Site Initiative Execution Leader

At Danone, Manufacturing the best products and supplying them to meet demand is a key driver for our plant teams. We are currently looking to hire a Site Initiative Execution Leader based in Mt. Crawford, Virginia
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The Site Initiative Execution Leader acts as the factory’s single point of contact for all innovation, renovation, productivity, and sourcing projects, providing technical and industrial leadership from early feasibility through execution and post launch review. The role bridges Operations, R&I/R&d, C&P, Finance, and Engineering to ensure projects are feasible, resourced, homologated, and executed in line with factory capabilities, while driving continuous improvement, standardization, and performance optimization.

As a key member of our team, you will play an important role in driving our mission forward. The following responsibilities outline the core expectations and contributions for this position.

• Serve as the site Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for all project stakeholders (Innovation, Renovation, Productivity, Sourcing), including iPRO, R&I/R&d, C&P, Operations, Quality, and Finance.
• Provide technical and technological expertise to assess industrial pre feasibility during the define phase for all projects.
• Assess and plan factory resources (CAPEX, OPEX), ensuring alignment with factory capabilities and homologation requirements.
• Act as factory project leader, integrating engineering and operations resources through trials, start ups, and execution phases.
• Lead and execute industrial trials for innovation, productivity, and quality projects, including industrial tests, new product start‑ups, artwork, and specification validations.
• Build and deliver feasibility assessments for project briefs, industrial test requests, and R&P specification changes, ensuring optimal fit with industrial capabilities.
• Propose and support best technical and industrial recommendations to align R&P specifications with factory constraints and opportunities.
• Own and lead the factory homologation process, including local stage gate governance and compliance with homologation standards.
• Lead local duplication and simple productivity projects per RACI, ensuring learnings are captured and shared through the regional network.
• Schedule, organize, and optimize industrial testing and start up activities to minimize disruption and maximize efficiency.
• Generate and communicate project trial reports, outcomes, and key learnings to project teams and stakeholders.
• Support post launch project reviews and contribute to defining and improving execution standards.
• Identify and promote new innovation and productivity opportunities at site level.
• Conduct performance monitoring and postmortem analyses, comparing estimates versus actuals (performance, losses, manufacturing costs).
• Maintain strong understanding of the end‑to‑end factory value chain, particularly for materials and industrial processes.
• Other duties as assigned.

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential function of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to handle or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs and ladders, balance; stoop, kneel or crouch; talk and hear. Occasionally required to lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Work is performed in a manufacturing environment with exposure to moderate noise and temperature variations.
• Work schedules could include nights, weekends and/or holidays to provide the ability to support a 24/7 manufacturing environment as business needs dictate.

Ensure adherence to plant standards and procedures (including but not limited to GMP, AIB, FDA, IWS, Quality, Safety, Finance, ISO, HOPE,…