Continuous Improvement Manager - Global Dewatering

Xylem is a Fortune 500 global water solutions company dedicated to advancing sustainable impact and empowering the people who make water work every day. As a leading water technology company with 23,000 employeesoperating in over 150 countries, Xylem is at the forefront of addressing the world's most critical water challenges. We invite passionate individuals to join our team, dedicated to exceeding customer expectations through innovative and sustainable solutions.

POSITION SUMMARY

Xylem is seeking a Global Dewatering CI Manager to help shape and accelerate continuous improvement across our global Dewatering business. This is a high-impact dual role that combines global Lean transformation leadership with direct CI execution for North America.

In this role, you will partner closely with the Dewatering SVP/GM and senior business leaders to define and execute the Lean transformation agenda across a global service and rental network. You will play a key role in improving the customer value proposition, strengthening operational discipline, accelerating profitable growth, and delivering measurable financial impact. You will also lead the Global Dewatering CI team, with team members located across Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Australia, aligning priorities, sharing best practices, coordinating cross-region initiatives, developing talent, and building stronger global CI capability across the Dewatering organization.

You will also serve as the CI Lead for North America, translating global strategy into practical, site-level execution through targeted CI projects, kaizen events, standard work, performance management, and coaching that improve service and rental operations across the US region.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS     

• Partner with site and business leaders to build a strong Lean culture, strengthen local capability, and help teams identify and eliminate waste in ways that improve customer experience, productivity, and financial performance.
• Lead the implementation, standardization, and continuous improvement of Lean practices across the Dewatering network, including Lean management routines, training, project execution, process improvement methods, and tools that promote flow and operational excellence.
• Coach and develop site teams, CI practitioners, and functional leaders to increase Lean capability, problem-solving discipline, and ownership of sustainable improvement.
• Translate strategic business priorities into a focused CI roadmap, ensuring improvement efforts are aligned to operational needs, customer outcomes, and measurable business value.
• Identify, prioritize, and communicate opportunities for operational and strategic improvement, while scaling best practices and lessons learned across regions.
• Facilitate cross-functional improvement work using process mapping, 5S, value stream mapping, root cause problem solving, kaizen events, and other Lean practices that improve day-to-day execution.
• Analyze current and historical KPI trends, identify drivers of performance variation, and convert insights into practical countermeasures, action plans, and leadership decision support.
• Create, refine, and deploy standard work, procedures, playbooks, and best practices that enable consistent execution and scalable improvement across sites.
• Bring Xylem’s culture and Growth Enabling Behaviors to life by being inspired to innovate, empowered to lead, and accountable to deliver results through collaboration, urgency, and disciplined execution.

• Metrics:
  • Productivity improvements and financial impact, including validated hard and soft savings from CI initiatives
  • Root cause corrective action completion, countermeasure effectiveness, and sustainability of improvement results
  • Team and individual CI certifications, capability development progress, and demonstrated application of Lean skills in the business

POSITION REQUIREMENTS

FORMAL EDUCATION: 

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or business

Preferred:

• Lean experience in a non-Manufacturing environment
• Lean Certification or Lean / Six Sigma Black Belt Certification

KNOWLEDGE & EXPERIENCE:

Required:

• 8-10 years of relevant industry experience in Lean, continuous improvement, operational excellence, or business transformation, with a track record of delivering measurable results.
• Expertise in Lean business system implementation and development, including the ability to operate independently, influence without direct authority, and build momentum across a distributed organization.
• Demonstrated strength in Lean management, continuous improvement systems, daily management, structured problem solving, and sustained change adoption.
• Experience applying Lean methodologies in non-manufacturing environments, particularly service, rental, field operations, transactional processes, or distributed branch networks.
• Ability to connect operational improvement to financial outcomes, including reading financial reports and P&L statements, identifying value levers, and validating business impact.
• Strong project leadership skills, including the ability to manage multiple initiatives, align stakeholders, remove barriers, and deliver outcomes through cross-functional teams.
• Excellent presentation, facilitation, influencing, and executive communication skills, with the ability to engage both senior leaders and frontline teams effectively.
• Strong analytical skills combined with operational credibility, practical business judgment, and the ability to translate data into focused improvement actions.
• High energy, strong communication skills, and a bias for action, with the ability to motivate others, create urgency, and sustain improvement momentum.
• Ability to lead, coach, and collaborate across teams while demonstrating initiative, resilience, ownership, and commitment to enterprise-wide success.
• Comfort working in an international, dynamic, fast-paced environment with geographically dispersed teams and varied business priorities.
• Ability to operate both strategically and hands-on, moving fluidly from business-level priorities to practical site execution and team-level coaching.
• Ability to travel 30-50% to lead CI events in-person.

Xylem does not provide visa sponsorship for this position.

#LI-TM1

Join the global Xylem team to be a part of innovative technology solutions transforming water usage, conservation, and re-use. Our products impact public utilities, industrial sectors, residential areas, and commercial buildings, with a commitment to providing smart metering, network technologies, and advanced analytics for water, electric, and gas utilities. Partner with us in creating a world where water challenges are met with ingenuity and dedication; where we recognize the power of inclusion and belonging in driving innovation and allowing us to compete more effectively around the world.