Business System Director, Global

About Us:

Johnson Controls, a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, helps customers use energy more productively, reduce carbon emissions, and operate with the precision and resilience required in rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and higher education.

For more than 140 years, Johnson Controls has delivered performance where it really matters. Backed by advanced technology, lifecycle services and an industry-leading field organization, we elevate customer performance, turn goals into real-world results and help move society forward.

Business Systems Director, Global

At Johnson Controls, we are transforming the built environment through innovation, operational excellence, and a relentless focus on continuous improvement.

You will play a critical leadership role in shaping and accelerating our enterprise Lean transformation across the organization-driving strategy, building capability, and delivering sustainable business results at scale.

This role is designed for an experienced Commercial Lean leader who thrives in complexity, partners confidently with senior executives, and leads transformation through people, systems, and culture-not tools alone.

About the Role

The Business Systems Director, Global is a senior-level expert responsible for designing, driving, and sustaining Lean transformation across Johnson Controls’ global enterprise. This role focuses on end-to-end value streams and enabling systems that power business performance spanning transactional and operational processes across functions, regions, and teams.

This leader brings deep mastery in Lean operating systems and plays a critical role in embedding Lean thinking into how Johnson Controls executes strategy, improves performance, strengthens customer outcomes, and builds a culture of continuous improvement across the organization.

Reports To: Vice President, Business Systems

Key Responsibilities

• Provide visionary leadership, setting strategic direction for Lean across the global enterprise.
• Align enterprise strategy with daily operations using Hoshin Kanri and Lean Maturity Models, ensuring consistent execution across regions and functions.
• Oversee the enterprise Lean Business System, methodologies, tools, and standard work; establish governance structures, performance dashboards, and sustainment mechanisms.
• Partner closely with executive and senior leadership across business units and functions to drive strategic priorities and enterprise-wide improvement initiatives.
• Serve as a liaison between executive leadership and key stakeholders, enabling transparent and effective communication.
• Establish, deploy, and curate enterprise Lean standards, including methods and tools.
• Identify and mitigate risks impacting customer outcomes, operational performance, quality, delivery, and long-term enterprise results.
• Coach and develop senior leaders to model Lean behaviors and teach advanced Lean concepts.

What You Will Do

• Define, design, and implement Lean methodologies across global, cross-functional value streams (transactional).
• Identify key enterprise value drivers and provide practical tools to improve speed, quality, alignment, and outcomes.
• Support vertical and horizontal integration across Commercial and Service functions.
• Lead critical, large-scale improvement initiatives aligned to enterprise strategy and business priorities.
• Apply Lean methods to end-to-end processes such as lead-to-order, order-to-cash, service delivery, customer experience, and other core enterprise value streams.
• Conduct and manage Lean training sessions across global organizations and leadership levels.
• Perform root-cause analysis to identify improvement opportunities and recommend technology and process solutions.
• Facilitate value stream mapping, Kaizen workshops, Daily Management installations, problem solving and action-plan execution.

How You Will Do It

• Enable global enterprise synergies through best-practice sharing and standardization.
• Partner with executive, regional, and functional leadership to deliver tangible improvements in enterprise performance.
• Mentor improvement leaders to accelerate results and strengthen a culture of continuous improvement.
• Identify cross-functional improvement opportunities and lead standardization efforts across the enterprise.
• Conduct training and workshops that balance Lean theory with practical, business-relevant application.
• Foster innovation by introducing new CI techniques, methodologies, and tools across the CI community.
• Oversee Lean maturity assessments and roadmap development to scale capability and sustain results.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Quality, Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum 10–15 years of experience in Continuous Improvement across multiple business domains.
• Significant experience leading enterprise business transformations with recognized business impact at scale.
• Demonstrated leadership capability, strong business acumen, and ability to align change management with enterprise priorities.
• Effective communication and presentation skills; ability to establish rapport with leaders and peers across levels and geographies.
• Proven analytical and systems-thinking capability with end-to-end solution design across value streams.
• Excellent facilitation and strategic-thinking skills.
• Experience leading, training, and coaching Lean and Six Sigma methodologies.
• Mastery of Lean systems, cultural transformation, and change leadership.
• Proactive risk management and issue-resolution skills with appropriate escalation.

Travel Requirements: 50–75%

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $156,000-235k (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, and corporate performance. This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply. To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at