Title:  AMEA GBS Operational Excellence Lead

AMEA GBS Operational Excellence Lead

Role Purpose

The Global Business Services (GBS) Continuous Improvement lead is responsible for delivering  on efficiency and productivity targets for GBS process areas and providing a path to value through various initiatives with a heavy focus on digital solutions and automation.  Given that Kellanova GBS operates in a matrix model with strategic third-party partner teams, a big part of the work for the CI team requires proven experience working with extended o/s or offshored teams, with an ability to influence change without authority.

The Continuous Improvement Lead will facilitate ideation sessions, apply Kellanova Work Systems principles of value stream mapping and lean six sigma to drive standard ways of working in the process.  This role will be responsible for process catalogs, process mapping, governance of desktop procedures, and is the primary gatekeeper of standard ways of working within GBS, including via a standard governance cadence with third party ops teams. 

This role will work closely with various stakeholders, including senior management, operations, and business partners, to identify and prioritize the opportunities and challenges, and propose and implement effective solutions. This role will follow standard ways of working to monitor and evaluate the results and impact of initiatives and share best practices and lessons learned.

Working Relationships

• Reports to: Head of Continuous Improvement & Digital / Regional GBS Partner Management team AMEA
• Individual contributor with a heavy influence skillset within the organization and a high level of interaction with key GBS leaders
• Indirectly supports regional ops and global process teams.
• Peer Relationships:  Regoinal Ops delivery leads, Partner Service delivery leads, Sr Manager Finance, Director Transformation, Director Project/Change Management, Digital teams, IT, and Operations Leaders within the Process area
• Global partners: GBS Global Leadership team including Global Process Owners and Regional Delivery Partners, Finance and Budget team, process transformation teams, and IT.
• Stakeholders: Partners at all levels across the globe, primarily within the GBS function to improve operations, Internal Controls, IT
• This position requires some travel and working extended and irregular hours.  Travel may  typically be required once a quarter

Dimensions

• Standard ways of working and governance discipline across GBS operations
• Responsible for delivering digital solutions for GBS and driving automation, process intelligence, and analytics through organization
• Own the platform architecture for GBS digital capabilities in process intelligence, automation and analytics to set GBS up for future growth and maturity across technologies
• Governance of technology budget, roadmap, and metrics/measurement of digital tools in collaboration with operational results and future value stream identification
• Digital kreators through GBS to make digital ways of working a part of our DNA & designing a coaching program to educate analysts on digital opportunities and personal growth
• Delivering on CI and/or digital projects and initiatives & executing change management to ensure success
• Having a global, external focus for GBS and challenging the organization to deliver value, while benchmarking against peers and industry enablers
• Engage GBS leaders in the future of digital & educate on future opportunities through stakeholder engagement

A Taste of What You’ll Be Doing

• Act as intermediary between GBS Delivery teams & BUs to oversee operational governance and feedback loops, and also be the custodian of the regional GBS reporting and deliverables calendar/ cadence
• Identify and deliver CI / productivity opportunities across GBS processes, with inputs from operations team, Global CI initiatives and/ or business stakeholders
• Leverage best practice and globalized standards from across GBS teams for the AMEA GBS Delivery teams
• Own and lead ideation sessions to expand organization solutioning from an automation perspective, including actioning on ideas and realizing value from solution
• Develop and execute governance and best practices for Kellanova Work Systems standard ways of working, including desktop procedures, process maps, taxonomy activities, process catalogs, SIPOCs, and Project Submission Portal value realization activities
• Govern continuous improvement processes within the worksteam and engage operational teams in best practices
• Deliver value realization/efficiencies for the organization on a monthly basis to cumulate into productivity for GBS
• Act as coach for continuous improvement with operation teams and GBS leaders to build capability in value realization across GBS
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, including business leaders, IT teams, vendors, and partners, to deliver efficient solutions that meet the needs of GBS and its stakeholders
• Stay abreast of the latest trends and developments in process area to enable new solutions and evaluate their applicability and suitability for GBS.
• Develop and maintain metrics to measure continuous improvement projects, including cost, quality and speed metrics and maintain metric portfolio to understand state of GBS process to understand sources of loss to improve the process
• Create calendar with planned CI activities for each process area, align with stakeholders on annual plan, and measure against timelines
• Assess end to end processes with business partners to improve risk profile against quality metrics to drive improvement

We’re Looking for Someone With

• Desired: Bachelor's degree in business, IT, engineering, or related field.
• Minimum of 8-10 years of relevant experience in shared service operations with focus on delivering value realization through continuous improvement.
• Experience as part of / interacting with outsourced operations teams
• Working operational knowledge of one or more GBS functional domains (RTR, PTP, OTC in particular)
• Proven hands-on experience on implementation of CI / productivity initiatives
• Active experience of working across globally matrixed organizational constructs
• Strong interpersonal and communications skills (both written and verbal) across levels of the organization
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills – effectively evaluates information/data to make decisions; able to pin-point and resolve problems at the source; anticipates obstacles and develops plans to resolve

• Motivated Self-starter; able to deal with ambiguities and requires minimal direction to accomplish goals and problem-solve
• Ability to lead and operate across multiple time zones and geographies
• Experience in managing multiple projects and tracking project success.
• Knowledge of automation tools such as Celonis, PowerBI, Service Now, and other automation and analytics solutions.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify and prioritize the opportunities and challenges, and propose and implement effective solutions.
• Communication and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate technical and process improvement concepts in a clear manner to various audiences and levels.
• Collaboration and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build and maintain strong relationships and partnerships across the organization and with external parties.

What’s Next

After you apply, your application will be reviewed by a real recruiter, so it may take us a few weeks to get back with you by email or phone. If you join our team, you’ll be rewarded for the difference you make. Our comprehensive benefits offer you the support you need through your life events, big or small.

Get to Know Us

We’ve always been driven to unleash the full potential of our differentiated brands and our passionate people. Our iconic, world-class brands at Kellanova include Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, MorningStar Farms, Special K, Krave, Zucaritas, Tresor, Crunchy Nut, among others.

Mars, Incorporated has acquired Kellanova in a transaction that brings together iconic brands, storied legacies and outstanding capabilities with a view to shape the future of snacking. You can learn more here, and our hiring teams will be happy to discuss further questions if your application advances in the hiring process.

Let’s shape the future of snacking.