Continuous Improvement Specialist

About the role

It’s your time, make it matter. At Peterson, we partner with our customers to build the future. For over 90 years, our peoples’ work has shaped the communities where we live, where we raise our families, and where we thrive. Peterson’s legacy permeates every aspect of our communities. From roads and bridges, back-up power at hospitals, fire-fighting, concerts and moving goods; we are everywhere you look. At Peterson, you don’t just have a career, you have a purpose. Our family-oriented environment is built on safety, winning, growth, and professional achievement. Hiring and developing exceptional people is critical to our continued success. We have high standards for a good reason: our people represent Peterson, our family, our brand, and our values. You have high expectations too. You are exceptionally motivated, have outstanding skills, and want your work to matter. Peterson offers competitive wages, generous benefits, and promotional opportunities at a family-owned and operated business. It’s time to use your skills and passion to do work that matters!

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and maintain a comprehensive continuous improvement strategy that supports the Mission Critical Sales Team’s business goals and Peterson’s core values.
• Lead cross-functional improvement projects from concept through execution, ensuring initiatives are delivered on time, within scope, and with measurable impact.
• Use Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, root cause analysis, and other improvement methodologies to streamline processes, reduce waste, improve quality, and enhance operational performance.
• Establish clear objectives, metrics, and key performance indicators to monitor improvement initiative progress, evaluate results, and report outcomes to leadership.
• Analyze business performance data to identify opportunities for process improvement, cost reduction, quality enhancement, and customer service improvements.
• Partner with managers, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders to identify process gaps, implement best practices, and ensure alignment across departments.
• Recommend and assist with the development and implementation of policies, procedures, standards, and workflows that improve efficiency and consistency.
• Facilitate change management efforts by communicating process changes, training team members, and helping teams adopt new ways of working.
• Develop and deliver training programs that build internal continuous improvement capabilities and support long-term sustainability.
• Promote employee engagement by encouraging team members to identify problems, recommend solutions, and participate in improvement initiatives.
• Assist managers in monitoring performance of Sales, Project Engineering, and Project Management teams, identifying training needs, and supporting improvement action when necessary to uphold company standards.
• Coordinate implementation of new processes across departments or work groups to ensure improvements are successfully adopted throughout the organization.
• Travel away from base location up to 50% of the time to visit job sites, attend customer and vendor meetings, and attend meetings at Peterson locations.
• Maintain regular, punctual, and predictable attendance.

Requirements

• Ability to apply Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, continuous improvement tools, process mapping, performance metrics, and waste reduction methods.
• Ability to lead, motivate, and influence teams, build support for change, promote accountability, and drive adoption of continuous improvement initiatives without direct authority.
• Ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders to align improvement efforts with business objectives and customer needs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Operations Management, or another closely related field; and a minimum of seven (7) years of combined Sales and Project Management experience, preferably in the Electric Power Generation, Marine Propulsion, Engineered Products, or other directly related industry; or an equivalent combination of education and work experience.
• Must have experience leading continuous improvement initiatives that align with strategic efforts and produce measurable business results.
• Must have experience developing and implementing process improvements, standards, policies, procedures, or training programs.
• Experience selling generators, chillers, switchgears, and/or related equipment preferred.
• Master’s degree in Business, Engineering, Operations Management, or another closely related field is desirable and may substitute for up to 2 years of related work experience.
• Must maintain a valid driver’s license and a satisfactory driving record.

Pay

Competitive wages.

Benefits

Generous benefits and promotional opportunities at a family-owned and operated business.