Lean Operational Excellence Instructor

 

The Role

You will deliver VDS's OpEx curriculum on-site and virtually to client teams ranging from shop-floor associates to C-suite executives. This is a hands-on teaching and coaching role, not a lecture-only role: our workshops are built around live application in the client's own value streams, with real data, real constraints, and results measured in weeks.

 

You will work with multiple clients at multiple sites, often rotating between engagements within the same month, and you will be expected to adapt standard VDS material to each client's industry, culture, and maturity level without diluting the methodology.

What You'll Teach

You must be able to deliver, or rapidly become certified to deliver, the VDS course catalog:

  

Instruction spans all VDS competency tracks: Lean — Associate, Practitioner, and Master; Six Sigma / Quality — Yellow, Green, and Black Belt; and Executive level for enterprise transformation and strategic planning.

The Frameworks You'll Represent

VDS Business System® — our five-step implementation methodology, typically executed in 90 to 120 days: Assessment → Design → Implementation → Training and Coaching → Review and Optimization. Built on three pillars: customer-centricity, process orientation, and data-driven decision making.

 

Value Driven Approach® — our rapid method for closing performance gaps: Define Value → Map the Value Stream → Create Flow → Establish Pull → Pursue Perfection. Instructors are expected to teach this framework in a way that supports the ROI commitments VDS makes to clients.

 

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Key Responsibilities

• Deliver VDS workshops, simulations, and coaching sessions on-site at client facilities and virtually, to audiences from operator to executive level.
• Tailor standard VDS content to the client's industry, terminology, culture, and current-state maturity while preserving methodology fidelity.
• Facilitate live kaizen events, value stream mapping sessions, Gemba walks, and A3 coaching using the client's actual processes and data.
• Coach client leaders and internal facilitators so capability transfers to the organization — including Train the Trainer delivery to build the client's own instructor bench.
• Partner with the VDS engagement team and client sponsors to align training content to the engagement's KPI and savings targets.
• Assess participant competency, provide feedback, and recommend certification or additional development.
• Track and report training outcomes, participant progress, and observed improvement opportunities back to the VDS Practice Lead and the client sponsor.
• Contribute improvements to VDS course material, exercises, and simulations based on field experience.
• Maintain the professional standard expected in front of PE sponsors, boards, and portfolio company executives.

 

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Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on Lean / Operational Excellence experience in industry, consulting, or both, including direct responsibility for delivered results — not just facilitation.
• 5+ years of demonstrated adult instruction and workshop facilitation experience with mixed audiences, including senior leadership.
• Deep working command of core Lean and CI tools: value stream mapping, standard work, cellular flow and takt, pull/kanban, SMED, TPM/OEE, 6S, root cause analysis and mistake proofing, A3 problem solving, Hoshin Kanri, and Leader Standard Work.
• Proven ability to run a room: manage skepticism, resolve conflict, hold a five-day workshop's energy, and drive a group to a decision.
• Experience in one or more VDS core industries — aerospace/defense, MRO and aftermarket, industrial or automotive manufacturing, food and beverage, pharma/medical devices, chemicals, energy, mining, logistics, or field services.
• Comfort operating in a PE-owned environment: fast timelines, clear numbers, low tolerance for theory without application.
• Able to work independently as a contractor across multiple concurrent client sites with minimal supervision.
• Willing and able to travel extensively; valid passport and clean travel history.
• Legally authorized to contract in the country of engagement; able to pass client-required background checks, drug screening, and site safety requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Lean Master, Six Sigma Master Black Belt, TWI, or Shingo Prize experience.
• Prior Train the Trainer certification and a track record of building internal facilitator forces.
• Experience delivering to private equity portfolio companies or during a post-close value creation plan.
• Bilingual (Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, or Mandarin) for global client sites.
• Experience with digital/Industry 4.0 tools layered onto Lean deployments.
• Prior P&L, plant management, or operations leadership responsibility.

 

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Travel, Location, and Working Model

This is a home-office-based contract role with substantial client-site travel. Course delivery is predominantly on-site at client facilities — Gemba-based instruction cannot be done from a desk — with preparation, virtual sessions, coaching check-ins, and reporting handled remotely.

 

• Expect approximately 50–80% travel during active delivery windows, typically Monday–Thursday or full-week workshop blocks.
• Client sites are primarily North America, with select international assignments.
• You may be assigned to more than one client and more than one site within the same month.