Process Excellence Lead Europe

About the role

The focus is to drive sustainable manufacturing performance across the assigned network by bringing critical processes into control, reducing variation and losses, and building the technical capability required to sustain and continuously improve results. You will translate business priorities into a focused Process Excellence agenda, with emphasis on Material Usage Variance (MUV), speed loss, yield, product quality and effective use of existing capacity. You connect loss identification to practical solutions, embed proven standards and accelerate replication across sites.

The scope involves all Plants within WE + CEMEA excl. Cocoa

Key responsibilities include

1. Process performance & loss elimination

• Lead the Process Excellence contribution to structured PDCA loss-elimination routines, with focus on MUV and speed loss at priority sites.
• Partner with site teams to quantify losses in yield, waste, rework, first-time-right performance and throughput; identify root causes and establish prioritized improvement plans with clear ownership and expected benefits.
• Monitor implementation and effectiveness, challenge recurring deviations, and work with Operations and Finance to validate and sustain benefits.

2. Process control, standardization & capability

• Develop and deploy process standards aligned with the Global Process Excellence CoE and BCOS, embedding improvements into site practices.
• Establish operating windows, centerlines and reaction plans supported by process control and capability analysis; contribute to Design Capacity Rate (DCR) definition and governance.
• Partner with Manufacturing Excellence and Engineering on bottlenecks, process capability and throughput improvement.

3. Technical capability & knowledge sharing

• Identify process knowledge and technical capability gaps, agree development priorities with site and functional leaders, and build capability through coaching, practical training and train-the-trainer approaches.
• Contribute to common competency frameworks and learning materials and activate process communities to share knowledge and replicate proven practices.

4. Initiative Management & operational readiness

• Embed Process Excellence requirements into Initiative Management and stage-gate processes for new products, technologies, process transfers and capacity initiatives.
• Assess process feasibility, manufacturing capability, operating requirements and technical risks, partner with Engineering, Innovation, Quality and Operations on commissioning, qualification, validation and manufacturing handover.
• Capture implementation learning and incorporate it into standards and future initiatives.

5. Process technology improvement & replication

• Identify opportunities to improve performance through proven technologies, digital tools and process optimization, evaluating solutions against business needs, technical feasibility and expected value.
• Lead agreed improvement workstreams and support deployment through site readiness, validation, capability transfer, benefit tracking and

replication across sites.

6. Stakeholder & team leadership

• Prioritize and coordinate specialist support according to business impact, urgency and available resources while protecting capacity for proactive improvement and capability building.
• Build cross-functional partnerships across Operations, Manufacturing Excellence, Engineering, Quality, Innovation and Finance; communicate priorities, progress, risks and resource needs and escalate barriers requiring leadership decisions.
• Lead and develop the team through clear priorities, delegation and capability building.

About you

• Technical degree: University degree in Chemical, Mechanical, Industrial, or Food Engineering.
• Industry tenure: 10+ years of experience in process engineering, manufacturing, or process excellence—ideally in food, chocolate, or cocoa processing.

• Global matrix experience: Proven track record in multinational companies, delivering improvements across multiple manufacturing sites, through dotted-line and cross-functional teams.

• Practical experience with process transfers, new product support, commissioning, qualification, and validation.

• At least 3 years of experience directly leading and developing a technical team.

• Process optimization: Strong grasp of manufacturing equipment and its impact on quality, yield, throughput, and capacity.
• Proficient in PDCA, root-cause analysis, statistical process control, and capability assessments.
• Ability to translate manufacturing loss data into technical, business-relevant actions.

• Fluent written and spoken English (additional network languages are a plus).
• Willingness to travel to various network manufacturing sites.