BRIEF POSTING DESCRIPTION:The P ID TRAINING Department of the P GENERATION Division at Hawaiian Electric Company has 1 Management vacancy available. (Role: Professional)
JOB FUNCTION:Leads and oversees the Continuous Improvement (CI) and operational excellence strategy for Generation Division, driving sustainable performance improvement, operational efficiency, and cultural transformation through Lean, advanced problem-solving methodologies, and change management. Partners with senior leadership to prioritize and deliver high-impact improvement initiatives and business solutions that achieve measurable results while overseeing CI projects. Acts as a principal change leader and subject matter expert by embedding continuous improvement practices into daily operations and leading complex initiatives aimed at improved business practices that meet regulatory and industry standards.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:- Owns and maintains the continuous improvement and operational excellence roadmap for the Power Supply Process Area, ensuring alignment with Generation and Company strategic objectives. Identifies and prioritizes improvement opportunities based on value, risk, performance gaps, and strategic impact. Establishes governance for continuous improvement initiatives, including performance metrics, benefit realization, and sustainability plans.
- Leads Continuous Improvement (CI) projects supporting Generation operations, including outage performance, asset reliability, safety, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency. Oversees projects from initiation through sustainment by defining objectives and success metrics, leading cross functional teams, applying Lean and structured problem solving methodologies, and ensuring solutions are implemented, standardized, and sustained. Provides regular performance and results reporting to leadership to ensure measurable and lasting business outcomes.
- Drives organizational culture change to embed Lean thinking, disciplined problem solving, and continuous improvement behaviors at all levels of the organization. Serves as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on operational excellence strategy, organizational readiness, and transformation risks. Coaches and mentors leaders, managers, and improvement practitioners in Lean principles, change leadership, and leader standard work. Trains employees to become change leaders / improvement practitioners. Acts as the internal Lean Sensei / Black Belt authority, setting standards for improvement methodology, rigor, and execution quality. Builds continuous improvement capability by developing tools, training approaches, and best practice.
- Establishes and maintains performance dashboards, and KPI frameworks to track improvement progress and results. Prepares and delivers high level briefings and presentations related to improvement initiatives communicating progress, risks, and outcomes to leadership and external stakeholders. Ensures improvements are standardized, documented, and integrated into ongoing operations to prevent regression.
- Participates in Company emergency response activities as assigned, including any activities required to prepare for such emergency response.
- Performs other job-related duties as assigned.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:Knowledge Requirements- Extensive knowledge in Lean and/or Lean Six Sigma.
- Extensive knowledge of project management principles, generation operations and maintenance procedures and practices, cost systems, quality control, management principals, scheduling, and work flow management expertise normally acquired through college-level training and/or equivalent experience.
And/Or
- Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification from a nationally recognized organization such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) is required. Or, certified as a Planner by a nationally recognized professional society such as the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is preferred.
- Thorough knowledge of operations, preferably in electric utility environment, with emphasis in power generation.
- Working knowledge of personal computers and related software applications such as MS Project, UIPlanner, Ellipse, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.
- Thorough knowledge of the principles of change management, normally acquired through related training, and/or several years experience in in a cross-matrixed organization.
- Thorough knowledge of project management standards and methodologies, including initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing projects, developing work breakdown structures, tracking progress and status, managing scope, mitigating risk, etc.
- Knowledge of applicable policies that govern employee responsibilities and conduct.
- Working knowledge of regulatory requirements (i.e. SOX, PUC, etc) highly desired.
Skills Requirements- Excellent written, oral and presentation skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills to direct, influence, motivate and persuade various groups or individuals.
- Ability to handle difficult and/or sensitive issues while using tact, courtesy, and discretion.
- Supervisory/leadership skills and abilities to work with a variety of individuals occasionally dealing with sensitive, difficult or confrontational issues and the ability to handle such issues with professionalism by using tact, courtesy, respect and discretion.
- In-depth analytical, computational, organizational and time-management skills to handle various projects.
- Ability to work collaboratively as a member of a team.
- Ability to manage people at all levels within the company.
- Ability to develop/maintain strong positive relationships with leaders and members of the community and government.
- Ability to remain flexible in a demanding work environment and adapt to rapidly changing priorities and strategic direction. Ability to conceptualize new ideas quickly.
Experience Requirements- Several (4 or more years) experience in the implementation of Lean or Lean Six Sigma business process improvement.
- Extensive (8+ years) experience as a project manager, implementation manager, designer, or engineer, with large complex projects, preferably within the electric utility industry.
- Extensive (8 + years) experience in root cause analysis.
- Several (3-5) years of project management experience for small to large software/engineering/implementation projects. Certified Lean Sensei, Lean Black Belt or Lean Six Sigma Black belt desirable.
- Several (3-5) years of supervisory experience are desirable.
Role: Professional
Number of Vacancies: 1
Location: Pearl City - Oahu
Hiring Range: The hiring range for the Sr Continuous Improvement Program Manager [Req ID 10812] position is $109,900.00 to $142,600.00. The person selected will be placed according to his/her skills and qualifications.
