Continuous Improvement & Operational Excellence Leader

Location: This is a hybrid role, offering a combination of being able to work remotely and from our Corby office

Contract Type: Permanent

The Opportunity

As Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence Lead, you will play a pivotal role in shaping how Continuous Improvement is delivered across GSBS globally. You’ll lead high‑impact CI and OPEX programmes that drive measurable, sustainable improvements in productivity, efficiency and effectiveness, while embedding a culture of operational excellence aligned to strategic business outcomes. Working closely with senior leaders and cross‑functional teams, you’ll set the standard for CI ways of working and influence change at scale.

What You Will Be Doing

• Leading and delivering end‑to‑end Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence programmes and major improvement initiatives.
• Assessing current‑state processes and designing future‑state solutions that deliver tangible productivity, efficiency and effectiveness gains.
• Driving enterprise‑wide, end‑to‑end value with a strong focus on customer outcomes and scalable global processes.
• Connecting CI activity to strategic objectives, identifying gaps and opportunities across functions and regions.
• Leading and working within project teams to deliver sustainable people, process, technology and ways‑of‑working change.
• Using data and insight to inform decisions, track benefits realisation and support performance improvement.
• Engaging and influencing stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership, to embed CI and operational excellence ways of working.
• Role‑modelling a strong CI mindset, challenging the status quo and building momentum for continuous improvement.

What You’ll Bring

• Proven experience delivering large‑scale Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence programmes in a complex, multi‑stakeholder environment.
• Strong CI mindset with the ability to challenge existing ways of working and identify root causes and solution options.
• Demonstrable experience defining future‑state processes and managing improvement plans with measurable outcomes.
• Confidence working across people, process, systems and data to drive sustainable change.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to influence and align senior leaders and operational teams.
• Ability to lead project teams and also contribute hands‑on as part of a core delivery team.
• Strategic, enterprise‑wide perspective with the ability to link improvement activity to wider organisational goals.
• Experience using data and insight to guide improvement decisions and benefits tracking.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification (minimum).

We Are RS

We’ve been solving industry problems for over 80 years. We turn the ‘what ifs’ into the ‘why nots’, the impossible into the possible.

Our purpose? Making amazing happen for a better world.

We offer service and product solutions to over 1.2 million customers globally, shipping a parcel every 2 seconds to over 130 countries. With over 800,000 stocked and 3 million unstocked products, we’re a trusted partner to the world’s leading industries.

We’re looking for curious, driven, and empathetic professionals to join our journey. People who think differently, act with purpose, and want to make a real impact. 

Rewards

Our Reward Strategy Philosophy is designed to offer market competitive base salaries and provide all of our people the opportunity to participate in a short-term incentive, enabling them to share in the success of the Company.

Our total reward package is more than just the cash; our recognition and benefit offering provide the opportunity for us to recognise, reward and enable the wellbeing of our people at all stages of their journey with RS. Our rewards and benefits vary by country, but include:

• Financial - pension/retirement; life assurance; salary finance (payroll deduction loan scheme)
• Wellbeing - medical plans; health screening; critical illness; disability insurance; holiday / paid time off; employee assistance programme; discounted gym/health club membership
• Lifestyle - transportation assistance schemes (e.g., cycle to work, travel loans, car leasing); onsite catering/lunch vouchers; retail discounts
• Spotlight – our global recognition programme provides a platform to highlight and recognise people role modelling our values

Ready to Make Amazing Happen?

Join c. 9,000 colleagues and help us shape the future of our industry. Whoever you are, wherever you are — it all starts here.

Apply now and make RS a part of your journey.

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