An operational excellence manager is tasked with the often larger-than-life job of improving several core aspects of a company. Operational excellence managers must improve the organization's operational procedures in a cost-effective manner, while still improving productivity and improving employee experience - all at the same time!
The operational excellence team will set new goals for the company’s procedures and processes, and then create plans to execute them. They use data to compare improvements made by implementing new strategies. Most of all, the operational excellence professionals at any company must be able to effectively communicate new initiatives to the entire organization.
To get a job in operational excellence, you’ll need several hard and soft skills. Effective communication and leadership is a must, but you also must be able to interpret company data, understand the inner-workings of a company’s product development and processes, and be a master problem-solver who can look at an organization's current processes and identify ways to improve them.
If you are hoping to land a job in operational excellence, keep reading. We’ll share some examples of operational excellence resumes and why they are effective, as well as our best tips for landing a role in the field of operational excellence.
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An operational excellence manager is responsible for overseeing a company’s current operations, building plans to improve them, and implementing these plans across the organization. A good candidate for this role will have at least a bachelor’s degree in operations management, business management, or another related field. A master’s degree isn’t required, but can help you stand out to employers.
When recruiting for this role, hiring managers will be looking for a certain set of skills and experiences. Previous experience in operations or logistics is very desirable for this role. Showing you are familiar with working with certain operational frameworks, such as utilizing root cause analysis to solve problems, will also be attractive to hiring managers. Most of all, good candidates for this role will showcase superb communication, analytical thinking, organization, and leadership skills.
Since this is a more senior role, hiring managers will expect you have previous experience in operations and/or logistics. It’s important to completely flesh out your previous experience in these roles. You should be able to outline on your resume exactly how you saved your previous employer’s money, improved their processes, or mitigated their ongoing operational issues. Providing numbers and data to back this up is wise.
Certifications help show potential employers you have obtained extra education to become even more knowledgeable in the field of operations. You can get certified in management of quality, management of organizational excellence, or management of logistics. There are several programs that offer these certificate courses online. Listing these certificates on your resume will stand out to hiring managers.
The operational excellence director is responsible for overseeing a team of operations professionals and leading the efforts to improve a company’s processes and procedures. This is a senior-level role that will work closely with other leaders within an organization to understand operational pain points and create roadmaps to solve them. The operational excellence director will take these plans back to their team of operational professionals and delegate pieces of the project amongst them to get it done swiftly and efficiently.
When hiring for this role, it might go without saying that hiring managers are looking for someone with strong leadership skills. A master's degree in business, logistics, or operations management is preferable however a bachelor's degree can be sufficient with the right experience. Hiring managers will want to see extensive experience in the field of operations management and logistics. Additionally, good candidates for this role will have several soft skills, such as stellar communication, effective leadership, project management, analytical thinking, financial planning skills, and more.
Certificates are often desirable but not required for many roles. However, for the operational excellence director role, many employers may require certification in Lean Six Sigma. The Six Sigma certification teaches you how to analyze processes and predict outcomes to optimize business practices. Having this on your resume shows hiring managers you have the tools to face operational challenges.
As the operational excellence director, a big part of your job will be to figure out how you can improve the company’s processes while spending the least money possible, preferably cutting costs in the process. Showing you have been able to save a company money or create less costly operating processes in the past on your resume will stand out to hiring managers.
We spoke with hiring managers at leading companies like Toyota, Amazon, and Honeywell to gather their best tips for writing a strong Operational Excellence resume. They shared insider insights on what they look for when screening candidates in this field. Use the following tips to make your resume stand out and increase your chances of landing an interview.
Hiring managers want to see the measurable impact you've made in your previous roles. Whenever possible, quantify your achievements using metrics and data.
Avoid vague statements that don't provide context or scale of your impact, such as:
A resume summary for an Operational Excellence role is optional, but it can be a valuable addition if you want to provide context or highlight details that aren't already covered in your resume. It's particularly useful if you're changing careers and your past experience doesn't directly align with the Operational Excellence field, or if you're an executive with extensive experience. However, avoid using an objective statement, as it's outdated and doesn't add value to your resume.
When writing your summary, focus on showcasing your most relevant skills, experiences, and achievements that make you a strong candidate for an Operational Excellence position. Tailor your summary to the specific role and company you're applying to, and avoid repeating information that's already mentioned in other sections of your resume.
Your work experience section is the heart of your resume. It's where you show the impact you've made at your previous jobs, and how you've progressed in your career. Recruiters and hiring managers look to this section to understand your career trajectory, key accomplishments, and fit for the role.
In this section, we'll cover key tips to help you write an effective work experience section that will impress hiring managers in operational excellence roles:
Your education section is a quick overview of your academic qualifications. It adds credibility to your skills and experience. For operational excellence roles, you may have advanced degrees or certifications. Here are tips to write your education section:
When developing your resume, you should always use action verbs to describe past experience, skills, or achievements. Ideally, the action verbs you choose will relate closely to the job description you are applying for.
So, for example, if you are applying to a role in operational excellence, you may use action verbs like “implemented” or “improved”, since this role is heavily concerned with improving current structures and implementing new ones.
If you’re not sure what action verbs to use, looking at the verbs used on the job posting might give you some hints. You can also check out our list of action verbs below that have been curated for operational excellence resumes.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
When applying for an operational excellence role, it’s important to highlight the relevant skills and experience hiring managers will be looking for. Working in operational excellence requires some very specific skills that should not be missed on your resume. Many companies use an ATS (which stands for Applicant Tracking Software) to weed out resumes that do not have their desired skill sets automatically.
For this reason, it’s incredibly important that you’re detailing skills related to the job of operational excellence on your resume. You can list these skills in their own section, or work them into your prior job experience. If you’re curious about the most common skills for this role, check out the list of skills below.
You can include the above skills in a dedicated Skills section on your resume, or weave them in your experience. Here's how you might create your dedicated skills section:
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Operational Excellence job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Thank you for the checklist! I realized I was making so many mistakes on my resume that I've now fixed. I'm much more confident in my resume now.
