Foods you love. Brands you trust. And a career that empowers you to grow. 
 
At Nestlé USA, we’re all working towards the same goal – to delight and deliver for our consumers. With a rich portfolio of beloved brands, including DiGiorno, Toll House, and Coffee mate, in 97% of U.S. households, we have a unique opportunity – and responsibility – to be there for every moment in our consumers’ lives.

Joining Nestlé means becoming part of an inclusive workplace that inspires innovation, encourages strategic thinking and creativity, and celebrates your achievements. No matter where you work within the organization, you are empowered to challenge the status quo, embrace risk-taking, and pioneer new ideas. Our supportive and collaborative environment encourages bold ambitions and continuous learning so that everyone can grow and thrive.

Senior Director of Digital Manufacturing

Nestlé USA’s Technical and Production organization is going through a transformational journey by leveraging leading automation and digital technologies coupled with manufacturing and operational excellence practices to deliver best-in-class products and results.

This transformation is aimed at productivity and enhancing the overall performance of our manufacturing network. We are also driving manufacturing and operational excellence practices to ensure that our production facilities are operating at their highest potential to create the best-tasting, high-quality, consumer-preferred products. This includes optimizing production lines, implementing lean manufacturing principles, and continuously improving operational processes with no compromise to food safety or quality. By embracing automation and digital technologies, our technical organization is staying ahead of the competition and adapting to the rapidly changing business landscape. In addition to adopting new technologies, this transformation is also about fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within our organization.

Overall, we are committed to leveraging automation, digital technologies, and manufacturing and operational excellence practices to create the best possible manufacturing environment to produce great food and beverages for our consumers. 

Job Summary:
The Senior Director of Digital Manufacturing leads digital manufacturing and transformation capabilities across multiple business segments within Nestlé USA (including our Coffee & Beverage, Pizza & Snacking, Meals, Global Culinary Kitchen, Nestlé Professional Solutions, Nestlé Waters & Premium Beverages, and Nutrition), encompassing ~20 union and nonunion food and beverage manufacturing locations, including those that are ISO certified, have aseptic processing capabilities, and operate primarily off an SAP ERP system. 

In partnership with the VP of Engineering, this person will design and execute a transformational Digital Manufacturing strategy that aligns to the organizations business strategy. This executive will inspire, lead, and develop a strong bench using Nestlé Leadership principles, creating multiple succession candidates in the next 3-5 years. This leader will also develop and foster meaningful business partnerships that create sustainable value for customers, suppliers, and Nestlé by instilling a mindset of digital excellence and service orientation. Ensure the strategy, preparation, and smooth execution of CAPEX aligned to strategic imperatives and goals.

This role plays a crucial part in ensuring the well-being of our people, the safety of our products, and the protection of the environment. By providing strong leadership, this position ensures that the technology deployed is in compliance with health and safety regulations, product safety standards, and environmental guidelines. Through these efforts, this role enhances our business objectives, improves product quality, and optimizes the performance of our operations and plants. 

This is a hybrid role based in our office in Solon, Ohio (suburb of Cleveland). The candidate will be required to reside in or relocate to the Greater Cleveland area.

Job Responsibilities:

• Design and Execute a Transformational Digital Manufacturing Strategy to create value.
  • Ensure that Nestlé’s Digital Manufacturing organization enables and delivers a clear differentiated competitive advantage for the business.
  • Create a digital roadmap that includes a comprehensive analysis and prioritization of key opportunities for the Technical and Production organization.
  • Partner in the development of the Market Business Strategy (MBS).
• Lead and Inspire the Organization to Deliver on Key Initiatives
  • Bring an outside-in view to lead the identification, development, and application of technology solutions. 
  • Provide objective and efficient investment governance (allocation, project management, delivery and escalation support)
  • Leverage Digital capabilities to transform Nestlé’s industrial footprint into an agile and cost competitive network that can support short and long-term growth needs for Nestlé USA.
  • Ensures Digital Manufacturing support for the preparation of Market’s plans, procedures, and policies (participating in the steering and governance of the Businesses in the Market). 
  • Enable end-to-end digitization of the Technical and Production organization including the automation of business processes and their workflows. 
  • Bring thought leadership and drive continuous improvement across the Technical and Production organization, including the development, planning, and execution of a digital strategy, cost saving initiatives and metrics. 
  • Develop a center of excellence for Technical and Production processes and solutions enablement that brings passion and excellence to Nestlé USA.
  • Ensure that all relevant standards and guidelines are implemented (including training) at the site level. 
  • Ensures a change management process is in place and that processes and equipment are safe for people, products and environment.
• People and Capability Development
  • Ensure alignment of the Digital Manufacturing resources with the market and business strategy and objectives. 
  • Ensures the Digital Manufacturing organization operates as part of a cross functional team with clear and open communication. 
  • Develop and coach 6 direct reports and approximately 25 indirect reports, for personal and professional growth and empowered leadership.   
  • Identify the functional competencies for the Digital Manufacturing organization and ensure that training plans are in place to meet these needs and cover any competency gaps. 
  • Ensures that succession planning is developed and personally manage the succession plans for the key Digital Manufacturing positions. 
  • Create a high-performing culture across the broad network by cascading Nestlé’s corporate culture, leadership, and management principles at all levels.     
  • Be the lead ambassador for diversity, equity, and inclusion by creating a culture of leveraging employees’ individual differences, providing equal opportunities for growth and development, and treating each other with dignity and respect.

Required Qualifications, Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering or Supply Chain required.  A Master’s degree in Business, Engineering or Supply Chain preferred. 
• A minimum of 15 years of relevant professional experience, ideally in regulated industry with exposure to key Technical and Production functions (Production, Engineering, Quality, Safety, Health & Environmental, Procurement). 
• Experience in leading and delivering end to end technical and production continuous improvement projects including measure, monitor, and improve performance related to cost reduction, labor and materials savings, and inventory optimization. 
• Experience in leading team members on activities such as as-is process and maturity assessment technology evaluation, opportunity identification, business case and digital roadmap creation and implementation of recommendations. 
• Experience with preparation of short- and long-term planning processes and CAPEX budgets
• Experience managing and building empowered high-functioning teams. 
• Demonstrated success leading an industrial digital journey in similarly complex business environment

Skills & Knowledge 

• Knowledge and experience in implementation of production or supply chain digital solutions like OMP, SAP, S/4 HANA, Celonis, APS systems, AI and ML etc. 
• Experience working with Lean, Six Sigma, TPM is a plus. 
• Strong team leader who is comfortable working with executives and stakeholders of all levels. 
• Business-minded, keeping a “business first” approach to everything we do. 
• Tactical and process-oriented problem solving 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly break down and translate technical jargon into executive-worthy communication. 
• Ability to create a culture of innovation, speed, and agility and bring breakthrough ideas to our business partners. 
• Excellent interpersonal relations and demonstrated ability to work with others effectively in teams. 
• Superior verbal and written communication skills. 

Job Req ID: 342005 

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