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Director, Continuous Improvement

Hopkins, Minnesota
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Job ID 25-5266 Date posted Nov. 11, 2025 Category Engineering

Schwan’s Company, a U.S. affiliate of the global lifestyle brand CJ CheilJedang Corporation, is a leader in manufacturing and marketing quality foods enjoyed nationwide. We have beloved brands like Red Baron®, Tony’s®, Big Daddy’s®, Villa Prima™ and Freschetta® pizzas; bibigo®, Pagoda® Asian-style snacks and we can’t forget Mrs. Smith’s® and Edwards® pies! We bring families and communities together through great food. Join our team and see the opportunities are real, and the sky is the limit; this isn’t just a job, it’s a seat at the table!

The Director, Continuous Improvement will drive improvements in manufacturing performance through the development and deployment of standard methodologies to identify and eliminate loss. The leader will advance a culture of zero-loss thinking, team engagement and continuous learning, delivering predictable and sustainable performance.  *Role can be based in Hopkins, MN or be fully remote

Responsibilities

  • Develop strategy and deployment plans for Continuous Improvement and Reliability initiatives
  • Drives increased equipment availability and optimized life cycle costing through the application of standard maintenance/reliability tools and processes.
  • Partner across supply chain senior leadership to influence and drive zero loss
  • Oversee loss elimination and development/deployment of operating system standards
  • Drives improvements in management processes across manufacturing delivering stable and predictable performance.
  • Lead team of engineers acting as business interface and technical subject matter experts in CI and Reliability
  • Owner of manufacturing daily operations pillar and metrics

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s Degree required, preferably in Engineering, Supply Chain or related field. Advanced Degree (MS/ME or MBA) preferred. Certified Black Belt or Master Black Belt highly desired
  • 12+ years of related experience
  • In depth expertise in TPM implementation including development, deployment, and assessment of autonomous maintenance (AM), preventative maintenance (PM), and focused improvement (FI) pillars, lean 6 Sigma experience and understanding.
  • Understanding of general industrial process and control systems. Strong ability to lead and drive cultural change across an organization.
  • Ability to deliver results through influence and relationship management and interact at all levels of the organization.
  • Comfortable influencing without authority.
  • Strong strategic agility, business acumen, process management experience
  • Hands on production and maintenance experience highly desired
  • Exceptional coaching, communication, interpersonal and leadership skills.

Compensation and Benefits:

The base salary range for this position is $132,750 - $221,250 annually with eligibility for a 25% annual incentive bonus, which is based on organizational performance. The salary range represents numerous factors considered in the hiring decisions including, but not limited to education, skills, work experience, certifications, geography etc. As such, starting pay for the successful candidate(s) could fall anywhere within the stated range.

Beyond base salary, we offer a competitive Total Rewards package focusing on your overall well-being. We are proud to offer a strong foundation of health benefits, retirement and financial wellbeing, time off programs, wellbeing support programs.

The employing subsidiaries of Schwan's Company are Equal Employment Opportunity Employers. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, age, race, color, religion, gender, vet status, national origin, or other protected class.


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