Vice President, Operational Excellence

Trane Technologies · Davidson · $313,500–$409,500 (stated in the posting)

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Be a part of our mission! As a world leader in creating comfortable, sustainable, and efficient climate solutions for buildings, homes and transportation, it's our responsibility to put the planet first. For us at Trane Technologies, and through our businesses including Trane® and Thermo King,  sustainability is not just how we do business—it is our business.  Do you dare to look at the world's challenges and see impactful possibilities?  Do you want to contribute to making a better future?  If the answer is yes, we invite you to consider joining us in boldly challenging what's possible for a sustainable world.

Learn about our benefits designed for you to Thrive at work and at home. 

We boldly go.

Where is the work:

What's in it for you:
Be part of our mission. As Trane Technologies accelerates its GISC transformation, Operational Excellence is a critical enabler of our growth, productivity, and sustainability goals. As we build the future supply chain—more digital, more reliable, more resilient, and more scalable—our factories and distribution centers must operate at world‑class levels of flow, stability, quality, and efficiency.

As the VP of Operational Excellence, you will own the enterprise Business Operating System (BOS), lead the global lean and continuous improvement strategy, and build the capabilities, standards, and operating rhythms that elevate performance across all regions, SBUs, and plants. You will deliver measurable business results through standardized processes, lean problem‑solving, waste elimination, and digital enablement—empowering our operations to scale for future growth.

If you are inspired to build world‑class operational systems and drive measurable performance improvement, we invite you to boldly challenge what’s possible.

What you will do:

The VP, Operational Excellence is the enterprise leader responsible for defining, governing, and advancing the Business Operating System (BOS) and operational excellence capabilities across Trane Technologies’ Global Integrated Supply Chain. Reporting to the SVP of GISC, this role sets global standards for lean, daily management, problem solving, flow, productivity, and operational performance management.

This leader defines performance standards, drives measurable productivity improvement, and creates an integrated roadmap that advances cost, quality, delivery, and safety outcomes across the enterprise. They will partners deeply with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain Planning, Logistics, Procurement, Sustainability, and Digitization to ensure that operational excellence is embedded into every stage of the value chain—from product design through finished goods delivery.

The role is accountable for delivering year-over-year productivity gains, supporting structural COGS improvement, building global lean capability, accelerating automation and digital tools, and enabling factories and SBUs to achieve world‑class performance.

What You Will Do

Build Global Lean and Operational Excellence Capability

• Define and execute the enterprise Operational Excellence strategy aligned to COGS, growth, and efficiency objectives.

• Champion a culture of continuous improvement, problem-solving, and operational accountability.

• Strengthen leadership behaviors at all levels to drive reliability, discipline, and data-driven decision making.

• Establish global standards for value stream mapping, problem solving, waste elimination, flow, and standard work.

Drive Measurable Productivity & COGS Improvement

• Deliver year-over-year productivity gains through lean methods, automation, line balancing, and waste reduction.

• Partner with SBUs and plant leaders to improve OEE, labor productivity, flow, and bottleneck elimination and reduce waste, rework, and variability.

• Provide targeted Operational Excellence support for enterprise-level initiatives, capacity expansions, automation deployments, and footprint optimization.

• Provide enterprise visibility into productivity performance, root causes, and improvement plans.

Improve Plant Stability, Flow, and Operational Discipline

• Lead enterprise initiatives to improve flow, takt alignment, standard work adherence, and cycle‑time stability.

• Drive consistency in production system execution across SBUs and plants.

• Strengthen stability and adherence to standard work to reduce variability and improve throughput.

Enable Digital Lean, Automation and Advanced Productivity Tools

• Partner with the Supply Chain Digitization team to deploy:

  • Real-time performance dashboards

  • Digital work instructions

  • Computer vision–enabled process control

  • IoT‑based loss analysis

• Collaborate with Manufacturing Engineering to align automation with standard work and flow design.

• Ensure the BOS integrates seamlessly with automation technologies and digital tools.

Lead the Global Business Operating System (BOS)

• Own and govern the enterprise BOS architecture, standards, tools, leader routines, and performance management rhythm.

• Define and deploy common processes, visual management, daily management systems, and performance rhythms.

• Maintain governance and clarity on roles, expectations, and leadership behaviors across SBUs, plants, and functions.

Leadership, Talent & Culture

• Ensure operational excellence principles are embedded in cross-functional processes, including new product development and supplier collaboration.

• Drive alignment across the global Operational Excellence network to ensure consistency, shared learning, and accelerated scaling of best practices.

• Establish a culture of accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement.

• Build a global, high performing enterprise Operational Excellence organization, with a credible brand and clear roles across regions, SBUs, and plants.

What you will bring:

• 15+ years of progressive leadership in manufacturing, operational excellence, Lean, or industrial operations.

• Demonstrated success building and scaling Lean operating systems in global, multi-plant industrial environments with complex supply chains.

• Deep expertise in lean systems, value stream transformation, daily management, flow design, and problem solving.

• Experience with enabling automation, digital performance tools, and Industry 4.0 concepts within Lean systems strongly preferred.

• Proven leadership in complex, global, matrixed environments.

• Bachelor’s degree required; Engineering or technical field preferred.

• Advanced degree or Operational Excellence certification (e.g., Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Master) strongly valued.

• Ability to travel globally up to 25–30%.

Leadership & Competencies

• Results‑driven operator with a strong bias for action and a strong sense of operational discipline.

• Enterprise thinker able to connect strategy → systems → processes → behaviors → results.

• Capable of balancing strategic system design with practical, on-the-ground execution.

• Skilled communication who can simplify complexity, create alignment and drive clarity in ambiguous situations.

Builder of talent and culture; capable of raising leadership expectations across all levels.

Annual Base Salary Range or Hourly Base Pay Range:

Compensation Type:

Incentive Eligible:

Sales Commission Eligible:

Disclaimer: We strive to provide competitive compensation for this position, tailored to a variety of factors. The actual compensation will depend on elements such as seniority, merit, geographic location, education, experience,  travel requirements, and union designation.   Our compensation range is generally based on the national average for the country.  Additionally, benefits may vary depending on the region, business alignment, union involvement, and employee status.

Thrive at work and at home:

• Benefits kick in on DAY ONE for you and your family, including health insurance and holistic wellness programs that include generous incentives – WE DARE TO CARE!

• Family building benefits include fertility coverage and adoption/surrogacy assistance.

• 401K match up to 6%, plus an additional 2% core contribution = up to 8% company contribution.

• Paid time off includes 15 vacation days, 9 paid holidays, 3 floating holidays, sick leave, and additional options to support volunteer and parental leave.

• Educational and training opportunities through company programs along with tuition assistance and student debt support.

Disclaimer:  Benefit offerings may vary depending on Collective Barraging Agreements and local/state regulations.

Safety Sensitive Role:

The company designates certain roles as Safety Sensitive. Safety Sensitive roles may require that you pass additional drug screening.

We offer competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits and programs. We are an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, pregnancy, age, marital status, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any legally protected status.

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