Operational Excellence Manager - Pronsfeld

We, as Arla - a European dairy cooperative with over 21,000 employees and almost 8,000 farmers - stand for a strong community with strong Scandinavian values and strong roots in our local markets. Our cooperative principle enables us to be particularly close to our farmers - the owners of Arla - and motivates us every day to do only the best for our farmers, colleagues, our milk, our consumers and our environment! We are convinced together we achieve the best results!

How You Will Make An Impact

As an Operational Excellence Manager at (Pronsfeld), you will take an active ownership of our operational excellence journey and be in a leading role to develop, anchor and role-model a world-class operational excellence mindset and culture throughout all functions at site. You will be at the forefront of leading continuous improvement efforts, overseeing the site's operational excellence (OpEx) projects and initiatives and ensuring that all OpEx activities are aligned with the overall strategic goals of the company.

Your primary responsibilities will include defining, planning and implementing our Arla Performance System (APS) at the site, in alignment with the global roll out. You will work closely with the Site Leadership Team, providing expert guidance, and acting as a key point of contact for support functions. Furthermore, by promoting a Lean and Continuous Improvement culture, you will drive significant improvements across Safety, Quality, Cost, Delivery, Motivation, and Planet (SQCDMP).

Your Key Responsibilities Will Be To

• Own, plan and execute the site's Operational Excellence journey, including the strategic alignment and implementation of APS standards and ways of working, to drive continuous improvements.
• Oversee all site Operational Excellence projects, from planning and coordination to follow-up, ensuring they align with business goals and performance metrics.
• Establish, develop and foster a market Community of Practice (CoP) together with Senior OpEx Managers and participate in centrally led global pilots.
• Identify opportunities for automation and digitalization at the site and execute implementation of relevant digital tools.
• Facilitate workshops, conduct training, and provide coaching to site teams and leaders on OpEx tools and methodologies, empowering them to drive performance improvement and sustain results.
• Promote the use of balanced scorecards and KPIs to manage site performance, fostering a performance-driven problem-solving culture and preventative mindset.
• Nurture a culture of continuous improvement by challenging the status quo, leading lean initiatives, and encouraging the use of digital tools to accelerate data-driven decision-making and shop floor visualisation.

What Will Make You Successful

You are a results-driven professional with a proven track record of driving operational excellence initiatives. Your strong communication and leadership skills enable you to engage stakeholders across all levels of the organization, from shopfloor employees to senior management.

You are familiar with implementing Lean or Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) frameworks, and you have a strategic mindset that allows you to manage complex projects while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Experience with digital transformation and Industry 4.0 tools is highly valued in this role.

Further, to successfully deliver on key priorities we believe that you have

• Several years of experience in engineering, dairy production, or supply chain management
• Solid experience as an operational front-line leader in a mature manufacturing environment
• Formal qualification/education in production, supply chain, or a related field is beneficial
• Proven experience in leading operational excellence projects, including Lean and Continuous Improvement initiatives
• Strong communication, project management, and stakeholder management skills
• Proven experience with implementation of mature standard work processes within an operational excellence environment as both an operational leader and implementation support team member
• Experience with digital tools, financial acumen, and working within a matrixed organization
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and coach teams, with a get-it-done attitude that drives results.

What We Offer

At Arla, we offer the opportunity to lead critical improvement initiatives in a collaborative, dynamic environment. You will have a key role in shaping the future of our site's operations, working alongside passionate colleagues who are committed to delivering excellence. We offer a competitive salary, benefits package, and opportunities for personal and professional growth.

• Work-life balance 30 days vacation.
• Culture Our unique, Scandinavian corporate culture with flat hierarchies and short decision-making paths within our cooperative structure, as well as a high level of appreciation, especially through our feedback culture and regular 11 meetings
• Further development access to our learning library for online training and global career opportunities
• Employee benefits Access to the Corporate Benefits Program with attractive discounts for your well-being and budget. We also offer a company pension scheme. We also offer a kindergarten and gym allowance, an employer-funded company pension scheme and company health management.
• Sustainability With our sustainability strategy 'Stronger Planet Stronger People', we want to reduce our CO₂ emissions by 30% by 2030.
• Location Culinary catering in our company restaurant with daily, fresh dishes - refined with our Arla products. Charging stations for electric cars and a sufficient number of free employee parking spaces are also available.

Your journey to Arla

Please apply via the relevant link on our job portal, stating your salary requirements and availability. For further information, please contact Jessica Krawczyk, TA Consultant, under Please indicate how you became aware of this job advertisement.

Equal opportunity

Arla Foods is a company with equal opportunities for everyone regardless of age, race, gender or any other criteria that is not a professional qualification for an open position. Purely for reasons of readability we have chosen to create all our job postings in male format. We explicitly look forward to all applications regardless if the candidate is male, female, diverse and will also exclude any other criteria from our screening process that is not professional qualification.