive process improvement in Central Portioning, Drop Zone Management, Meal Bagging, Boxing Line, and general production processes.
• Identify opportunities for standardization and centralization through the lens of the Home Chef Operating System with a focus on scaling best practices.
• Identify opportunities to facilitate rapid improvement events and then standardize successful processes and workflows.
• Ensure process, product, and new technology trials are supported by the CI Project Management team members. Build mechanisms to regularly report on project status and address barriers in project timelines.

Collaboration with Cross Functional Stakeholders

• Serve as the primary bridge between corporate CI, plant operations, and cross-functional corporate stakeholders.
• Own critical Plant Impacting communications processes coordinating between corporate stakeholders and plants to ensure smooth implementation of projects and routine change management.
• Drive resolution of conflicts between stakeholder groups while managing project portfolio timelines.
• Coach and mentor corporate and site CI team members enhancing the overall capabilities of the Home Chef CI organization.

This position requires at least 50% travel.

Qualifications

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability needed for this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities.

• Completion of a four-year degree program in a related field
• 5+ years of experience in supply chain, operations, or engineering
• Background in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math preferred
• Excellent analytical skills; strong capabilities in Excel, Google Sheets.
• Continuous improvement mindset, experience identifying and driving process improvement
• Strong prioritization and project management skills
• Excellent communication skills, with experience creating buy in with a range of stakeholders such as hourly employees, customers, suppliers, and executives
• Proactive in identifying problems and finding innovative solutions
• Ability to understand the big picture as well as exceptional attention to detail
• Skilled at dealing with ambiguity and working in a fast-paced environment
• Experience spearheading execution on large-scale,…