Supplier Development Lead – Midwest

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Illinois, +10 more states.

📋 Description

• Foster operational excellence and ensure process compliance within the supply chain through onsite evaluations and assessments.

• Address significant supplier challenges in collaboration with Purchasing, Engineering, Quality, and Operations leadership.

• Coordinate and mitigate company- and department-wide risks to ensure alignment of manufacturing, supply chain, and delivery timelines with customer requirements.

• Present progress of key suppliers' operational initiatives during executive reviews with senior-level internal and external stakeholders.

• Enhance on-time delivery and quality performance across various suppliers.

• Create and implement quality improvement strategies; facilitate root cause analysis and corrective actions.

• Lead onsite evaluations in partnership with Buyers, Quality, and Engineering teams.

• Identify and eliminate obstacles to continuous improvement for suppliers.

• Assess supplier performance and implement sustainable countermeasures and actions.

• Oversee production readiness assessments for New Product Introductions and capacity increases, including capacity validation.

• Track essential business-wide metrics and coordinate cross-functional teams.

• Engage with senior management of key suppliers to initiate and maintain significant improvement initiatives.

• Plan, organize, direct, and report on activities related to supplier performance.

• Analyze supplier performance, management, capacity, and readiness for production.

• Evaluate supplier qualifications, including their training and certifications.

• Develop supplier development strategies and work collaboratively with suppliers to achieve optimal performance.

• Allocate approximately 80% of time for onsite activities at suppliers and 20% for remote work from a home office.

⛳️ Requirements

• A Bachelor’s Degree in Supply Chain, Business Management, or a related field with 10 years of experience in Operations, Quality, Continuous Improvement roles, or a related area; alternatively, an advanced degree with 7 years of experience.

• U.S. citizenship is mandatory.

• Must reside within the Midwest, USA region: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, or Wisconsin.

• Ability to travel up to 80% of the time within the Midwest, USA region.

• Preferred experience in strong structured project management and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to initiate, lead, and sustain change initiatives at suppliers is preferred.

• CORE Professional certification is preferred.

• Six-Sigma Blackbelt or Greenbelt or LEAN certification is preferred.

• RTX SHA certified assessor status is preferred.

• Experience with ITC is preferred.

• Familiarity with SAP, particularly in Procurement and Quality transactions, is preferred.

🏝️ Benefits

• Medical insurance

• Dental insurance

• Vision insurance

• Life insurance

• Short-term disability

• Long-term disability

• 401(k) matching

• Flexible spending accounts

• Flexible working schedules

• Employee assistance program

• Employee Scholar Program

• Parental leave

• Paid time off

• Holidays

• Annual short-term incentive compensation programs may be available

• Annual long-term incentive compensation programs may be available