About Us

At Kohler, our mission is to help people live gracious, healthy, and sustainable lives. We believe that empowering our associates is essential to making this vision a reality. That’s why we invest in personal and professional growth, encourage collaboration across teams and functions, and offer a comprehensive wellness package that supports the well-being of every team member. Kohler is an equal opportunity employer. Along with competitive compensation and benefits, we offer something more enduring—a legacy built on bold innovation, creative excellence, and a deep commitment to our people and communities. Learn more about our culture and career opportunities at www.kohler.co.in/careers.

Our approach to hiring reflects our commitment to Global Inclusion. We recruit, hire, and promote qualified individuals in all roles without regard to race, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, national origin, or disability. If you are an individual with a disability and require reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process, please let your recruiter know so we can support you appropriately.

About the position:

We are a captive Global Capability Center (GCC) providing technical and nontechnical support for all the businesses and product lines for the company globally.

We are looking for a visionary leader, who can help enhance the value that can be delivered for our Global Operations focused on our products and projects.

The Leader – Global Operations Excellence would be leading teams including, but not limited to Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Preventative Maintenance & Quality will serve as a strategic partner to global manufacturing and operations leadership, driving enterprise-wide improvements in productivity, quality, cost, reliability, and asset performance.

Located at the GCC, this role operates as a center of excellence and internal consulting organization—partnering with global plant teams to identify opportunities, design strategies, and lead/partner implementation and scale. The role blends industrial engineering rigor, lean manufacturing, digital manufacturing technologies, manufacturing engineering, tool design and quality systems leadership. In addition to leading Industrial Engineering and Digital Operations initiatives, the role will own Quality Excellence for the GCC and managing GCC-based Product Development Lab operations and ISO certification.

The role requires regular interaction with global leaders to develop business cases, transformation roadmaps, and execution strategies.

The ideal candidate will be responsible for creating strategic plans,



bringing innovative solutions (process and technology), and proactively adapting to changing market dynamics. Seeking one who is curious, highly energized brand ambassador and can grow the function while bringing an entrepreneurial mindset in adding/growing new areas where we can add value to the global portfolio.

This role requires a collaborative leader who can engage with the top leadership teams, while working cross-functionally to find both technical and non-technical solutions.

Scope & Span of Control:

- Direct leadership over GCC-based Industrial Engineering, Digital Manufacturing, Manufacturing Engineering, Preventative Maintenance, Quality and Product Development Lab.
- Matrix relationship with global plant Operations, Supply Chain, Materials Control, Manufacturing Quality, and Maintenance leaders across regions.
- Programs across >20 plants; scale roadmaps for standard work, quality systems, and asset performance.

Role and Responsibility: Strategic Operations, Quality & Consulting Leadership

- Partner with global Operations, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain leaders to identify improvement opportunities across throughput, cost, quality, and reliability.
- Act as an internal operations and quality consulting leader, delivering data-driven insights and actionable recommendations.
- Develop global Operations Excellence and Quality transformation strategies, multi-year roadmaps, and deployment models.
- Create executive-level proposals, business cases, and progress updates for C-suite and VP stakeholders.

Execution, Scale & Change Management

- Establish repeatable deployment playbooks and scaling models across geographies.
- Drive change management, capability building, and performance tracking through enterprise dashboards and operational reviews.
- Partner closely with plant leadership to ensure sustained adoption and realized perks.

Industrial Engineering & Lean Manufacturing Excellence

- Lead and scale a global Industrial Engineering (IE) team responsible for time studies, work measurement, line balancing, standard work, and capacity/throughput analysis.
- Define and govern global IE standards, tools, and methodologies; implement lean, Six Sigma, and OpEx frameworks.
- Partner with Finance and Plant teams to translate time studies into cost standards, savings validation, and scalable deployment.





Digital Manufacturing, Simulation & Digital Twins

- Drive adoption of discrete event simulation and digital twin modeling of plants, lines, and processes.
- Enable scenario modeling for automation, layout, and capacity decisions; embed analytics into plant decision-making.
- Collaborate with IT and Digital teams to integrate tools and data pipelines supporting data-driven manufacturing.
- Partner with global Digital Manufacturing teams to enhance the current SCADA capabilities at GCC

Manufacturing Engineering

- Own and develop the capability and a team to cater to Manufacturing Engineering, Tool Design, at the GCC
- Partner with global teams and plants to develop strategy and capability roadmap, and support to product/process development.

Global Plant Maintenance Systems & Asset Performance

- Oversee global deployment and optimization of plant maintenance and asset management systems (SAP PM/EAM or equivalent).
- Establish standard maintenance KPIs, reliability metrics, and governance; mature preventive and predictive maintenance.
- Ensure adoption, data quality, and ROI realization across regions.

Quality Excellence & Systems Leadership

- Lead ISO certification and compliance for the GCC (e.g., ISO 9001): audit readiness, internal audits, and corrective actions.
- Serve as primary interface with external auditors and certification bodies; continuously improve the QMS.

Product Development Lab

- Own and manage the GCC Product Development / Testing Lab, ensuring safety, capability roadmap, and support to product/process development.

Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in Industrial/Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering or related discipline; Master’s (MBA/MS) preferred.
- 12+ years across Manufacturing Operations, Industrial Engineering, Quality Systems, and/or Operations Excellence/Consulting.
- Experience partnering with global manufacturing plants; GCC/shared services leadership experience preferred.
- Hands-on with lean manufacturing techniques, time studies, work measurement, line balancing, simulation, SAP PM and SAP QM (or equivalent), and ISO certification/audits.
- Exposure and experience in Manufacturing Engineering and Tool Design & Development

Other Details: Since the role would also include to support to India, USA and Europe regions, the associate should have the flexibility to work in shifts that may range from 6 am-3:30pm or 3pm to 11:30 pm OR in regular India working hours. (Subject to change)

Mandatory Skills

Industrial Engineering, Process Excellence, Operational Excellence, Manufacturing Engineering, Six Sigma

Location

Pune, Maharashtra, India

Experience

15 to 30 years

📌 DGM-Operations Excellence (Pune)
🏢 Kohler
📍 Pune