Quality & Continuous Improvement Leader, North America

Quality & Continuous Improvement Leader, North America

The Opportunity

Join Hitachi Energy as the Quality & Continuous Improvement Leader for North America , where you will lead an integrated Quality and Continuous Improvement organization focused on improving customer outcomes and overall business performance.

This is an opportunity for an experienced business and operations leader who has successfully used Quality and Continuous Improvement to transform performance. You will establish the governance, operating discipline, process architecture, and improvement capabilities needed to make significant problems visible, prevent quality escapes, and strengthen execution before process deterioration becomes a customer, operational, or financial failure.

This position is broader than traditional Quality Management System administration. The successful candidate will bring substantial operational leadership experience, strong Quality and Continuous Improvement knowledge, and the credibility to challenge and influence senior leaders across Engineering, Project Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Field Service, Product Management, Operations, and other global functions.

How You’ll Make an Impact

• Deploy the North American Quality and Continuous Improvement strategy, priorities, governance model, and operating rhythm in alignment with customer requirements, business objectives, and operational priorities.
• Build and lead a high-performing, integrated Q&CI organization with clear accountabilities, strong functional leadership, appropriate succession depth, and the competencies required to govern quality events and drive systemic improvement.
• Develop leaders and teams who combine technical knowledge, operational judgment, structured problem-solving, and cross-functional influence.
• Establish and maintain the business Quality Management System, including effective governance of nonconformance reports, Customer Complaint Resolution Process, transactional Net Promoter Score, customer escalations, audits, certifications, and other critical quality systems.
• Ensure significant quality issues are visible, assigned to accountable owners, appropriately escalated, aged transparently, and driven through verified closure.
• Strengthen organizational problem-solving capability using root-cause analysis, 8D, corrective and preventive actions, creation-point and escape-point analysis, exposure assessment, recurrence prevention, and verification of effectiveness.
• Ensure quality investigations follow failure mechanisms across organizational and functional boundaries, including Projects, Engineering, Suppliers, Product, factories, Research and Development, and global functions.
• Strengthen project, supplier, engineering, and product-quality capabilities, including quality planning, engineering controls, supplier quality, factory acceptance testing, field execution, and lessons learned.
• Provide effective quality oversight, challenge, and assurance for product reliability and fitness for purpose while maintaining accountability with the appropriate business and technical owners.
• Develop strong interfaces with global Product, factory, R&D, Quality, Engineering, Operations, and Supply Chain organizations to ensure North American customer and business issues receive effective ownership and resolution.
• Lead the development and maintenance of the end-to-end business process landscape and its governance framework.
• Partner with business-appointed process owners to clarify process ownership, interfaces, controls, performance expectations, and accountability.
• Establish a methodology for mission-based key performance indicators and support process owners in defining measures tied to intended process outcomes.
• Provide analytical support and methodology for developing nested leading indicators and effective process controls that identify deterioration before failure occurs.
• Use quality, customer, and operating-performance data to identify systemic improvement opportunities and recommend cross-functional Continuous Improvement priorities.
• Facilitate business-sponsored improvement initiatives while ensuring named business owners remain accountable for implementation, benefits realization, and sustainment.
• Connect Quality and Continuous Improvement performance to measurable business outcomes, including customer satisfaction, delivery, project margin, working capital, productivity, predictability, and profitability.
• Build a culture of transparency, accountability, structured problem-solving, and continuous improvement while ensuring functional organizations retain ownership for the quality and performance of their work.

Your Background

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, Quality, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Significant leadership experience within an engineered-products, project-based, manufacturing, infrastructure, or industrial-services organization.
• Demonstrated P&L, operating-unit, or substantial operational responsibility with accountability for customer outcomes, delivery, cost, margin, working capital, productivity, or overall business performance.
• Broad practical experience across several of the following functions: Engineering, Project Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Field Service, Product Management, Quality, and Continuous Improvement.
• Proven success using Quality and Continuous Improvement to achieve measurable improvements in customer satisfaction, delivery, cost, project margin, working capital, productivity, predictability, or profitability.
• Experience leading cross-functional transformation in complex regional and global organizations.
• Strong working knowledge of nonconformance management, root-cause analysis, 8D, corrective and preventive actions, escape analysis, recurrence prevention, effectiveness verification, process measures, and leading indicators.
• Demonstrated ability to distinguish immediate symptoms from underlying business, technical, and process causes.
• Experience establishing or improving an end-to-end process landscape, clarifying process ownership, and strengthening interfaces across functional boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to use mission-based KPIs, leading indicators, and process controls to identify deterioration and enable action before failure occurs.
• Proven ability to lead systemic improvement across processes that extend beyond individual corrective-action or preventive-action activities.
• Experience building organizations, developing leaders, strengthening functional competencies, establishing accountability, and sustaining organizational change.
• Executive-level communication and escalation skills, with the credibility to challenge and influence senior functional and operational leaders without relying on direct authority.
• A leadership style that combines transparency, accountability, practical business judgment, systems thinking, structured problem-solving, and continuous improvement.
• Quality, Lean, or Continuous Improvement credentials are beneficial, but they will not substitute for demonstrated operational leadership and sustained business results.
• Experience with engineered-to-order systems, complex customer projects, manufacturing operations, infrastructure, or industrial services is strongly preferred.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)-Females/Minorities/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

Equal Employment Opportunity

Hitachi is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals, including females, minorities, protected veterans, and individuals

with disabilities.

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