Manager, Continuous Improvement

Company: Spire Inc
Location: Saint Louis
Posted on: February 25, 2021

Job Description:

At Spire, we believe energy exists to help people. To enrich their lives, grow their businesses, advance their communities. It's a simple idea, but one that's at the heart of our business. We're dedicated to understanding our customers' needs and goals to better serve them today and tomorrow. That's why we're always looking for driven, collaborative people to join our team. Because we believe that offering our customers the best service means bringing together the best people. We value safety, inclusion, and integrity. We connect to people, get the job done, and leave a memory and everything about our culture comes back to one thing: a handshake at the front door. We have 4 essential behaviors that show how the Spire culture comes to life:
Living Spire (Essential Behaviors)
-----We Collaborate: We reach across boundaries to connect with each other and deliver on our promises. We put teamwork first, knowing that our collective energy makes us stronger.
-----We Care: We create good memories by treating people how we want to be treated: We are inclusive, respectful and kind. We actively create a caring culture that feels like a handshake at the front door.
-----We Advance: We are active learners who never stop looking for ways to innovate and improve ourselves, and our company. We embrace ongoing development and process improvement with passion and tenacity.
-----We Have Perspective: We strive to gain additional perspective about Spire's business and the ever-changing energy industry. We know that every employee plays an important role in Spire's success, and we give our best to better understand how to help move the company forward. Summary Spire is seeking a Manager, Continuous Improvement to work in the St. Louis or Birmingham office. This position will be responsible for ensuring successful business improvement efforts across the Spire enterprise by providing non-IT project management, change management, and business process improvement support. The individual selected will oversee cross-functional project teams based on strategic objectives and opportunities for improvement identified by business owners and senior leadership. A successful candidate will bring complex projects to successful completion, primarily focusing on quality, cost, synergies and schedule. Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage and deliver large, complex improvement initiatives that identify, design, and implement creative solutions related to ongoing business improvement
• Manage improvements intake process to prioritize and provide appropriate internal and/or external resources to achieve improvement initiatives goals
• Lead team of internal and external resources assigned to improvement initiatives, ensuring the utilization of the right methodologies and tools, and supporting the achievement of business outcomes
• Evolve and implement the improvement initiatives life cycle, engaging with business owners and the organization to promote the adoption of standardized tenets and tools to support improvement efforts
• Manage the improvement initiatives software, with a focus on providing business sponsors and owners the information needed to support improvement opportunities and realize the defined benefits
• Define, implement and manage the Lean Center of Excellence to support the organization in the execution of improvement efforts with standard tools and techniques; this includes communicating, socializing and training interested parties so they can apply the Lean method to their own process improvement activities
• Cultivate effective business relationships and manage improvement initiatives communication process to ensure appropriate cross-functional agreement among key stakeholders
• Develop and report standard improvement initiatives status update materials for key stakeholders including Leadership Council and Board of Directors
• Lead and develop high-performing team, keeping teammates connected to and engaged with one another and the larger team, regardless of work location
• Lead working sessions with stakeholders to identify challenges and candidates for improvement opportunities, supporting continuous improvement analysts in the definition of solutions and aiding process and business owners in the implementation of the solutions identified
• All other duties as assigned Essential Characteristics and Competencies
  • Recognize problems and respond, systematically gather information, sort through complex issues, understand consequences of decisions, seeks input from others
  • Ability to make difficult decisions and communicate those decisions to others
  • Sets challenging and productive goals for the team and holds others accountable for actions
  • Ability to provide resources and support
  • Ability to use checkpoints and processes to measure results
  • Ability to provide and communicate clear performance objectives
  • Ability to set challenging and productive goals and delegate effectively
  • Ability to lead by example, define roles/responsibilities, motivate and set strategy Supervisory Responsibilities
    • Role manages direct reports as well as indirectly manages diverse cross-functional teams Required Education (certifications, licenses)
      • Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, or Finance or other relevant background required. Ability and willingness to expand beyond functional area of expertise
      • MBA or equivalent education/experience/certification preferred Required knowledge, skill and abilities
        • Minimum four years of related experience, including but not limited to business improvement efforts, business projects, and leading through change
        • Previous supervisory experience of employees that worked in a technical or analytical nature preferred
        • Ability to establish and maintain strong relationships at all levels in the organization, including executives
        • Ability to effectively manage remote employees
        • Working knowledge of Lean methods and tools, as well as the application to Lean to evaluate solutions from multiple perspectives and resolve conflict
        • Ability to present materials to executives, including Leadership Council and Board of Directors
        • Extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office applications
          Physical demands, environment and schedule
          • Work is normally performed in a shared, open-office environment
          • May require work during nonstandard business hours We Advance We Care We Have Perspective Posting Requirements Disclaimer: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature of the level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. Posting requirements: The above posting description is intended to describe the general nature of the level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required of personnel so classified. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each duty and responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed above are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.-- Spire, Inc., and its subsidiaries are Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity employer.-- We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all areas, including but not necessarily limited to, recruitment, selection, training, education, compensation, benefits, promotion, job transfer, upgrading, separation and recall regardless of the individual's race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, and/or other protected categories under all Federal, State, and local laws. For more information, please view our Integrity and Inclusion pages of our career site.
            Job Segment: Engineer, Manager, Project Manager, Change Management, Business Process, Engineering, Management, Technology

Keywords: Spire Inc, St. Louis , Manager, Continuous Improvement, Executive , Saint Louis, Missouri