Senior Continuous Improvement & Transformation Manager

Work Location: Salzburg, Austria

Employment Type: Full-time

Department: Global Products Group

Role Summary: As the Senior Manager of CIP (Continuous Improvement Process), you will drive continuous improvement strategy, process excellence, and operational transformation across the Salzburg site. You will partner with manufacturing engineering, project management, supply chain, quality, and design engineering to identify improvement opportunities, standardize critical processes, and implement scalable solutions enhancing quality, efficiency, and cost performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead development, documentation, and continuous improvement of standardized operational processes, policies, work instructions, and control methods
• Identify, prioritize and execute high-impact continuous improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, DMAIC and value stream mapping methodologies
• Champion a culture of continuous improvement by driving measurable gains in quality, cycle time, productivity and cost
• Partner with engineering and operations teams to embed Design for Quality (DFQ), Design for Manufacturability and Assembly (DFMA) into product development
• Drive standardization of engineering and operational review practices
• Lead cross-functional problem-solving to address systemic process issues and eliminate waste
• Establish structured change management practices
• Define and track KPIs for process performance and operational efficiency
• Use data analysis to identify trends, performance gaps and improvement opportunities
• Facilitate root cause analysis and corrective actions
• Improve process stability, reduce variation and prevent recurrence of issues
• Implement closed-loop improvement mechanisms
• Act as SME in continuous improvement methodologies and coach teams
• Influence stakeholders to align priorities and sustain improvements
• Develop training materials and playbooks to build organizational capability
• Foster a culture of accountability, data-driven decisions and continuous learning
• Collaborate with manufacturing engineering, test engineering, design engineering, project management, logistics and quality teams
• Support business and customer-facing process requirements

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial or related field); advanced degree preferred
• Minimum 10 years experience leading continuous improvement, operational excellence or process improvement initiatives in manufacturing (semiconductor capital equipment, high-tech or precision manufacturing preferred)
• Demonstrated success as senior individual contributor driving cross-functional initiatives
• Strong knowledge of continuous improvement frameworks: Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, structured problem-solving
• Expertise in process standardization, KPI development and performance management
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with experience in root cause analysis, value stream mapping and data-driven improvement
• Proven track record of leading process improvement initiatives with measurable business impact
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills
• Fluency in English required; German language skills are a strong plus

Preferred Qualifications

• Six Sigma Black Belt certification
• Lean Manufacturing certification or equivalent expertise

What We Offer

This position is subject to the Austrian Collective Bargaining Agreement for Employees in the Metal Technology Industry in occupation group H. Salary is negotiable based on education, expertise and skills, paid 14 times per year.

Lam Research is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.