Global OpEx Deployment Lead

Our story goes back more than 150 years, to the chilly southern coast of Scandinavia. From our early success in Sweden and Denmark, we’ve grown into the world’s leading specialist producer of plant-based oils, employing more than 4,000 people across the globe.

We work with our customers to make the products you love even better. The oils we produce go into making your chocolate extra-creamy or putting the crunch into your croissant. And it’s not just food — we work across industries to make products that are higher quality, healthier and better for the planet.

Everything we do is about Making Better Happen™.

AAK Locations

This position is based in one of our locations: Zaandijk (NL), Jundiaí (BR), Zhangjiagang (CN), Aarhus (DK), Karlshamn (SE), Louisville (US) OR Hull (GB)

About the role

Are you passionate about driving transformation and building a culture of continuous improvement? As Global Operational Excellence Deployment Lead, you will play a key role in bringing AAK's Operational Excellence vision to life across our global manufacturing network and value chain functions. Acting as the bridge between strategy and execution, you will help embed sustainable ways of working that deliver measurable business results and lasting capability growth.

Partnering with leaders and teams across Operations, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Quality, Engineering, Procurement, Commercial, R&D, and Go-to-Market functions, you will coach, challenge, and inspire the organization to strengthen problem-solving capabilities, improve performance, and drive meaningful, sustainable change.

Responsibilities

• Lead the deployment and embedding of AAK's global Operational Excellence roadmap across assigned production sites and value chain functions, ensuring consistent adoption of OWOW and OWOZ frameworks, standards, and ways of working.
• Develop and execute maturity-based deployment roadmaps aligned with site readiness and business priorities, conducting capability assessments, identifying gaps, and co-creating improvement plans with site and functional leaders.
• Provide coaching, facilitation, and capability building to leaders across Operations, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Quality, Engineering, Procurement, Commercial, R&D, and Go-to-Market functions, strengthening leadership effectiveness, problem-solving capabilities, and end-to-end performance.
• Act as the key link between global strategy and local execution, driving governance routines, performance management, cross-functional alignment, and the sustainable implementation of Operational Excellence methodologies while proactively addressing deployment risks and capability gaps.
• Partner with Global OpEx Specialists and stakeholders to deploy new standards, methodologies, and tools, while capturing and sharing best practices and field insights to continuously improve AAK's global OpEx framework and transformation journey.

About you

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, or a related field; Master's degree is an advantage.
• 10+ years of experience in Operational Excellence, Continuous Improvement, manufacturing, or supply chain operations, including multi-site deployment and transformation experience in complex operational environments.
• Proven track record of leading cross-functional Operational Excellence transformations, with strong expertise in Lean, TPM, Six Sigma, Daily Management Systems (DMS), structured problem solving, and preferably TRACC or comparable OpEx frameworks.
• Exceptional coaching, facilitation, stakeholder management, and influencing skills, with the ability to develop leaders at all levels, drive alignment across matrix organizations, and achieve sustainable adoption without formal authority.
• Analytical, execution-focused, and hands-on, with experience designing deployment roadmaps, conducting maturity assessments, translating insights into measurable actions, and working effectively with both frontline teams and senior leaders in global, multicultural environments. Fluent in English; additional languages are an advantage.

About AAK

Everything AAK does is about Making Better Happen™. We specialize in plant-based oils that are the value-adding ingredients in many of the products people love to consume. We make these products better tasting, healthier, and more sustainable. At the heart of AAK’s offer is Customer Co-Development, combining our desire to understand what better means for each customer, with the unique flexibility of our production assets, and deep knowledge of many products and industries, including Chocolate and confectionery, Bakery, Dairy, Plant-based Foods, Special Nutrition, Foodservice and Personal Care. Our 4,000 employees support our close collaboration with customers through 25 regional sales offices, 15 dedicated Customer Innovation Centers, and the support of more than 20 production facilities. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and with our headquarters in Malmö, Sweden, AAK has been Making Better Happen™ for more than 150 years.

AAK prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, religion, veteran status, and any other class of individuals protected from discrimination under state or federal law in any aspect of the access to, admission, or treatment of students in its programs and activities, or employment and application for employment.