Lean Continuous Improvement Manager

Lean Continuous Improvement Manager

Beehive Industries is dedicated to Powering American Defense by revolutionizing the design, development, and delivery of jet propulsion systems to support the warfighter. Through the integration of additive manufacturing, the company aims to meet the growing and urgent needs for unmanned aerial defense by dramatically improving a jet engine's speed to market, fuel efficiency, and cost.

Founded in 2020, the company is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, with additional facilities in Knoxville, Tennessee, Loveland Ohio, and Mount Vernon, Ohio. Beehive is committed to grow and advance the defense industrial base while manufacturing exclusively in the USA. This role will be located at our Centennial, Colorado facility.

Role Overview

Beehive Industries is seeking a Lean Continuous Improvement Manager to lead the deployment of the Beehive Production System and site-level Operations Excellence roadmap at one of our manufacturing sites. This role will be responsible for building lean capability, leading industrial engineering resources, coaching site leaders and teams, driving kaizen execution, improving daily management, and helping the site improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, and flow.

The Lean Continuous Improvement Manager will provide day-to-day leadership for the site's Industrial Engineers and ensure their work is aligned to the highest-priority operational needs, including capacity modeling, labor planning, production flow, takt attainment, cell layout, WIP visibility, manufacturing readiness, and process improvement. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who can connect lean principles, industrial engineering, and practical shop-floor execution in a high-growth manufacturing environment.

What You'll Do...

• Lead site-level deployment of the Beehive Production System and lean roadmap across manufacturing operations
• Provide leadership, direction, and prioritization for site Industrial Engineers and related Operations Excellence resources
• Align industrial engineering work to site priorities, including capacity planning, labor modeling, takt analysis, cell design, material flow, WIP strategy, and manufacturing readiness
• Partner with site leadership to define improvement priorities, kaizen funnel, project pipeline, and measurable performance targets
• Serve as the primary lean coach and change agent for site leaders, supervisors, engineers, technicians, and operators
• Facilitate kaizen events focused on safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, flow, WIP reduction, and process stability
• Establish and improve daily management systems, including tier boards, SQDC reviews, escalation routines, action trackers, and visual controls
• Deploy and sustain core lean tools such as 5S, visual management, standard work, leader standard work, value stream mapping, waste identification, takt planning, flow, pull systems, and structured problem solving
• Coach teams through structured problem solving using tools such as A3, 5 Why, fishbone diagrams, Pareto analysis, and root cause/countermeasure thinking
• Help identify and remove barriers to flow, including bottlenecks, rework, waiting, excess WIP, unclear ownership, poor visual management, and unstable processes
• Ensure Industrial Engineers support practical production system design, including layouts, standard times, capacity models, staffing models, routing assumptions, and throughput analysis
• Build site capability in Greenbelt-level improvement methods, kaizen execution, industrial engineering fundamentals, and practical lean thinking
• Support manufacturing readiness activities for new products, new processes, production cells, and rate scale-up
• Partner with operations, manufacturing engineering, quality, planning, supply chain, digital, and finance teams to improve end-to-end manufacturing performance
• Improve takt attainment, labor productivity, cell design, material flow, WIP visibility, constraint management, and throughput across the site
• Document before-and-after improvements, including baseline condition, countermeasures, measurable impact, ownership, and sustainment plans
• Develop training materials, playbooks, standard work, and simple tools that help employees understand and apply lean and industrial engineering principles
• Conduct regular follow-up, audits, and coaching to ensure improvements are sustained after kaizen events or project completion
• Support cross-site sharing of best practices, lessons learned, visual standards, kaizen results, IE models, and lean maturity progress
• Help build a culture where problems are visible, employees are engaged, leaders coach at the process, and teams continuously improve the work

You Have...

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Industrial Technology, Business, or a related field
• 8+ years of experience in lean manufacturing, operations excellence, industrial engineering, manufacturing engineering, continuous improvement, or production leadership
• Experience leading, mentoring, or providing technical direction to engineers, analysts, or improvement resources
• Demonstrated experience leading kaizen events and deploying lean tools in a manufacturing environment
• Knowledge of industrial engineering methods, including capacity modeling, labor planning, process analysis, time studies, layout development, line balancing, takt planning, and production flow
• Knowledge of lean manufacturing principles, including standard work, leader standard work, visual management, 5S, value stream mapping, kaizen, waste reduction, flow, pull systems, and structured problem solving
• Experience coaching leaders, supervisors, engineers, technicians, and operators in practical lean and problem-solving methods
• Experience building or improving daily management systems, tiered meetings, visual boards, action tracking, and escalation routines
• Strong facilitation and change management skills with the ability to influence cross-functional teams without relying solely on positional authority
• Strong communication skills with the ability to connect strategy to shop-floor execution
• Ability to work in a fast-paced manufacturing environment and spend meaningful time on the shop floor
• The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issues security clearance is required. U.S. Citizenship is required, as only U.S. Citizens are eligible for a security clearance

Nice to Have...

• Experience in aerospace, defense, additive manufacturing, machining, assembly, or complex hardware manufacturing
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, or equivalent practical improvement experience
• Experience with AS9100 or other regulated manufacturing environments
• Experience deploying a production system, business operating system, or lean transformation across a manufacturing site
• Experience managing or directly leading Industrial Engineers, Continuous Improvement Engineers, or Operations Excellence teams
• Experience supporting manufacturing readiness, rate readiness, run-at-rate events, or production scale-up
• Experience with Theory of Constraints, takt planning, line balancing, pull systems, WIP control, and production flow design
• Experience with ERP, MES, PLM, scheduling systems, or manufacturing data systems
• Experience building lean training programs, kaizen funnels, improvement roadmaps, visual standards, IE models, capacity models, or maturity assessments
• Experience with Power BI, Smartsheet, Excel, SQL, simulation tools, CAD layout tools, or other tools used to track operational performance and improvement activity
• Ability to connect lean and industrial engineering work to business outcomes, including safety, quality, delivery, cost, cash, productivity, rate readiness, and employee engagement

In compliance with Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the salary range for this position is $155,000-$170,000 base salary. Please note that wage information is a general guideline only, and we will consider factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, and market conditions when extending an offer.

Beehive Industries offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes group Medical, Dental, Life, and Short and Long-Term disability coverage from day one. We also offer a generous 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan with a Company match. Every role at Beehive Industries is bonus eligible and will also receive equity in the company.

Beehive Industries is committed to full compliance with applicable anti-discrimination laws. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We strive to create an inclusive work environment and will not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.