Lyons Magnus leads the food industry with creativity and innovation, crafting top-quality products across all manufacturing phases, from raw materials to marketing. With over 2,000 diverse items for industrial ingredient and food service sectors, Lyons caters to leading restaurant chains nationally and internationally. At Lyons, our diverse and talented staff is the heart of our organization. We foster a thriving work environment where employees are engaged in shaping both the company's and their own future.

The Director, Business Transformation is a key leadership role responsible for driving enterprise-wide operational improvement, continuous improvement, M&A integration, and value-creation initiatives across Lyons Magnus. Reporting to the Chief Transformation Officer, this position will work directly with Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Commercial, Technology, and other functional leaders to identify performance opportunities, diagnose root causes, redesign processes, and lead implementation of improvements that deliver measurable financial and operational results.

This is a hands-on operational transformation role, not primarily a PMO or project-management position. The successful candidate must bring demonstrated experience leading continuous improvement and operational performance initiatives in a manufacturing environment, with a track record of delivering measurable improvements in productivity, labor, yield, throughput, cost, service, inventory, and/or working capital. The Director must be comfortable moving between the plant floor, functional business processes, financial analysis, and executive-level communication.

Pay Range: $140,000–$175,000 + Bonus

Hours: 8:00am–5:00pm

Schedule: Monday–Friday

Location: Walton, KY

Travel Requirements: 50%

Work environment available: In Office

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Lead operational and continuous improvement initiatives across Lyons Magnus manufacturing, supply chain, warehousing, and other business operations.
• Conduct hands-on assessments of manufacturing and business processes to identify bottlenecks, waste, capacity constraints, process variation, and other sources of operational inefficiency.
• Apply Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, root-cause analysis, value-stream mapping, standard work, and other continuous improvement methodologies to improve business performance.
• Develop fact-based business cases that translate operational opportunities into financial value.
• Establish appropriate operating metrics and management routines to ensure improvements are sustained after implementation.
• Build continuous improvement capabilities within operating teams rather than relying solely on centralized transformation resources.
• Challenge existing processes and ways of working while partnering effectively with operational teams to implement practical, sustainable solutions.
• Partner directly with plant and operational leadership to improve:

- Labor productivity

- Line efficiency and OEE

- Throughput and capacity utilization

- Yield, scrap, and material loss

- Changeover and downtime

- Quality and right-first-time performance

- Inventory and working capital

- Warehousing and distribution productivity

- Customer service and OTIF performance

Enterprise Transformation Execution

• Partner with executive and functional leadership to define, prioritize, and execute the company's transformation and value-creation roadmap.
• Translate strategic priorities and operational opportunities into clearly defined initiatives with measurable objectives, milestones, ownership, resource requirements, and expected financial benefits.
• Evaluate and prioritize opportunities based on financial impact, operational feasibility, strategic importance, resource requirements, and execution risk.
• Drive initiatives from opportunity identification and business-case development through implementation and benefit realization.
• Maintain visibility across the transformation portfolio and help leadership focus resources on the highest-value opportunities.

Cross-Functional Process Improvement

• Partner across Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Commercial, Technology, and other functions to simplify end-to-end business processes and eliminate inefficiencies.
• Map processes and organizational handoffs to identify bottlenecks, duplication, unnecessary complexity, unclear accountability, and opportunities for automation.
• Facilitate cross-functional teams through structured problem solving, root-cause identification, solution development, and implementation.
• Develop solutions that appropriately combine process redesign, organizational changes, technology, automation, and performance management.
• Ensure process improvements address underlying root causes rather than simply adding controls or administrative steps.

Performance Management & Value Creation

• Establish clear operational and financial baselines before launching major improvement initiatives.
• Develop KPIs, dashboards, and benefit-tracking mechanisms that provide visibility into transformation progress and operational performance.
• Identify performance gaps and work directly with initiative owners to develop corrective actions.
• Maintain accountability for benefit realization after projects move from implementation into normal operations.
• Partner with Finance to validate financial benefits and ensure value creation is measurable and sustainable.
• Track results across areas including:

- Cost savings and cost avoidance

- Labor and productivity

- Yield and material usage

- Manufacturing capacity and throughput

- Margin improvement

- Inventory and working capital

- Freight and warehousing

- Customer service

M&A Integration & Synergy Realization

• Partner with executive leadership and functional teams to plan and execute the integration of acquired businesses into Lyons Magnus.
• Lead operational integration assessments and identify opportunities across manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, warehousing, freight, systems, and organizational structure.
• Translate acquisition assumptions and identified synergies into executable initiatives with clear owners, timing, investment requirements, and financial targets.
• Establish integration governance, workstreams, milestones, dependencies, reporting, and decision-making processes.
• Partner with Finance and functional leaders to establish synergy baselines and track realized benefits against acquisition objectives.
• Identify opportunities to leverage Lyons Magnus capabilities, manufacturing network, purchasing scale, supply chain, systems, and organizational resources across acquired businesses.
• Balance integration speed and synergy realization with business continuity, customer service, employee engagement, and operational performance.
• Develop and continuously improve Lyons Magnus's repeatable M&A integration playbook.

Program & Project Leadership

• Establish disciplined governance for major transformation initiatives, including project plans, milestones, ownership, decision rights, and reporting.
• Lead complex initiatives involving multiple facilities, functions, and stakeholders.
• Proactively identify risks, dependencies, resource constraints, and barriers to execution.
• Drive accountability for decisions and deliverables rather than serving solely as a project coordinator.
• Provide concise, fact-based reporting to executive leadership on progress, financial impact, risks, and decisions required.

Change Management & Organizational Adoption

• Build alignment among executive leadership, functional leaders, plant leadership, and frontline teams around transformation priorities.
• Engage employees closest to the work in identifying problems and designing practical solutions.
• Clearly communicate the rationale for change, expected benefits, implementation approach, and individual responsibilities.
• Ensure new processes, operating disciplines, systems, and ways of working are adopted and sustained.
• Help build a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, data-driven decision-making, and operational excellence.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Business, Finance, or a related discipline. MBA or advanced degree is a plus.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing operations, operational excellence, continuous improvement, supply chain, or operations-focused business transformation.
• Minimum of 5 years of direct experience leading continuous improvement and operational performance initiatives within a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated track record of personally leading initiatives that delivered quantifiable improvements in cost, productivity, labor efficiency, yield, throughput, OEE, inventory, service, or working capital.
• Strong working knowledge and practical application of Lean manufacturing and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience performing root-cause analysis and translating operational data into executable improvement initiatives.
• Experience building financial business cases and quantifying the value of operational improvement opportunities.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives from diagnosis through implementation and sustained results.
• Experience working directly with plant managers, operations leaders, and frontline teams.
• Ability and willingness to spend meaningful time in manufacturing facilities and directly observing processes where the work occurs.
• Strong executive communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in food and beverage manufacturing, CPG, ingredients, or another high-volume manufacturing environment.
• Formal Lean or Six Sigma certification, such as Lean Leader, Six Sigma Green Belt, or Black Belt.
• Experience with OEE, TPM, standard work, SMED/changeover reduction, value-stream mapping, labor optimization, capacity analysis, and manufacturing performance management.
• Experience leading multi-site operational improvement programs.
• Experience with M&A integration and post-acquisition synergy realization.
• Experience working in a private equity-backed or value-creation-oriented environment.