Director of Continuous Improvement

Jostens

$90K — $120K *
Manufacturing & Automotive
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, or related field.
  • 7+ years leading manufacturing or operational improvement initiatives.
  • Proven experience deploying Continuous Improvement initiatives across multiple plants or divisions.
  • Strong interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills with good influencing and negotiating ability.
  • Excellent analytical, detail-oriented, and time management skills for handling multiple priorities.
  • Experience with methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, or Lean Manufacturing.
  • Preference given to those with experience in supporting automation or technology-enabled process improvements.

Responsibilities

  • Define and lead a multi-plant Continuous Improvement strategy aligned with company goals.
  • Partner with Plant Managers to scope and execute improvement opportunities in various operational domains.
  • Lead deployment of Lean, Six Sigma, and operational excellence tools across plants.
  • Establish and maintain KPIs to track CI benefits such as cost savings and quality improvements.
  • Develop Continuous Improvement capability at all organizational levels through training and coaching.
  • Collaborate with Engineering, Maintenance, IT, Supply Chain, and HR to eliminate performance barriers.

Benefits

  • Competitive healthcare coverage including health, dental, and vision insurance.
  • Immediate vesting in the 401K plan for retirement savings.
  • Accrued paid time off and company paid holidays to promote work-life balance.
  • Tuition reimbursement support after 6 months of service.
Full Job Description
Remote Status: On-Site

Job Title: Director of Continuous Improvement

Location: Clarksville, TN

Shift: 1st Shift

ABOUT YOU:

Are you an experienced Director of Continuous Improvement looking for a challenging and rewarding role in Manufacturing?

Our Director of Continuous Improvement is responsible for defining and governing Continuous Improvement strategy, performance standards, and capability development to drive measurable operational results across seasonal manufacturing environments.

They establish direction and performance expectations for Continuous Improvement initiatives and operational excellence, ensuring alignment with business priorities, disciplined execution, and sustained outcomes through standardized governance, metrics, and reporting mechanisms.

This role supports our Print Division, ensuring seasonal readiness, post-season performance evaluation, and continuous improvement of operational execution from one season to the next.

YOU HAVE:

  • Education: Bachelor's degree Engineer, Operations, Business, or related field.
  • Experience: 7+ years of experience leading manufacturing or operations improvement initiatives in a manufacturing, supply chain, E-comm or distribution environment.
  • Leadership & Innovation: Proven Experience deploying Continuous Improvement initiatives across one or more plants or divisions.
  • Communication & Collaboration: Great interpersonal skills, strong communication and problem-solving skills. Well developed influencing, presentation and negotiating skills.
  • Analytical & Organizational Strength: Excellent analytical thinking, detail-oriented, and time management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
  • Methodologies or Lean Principles: Lean Six-Sigma, Kaizen, and/or Lean Manufacturing, Continuous Improvement training or experience.
  • Preferred skills: Experience supporting automation or technology-enabled process improvements.


YOU WILL:
  • Enterprise Continuous Improvement Strategy: Define and lead a multi-plant Continuous Improvement strategy aligned with company operational and financial goals, establishing standard CI frameworks, tools, and metrics across all print facilities, prioritizing initiatives based on business impact and plant readiness, and translating strategic objectives into annual CI roadmaps for each site.
  • Plant-Level Execution & Support: Partner with Plant Managers to identify, scope, and execute improvement opportunities across changeover times, quality, waste, spoilage and rework reduction, labor efficiency, and on-time delivery, while ensuring all improvement efforts are embedded into daily management systems with sound control mechanisms.
  • Lean & CI Methodologies: You will lead the deployment of Lean, Six Sigma, and operational excellence tools across facilities, including Value Stream Mapping, Standard Work, Visual Management, structured problem-solving methods such as A3 and Root Cause Analysis, and Kaizen events and Rapid Improvement Workshops.
  • Performance Measurement & Governance: You will establish and maintain KPIs across plants; including OEE, waste percentage, labor variance, and throughput. Track and report CI benefits such as cost savings, capacity gains, and quality improvements, and lead regular CI governance reviews with operations leadership to ensure sustained performance improvements.
  • Capability Building & Culture: You will develop CI capability and ownership at all levels of the organization by delivering training for supervisors and frontline employees, coaching plant CI leads and facilitators, building problem-solving skills into daily operations, and driving employee engagement, accountability, and continuous improvement as enduring cultural norms.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: You will partner with Engineering, Maintenance, IT, Supply Chain, and HR to remove systemic barriers to performance, support the integration of new equipment, processes, and acquisitions into standard CI practices, and collaborate with Transformation and Digital teams as needed while maintaining a sharp focus on operational improvement.


LOVE WHERE YOU WORK:

  • We care about your health. We offer competitive healthcare (health, dental, vision, coverage) in addition to voluntary benefits including home and car insurance, pet insurance, flexible spending account, amongst many more.
  • We invest in your future. Our 401K plan has immediate vesting, so you can start saving for retirement right away.
  • We want you to unplug when needed. We believe in taking your time off without guilt and offer accrued paid time off and company paid holidays.
  • We care about your development. We support tuition reimbursement after 6 months of service.


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