Head of Operational Excellence

Company:

Finning Canada

Number of Openings:

1

Worker Type:

Permanent

Position Overview:

This is a unique opportunity to step into a high impact enterprise transformation role that goes far beyond traditional operations leadership. As the Head of Operational Excellence you will architect and embed a best in class Operational Excellence (OE) operating system that reshapes how the organization performs while leading a team accountable for transforming Finnings performance across dealer differentiated capabilities through the Caterpillar program and driving Operational Excellence in both the rebuild repair and response environment and administrative job management.

This is about building something enduring designing the frameworks disciplines and culture that unlock breakthrough improvements in people quality velocity and cost while elevating performance across every function and level of the business.

Success in this role requires more than expertise it demands a true Operational Excellence practitioner with the vision and credibility to lead a multi year transformation in a complex rebuild repair and response environment. You will influence without authority aligning senior leaders and frontline teams around a shared way of working while embedding the tools mindset and capabilities that sustain long term results. This is a rare chance to drive meaningful enterprise-wide change and leave a lasting impact on how the organization operates and competes.

Job Description:

Key Leadership Capabilities:

Operational Excellence Expertise

• Primary career focus in handson OE leadership.
• Backgrounds from manufacturing/remanufacturing or OEM/dealer environments with established OE systems.
• Proven track record of personally leading largescale OE initiatives.
• Strong technical foundation in lean waste elimination process design value stream optimization and modern OE tools.

Enterprise Transformation Experience

• Endtoend ownership of OE transformationsfrom system design to full deployment.
• Demonstrated success shifting organizations from isolated improvements to sustained OE operating models.
• Experience building OE architecture (standards systems routines governance).
• Ability to move seamlessly between strategic design and tactical execution.

Thought Leadership & Strategic Ownership

• Develops and owns the OE strategy.
• Builds coaches and scales a highperforming OE team.
• Drives change through influence partnering with senior service and operations leaders.

Role Expectations:

OE System & Process Architecture

• Designs the core service operating model across administration job planning job management scheduling and execution.
• Applies advanced OE methods (lean value stream design takt planning flow optimization).
• Integrates emerging capabilities including agentic AI predictive analytics automation and digital workflow tools.

Performance Management & Operating Discipline

• Leads the development and performance of a balanced standardized operating scorecard and KPIs.
• Establishes strong benchmarking discipline and performance routines (daily/weekly/monthly) across service leadership.
• Drives adoption through capability-building versus topdown direction.

Rapid Improvement & Problem-Solving Discipline

• Leads rapid improvement workshops and transformation events.
• Deploys small expert crossfunctional OE SWAT teams for targeted 12 week cycles.
• Rotates improvement teams to eliminate constraints and uplift performance with sustained results.

Caterpillar Relationship Management

• Leads OE alignment within the Caterpillar partnership.
• Represents the organization in capability benchmarking and dealer maturity programs.
• Leverages Caterpillar insights to accelerate internal OE maturity.

Continuous Improvement Culture Enablement

• Builds systems where frontline employees surface prioritize and execute improvements.
• Embeds simple effective CI mechanisms linked to enterprise objectives.
• Develops leaders who coach and model OE behaviors shifting culture from firefighting to continuous improvement.

Dealer Capability Accountabilities:

Quality Improvement

KPIs:

• Reduced service rework & warranty rates.
• Improved First Time Fix Rate across all environments.
• Higher timeliness and compliance on Service Letters.

Velocity & Flow

KPIs:

• Reduced Last Labour to Invoice days.
• Decreased aged SWIP and total WIP days.
• Improved performance against 2day service response/completion commitments.

Cost & Productivity

KPIs:

• Reduced Cost per Recoverable Hour.
• Improved technician productivity and attended hour recovery.
• Reduced bid variance through standard job plans and accurate estimating.

Education & Experience

• Bachelors (required) and MBA or masters (preferred) in engineering operations or business.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt with deep OE technical expertise.
• 1015 years in hands-on Operational Excellence leadership not general operations.
• 710 years leading enterprise-wide transformations from design to full deployment.
• Proven ability to build and scale OE operating systems (standards governance routines KPIs).
• Strong background in manufacturing heavy equipment or OEM/dealer environments.
• Demonstrated success shifting culture from projects to sustained continuous improvement.
• Experience leading through influence across complex matrixed organizations without direct authority.
• Track record of building coaching and scaling high-performing OE teams and senior leaders.
• Ability to blend strategy and execution including modern OE integration with digital tools analytics and automation.

At Finning we prioritize creating a diverse and inclusive environment. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we actively encourage all individuals to express themselves and achieve their full potential. As a company we continuously strive to enhance our outreach to individuals of all backgrounds and identities. We do notdiscriminate against applicants based on gender identity race national and ethnic origin religion age sexual orientation marital and family status and/or mental or physical Finning is committed to collaborating with and providing reasonable accommodations /adjustments to individuals with disabilities. If you require an adjustment/accommodation at any point during the recruitment process please inform your recruiter.

Required Experience:

Director

Employment Type : Full-Time
Experience: years
Vacancy: 1