North America FPS Director

In This Position…

As the Lean Transformation Leader for North American Manufacturing, you will be at the forefront of driving strategic change and operational excellence across all regional plants. This role demands a visionary leader who can define and evolve the Ford Production System (FPS) strategy, aligning it with global standards while tailoring it to regional needs. You will lead the deployment of Lean methodologies such as Value Stream Mapping and Kaizen, establish governance frameworks, and implement the Lean Maturity Model to ensure consistent, measurable progress. Your leadership will be instrumental in building a high-performance culture, mentoring Regional Lean Leaders, Lean Coaches, and Plant Lean Six Sigma Managers to embed FPS principles and servant leadership behaviors throughout the organization.

Beyond methodology, this role is about transformation—integrating advanced manufacturing technologies and digital analytics to accelerate lean adoption and enhance operational intelligence. You’ll collaborate closely with senior manufacturing leaders to remove systemic barriers, foster cross-functional alignment, and embed continuous improvement into the fabric of daily operations. By championing a culture of learning, celebrating wins, and sharing best practices, you will inspire teams to embrace change and achieve world-class manufacturing performance. This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of Ford’s North American manufacturing footprint through bold leadership and relentless pursuit of excellence.

What You'Ll Do…

• Strategic Vision: Define, evolve, and champion the North American Ford Production System (FPS) strategy, ensuring its seamless integration with global FPS standards and best practices. Set the long-term vision, objectives, and comprehensive roadmap for continuous improvement and operational excellence across all NA manufacturing plants. 
• Lean Methodologies and Standards: Establish robust governance frameworks and metrics for Value Stream Mapping initiatives and Kaizen workshops, ensuring consistent application, impactful results, and alignment with Manufacturing’s operational excellence goals across the entire North American manufacturing footprint.  
• Organizational Leadership & Capability Building: Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team that includes two Regional Lean Leaders and their direct reports, six Lean Coaches. Develop Plant Lean Six Sigma Managers to ensure the consistent application and approaches of FPS and lean principles across all North American plants.  
• Technology & Digital Integration: Drive the strategic integration of advanced manufacturing technologies, digital tools, and analytics platforms to accelerate lean transformation, enhance operational intelligence, and advance the Lean Maturity Model across all NA plants. 
• Collaboration & Influence: Build and nurture strategic partnerships with senior leadership across Manufacturing. Shape organizational-wide strategies by embedding FPS principles, removing systemic barriers, and fostering a culture of cross-functional collaboration to achieve holistic operational excellence. 
• Drive Lean Transformation: Lead the cultural shift needed for successful Lean Transformation across all North American plants. This means embedding FPS core values into daily work, encouraging leaders to model lean and servant leadership behaviors, sharing best practices, and celebrating team wins to build a strong, continuously improving environment. 

You'Ll Have…

• Associate’s degree or equivalent experience in an engineering or technical field 
• 7+ years of progressive responsibilities and experience in operations leadership 
• Deep understanding of reliability engineering principles, tools, and methodologies (FMEA, RCFA, RCM, PMO), Lean Manufacturing principles (VSM, Kaizen, 5S), and Six Sigma methodologies (DMAIC). Experience with predictive maintenance technologies and strong analytical skills for data analysis and interpretation. Proficiency with IBM Maximo is necessary as all maintenance activities are to be documented there.
• Extensive experience in high-volume, complex, manufacturing environments 
• Experience successfully leading kaizen workshop in complex manufacturing systems 
• Demonstrated track record of building trust and rapport with employees and creating positive and healthy cultures
• Excellent leadership skills with demonstrated ability to resolve diverse problems 
• Strong problem solver who can lead effectively under pressure and crisis manage when necessary 
• Aspiration for continued career growth and new challenges 

Even better, you may have... 

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering or technical field 
• Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt certification. 
• 7+ years of proven ability to lead and mentor teams, manage multiple complex projects, and effectively communicate with all levels of the organization. Experience in a unionized environment is a significant advantage. 
• Operational experience leading manufacturing processes across multiple areas (body, paint, final assembly, etc.) 
• Experience working in a fast-paced unionized manufacturing environment 

What you'll receive in return…

As part of the Ford family, you’ll enjoy excellent compensation, and a comprehensive benefits package that includes generous PTO, retirement, savings and stock investment plans, incentive compensation, and much more. You’ll also experience exciting opportunities for professional and personal growth and recognition. Our benefits summary can be found here.

You may not check every box, or your experience may look a little different from what we've outlined, but if you think you can bring value to Ford Motor Company, we encourage you to apply!

As an established global company, we offer the benefit of choice. You can choose what your Ford future will look like: will your story span the globe, or keep you close to home? Will your career be a deep dive into what you love, or a series of new teams and new skills? Will you be a leader, a changemaker, a technical expert, a culture builder…or all of the above? No matter what you choose, we offer a work life that works for you, including:

• Immediate medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, subsidized back-up child care and more
• Family building benefits including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility treatments, and more
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members and management leases

• Tuition Assistance

• Established and active employee resource groups
• Paid time off for individual and team community service
• A generous schedule of paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. 

Candidates for positions with Ford Motor Company must be legally authorized to work in the United States. Verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to a culturally diverse workforce. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status or protected veteran status. In the United States, if you need a reasonable accommodation for the online application process due to a disability, please call 1-888-336-0660.

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