Operational Excellence Manager

Operational Excellence Manager

Trident Seafoods is North America's largest vertically integrated seafood harvesting and processing company. Trident is a privately held, 100 percent USA-owned company with global operations in 6 countries and serves customers in almost 60 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington (USA), Trident employs approximately 7,700 people worldwide each year and partners with over 2,700 independent fishermen and crew members in Alaska. Trident catches and processes virtually every commercial species of salmon, whitefish, and crab harvested in the North Pacific and Alaska.

The global supply chain also encompasses cultured and wild species sourced from an international network of trusted suppliers.

The Operational Excellence Manager is responsible for deploying the Trident Performance System (TPS) strategy and leveraging Lean Six Sigma manufacturing methodologies to drive process improvements supporting the SCUBA Program (Supply Chain Unlimited Business Acceleration). This role leads continuous improvement initiatives across multiple U.S. Value-Added locations, with a focus on safety, quality, cost, productivity, service, and employee engagement.

This position is based at the Trident Support Center in Ballard, WA and collaborates closely with plant and enterprise teams to lead transformation efforts and build sustainable operational capabilities.

Essential Functions:

(Responsibilities, Tasks, Supervisory Needs)

• Leads Zero Loss Analysis, Lean Six Sigma projects, and Kaizen events across U.S. Value-Added plant locations
• Plans, facilitates, and ensures sustainment of Kaizen events, including pre-work, execution, and follow-through
• Identifies and prioritizes improvement projects in alignment with enterprise and plant-level business objectives
• Acts as a change agent to drive adoption of TPS and continuous improvement methodologies across operations
• Develops and maintains true-north performance metrics and reporting to track progress and impact
• Ensures delivery of SCUBA savings targets and other key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Provides coaching, mentoring, and training on Lean, Six Sigma, and TPM principles and tools
• Shares best practices across plants to promote standardization and operational excellence
• Partners with cross-functional teams (operations, supply chain, finance, HR, etc.) to drive enterprise-wide improvements
• Builds strong relationships and influences local teams to adopt and sustain continuous improvement practices
• Regularly works onsite to build strong team connections, collaborate across functions, and solve problems in real time.

The essential functions listed above are not exhaustive. The organization may assign other duties as needed to meet business requirements. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

This is a salaried exempt position with an annualized salary range of $132,000 to $176,000.

Trident Seafoods offers a comprehensive and quality benefits package. Full time employees may be eligible for discretionary/performance-based incentives, medical, dental and vision insurance plans, optional HRA/HSA, telemedicine, employee assistance and wellness programs, disability programs, basic life and AD&D, and a 401(k) plan with a company match, paid time off (PTO), 10 paid holidays each year, and paid parental leave. For full-time employees, the initial PTO benefit starts at 20 days per year, adjusted commensurate with relevant experience, front loaded on the first of the year, initially prorated quarterly based on hire date.

Commuter programs are also available.

Minimum Requirements

Travel/On-Call Requirements:
Frequent domestic travel, up to 50%.

Required Qualifications:

(Education, Years of Experience, Certifications)

• A minimum of 8 years of cross-functional operations and/or operational excellence (continuous improvement) experience
• A bachelor's degree in engineering, supply chain management, business, or related field, or the equivalent combination of education and years of experience.

Preferred Education & Experiences:

• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification (Black Belt preferred)
• Experience with SAP and Minitab
• Experience in food manufacturing or similar production environments
• Exposure to automation, machine learning, or AI applications in operations
• Experience improving or automating manual processes

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs):

• Demonstrated experience planning, facilitating, and delivering Kaizen events and Lean Six Sigma projects
• Strong data analysis and problem-solving skills with a structured, analytical mindset
• Excellent project management, facilitation, and organizational skills
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with ability to influence at all levels
• Ability to lead change and drive adoption of new processes and systems
• Strong business acumen with understanding of operational and financial impact
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook)
• Ability to collaborate across…