Director – Annual Planning - Lean & Continuous Improvement

Job Summary

The Director, Annual Planning, Lean & Continuous Improvement leads the company’s operational excellence strategy—including strategic enterprise annual planning, Lean/Continuous Improvement, and disciplined execution of transformational initiatives—within a regulated electric and gas utility environment. This role advances Lean practices enterprise-wide and partners with the CEO, CFO, and senior leaders to set priorities, translate strategy into actionable plans, and cascade goals through all business units (utility operations and corporate functions). The Director ensures the Continuous Improvement team delivers high-quality support and measurable improvements in safety, reliability, system integrity, cost, and customer outcomes, and strengthens performance management and reporting through improved planning, analytics, governance, and benefits realization.

Essential Functions

• Enterprise annual planning: Lead the end-to-end annual planning operating system (process, governance, cadence, and executive reviews) to align priorities, resources, and commitments.
• Business unit plan quality: Coach leaders to build clear, measurable plans with defined initiatives, resources, risks, and accountabilities; ensure goals cascade across levels.
• Lean & Continuous Improvement (CI) and process excellence: Set the CI operating model, standards, and training, and lead end-to-end process improvements across operations and corporate functions to increase safety, reliability, quality, and efficiency.
• Financial process and analysis processes: Evaluate, recommend and oversee improvements to current processes in order to deliver more accurate and timely management reporting to senior leaders.
• Enterprise governance, operating cadence & value capture: Govern cross-functional initiatives by defining outcomes and benefit owners, tracking realization through sustainment, and driving an enterprise operating cadence (scorecards, operating reviews, variance-to-plan, and action tracking) with progress communicated through established executive forums and standard reporting.
• Enterprise partnership across business units: Partner across operations and shared services (e.g., Safety, Customer, HR, Supply Chain, IT/Digital, Finance, Regulatory, Legal) to remove barriers and deliver enterprise priorities.
• Change management and adoption: Build alignment, communications, and training to drive adoption and sustain new ways of working; partner with HR and Communications as needed.
• Risk, compliance, and safety integration: Embed safety, controls, and compliance requirements into planning and improvement work to support audit readiness and regulated commitments.
• People leadership: Lead and develop the CI team by setting priorities, coaching capability, and managing capacity to meet enterprise needs. Lead managers with direct reports by setting expectations, establishing team rhythms, and ensuring consistent coaching, accountability, and succession planning.

Education Description

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, Operations Management, Finance, or related field (or equivalent experience).

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive experience in operational excellence/continuous improvement, operations, or strategy execution.
• Demonstrated ability to lead enterprise annual planning (end-to-end process design, governance, and execution) across multiple functions.
• Proven track record delivering measurable improvements using Lean, Six Sigma, or similar methodologies.
• Strong business and operational acumen to identify obstacles and translate strategy into practical execution.
• Ability to work effectively with varied leadership styles and influence without authority across corporate and field organizations.
• High professionalism, sound judgment, and steadiness under pressure; able to manage competing priorities and sensitive stakeholder dynamics.
• Experience leading a CI/operational excellence function, including setting the delivery model and managing portfolio capacity across competing enterprise priorities.
• Experience leading an enterprise transformation portfolio, including prioritization, resource trade-offs, and delivery management across multiple initiatives.
• Strong communication skills (written and verbal) with the ability to simplify complex topics and drive stakeholder understanding across diverse audiences.
• Experience within a regulated utility, energy, or capital-intensive industrial environment.