Director, Lean Global – Commercial

At Johnson Controls, we are transforming the built environment through innovation, operational excellence, and a relentless focus on continuous improvement.

As Director, Lean Global – Commercial, you will play a critical leadership role in shaping and accelerating our enterprise Lean transformation across the Commercial organization—driving strategy, building capability, and delivering sustainable business results at scale.

This role is designed for a seasoned Lean leader who thrives in complexity, partners confidently with senior executives, and leads transformation through people, systems, and culture—not tools alone.

About the Role

The Director, Lean- Global Commercial is a senior‑level expert responsible for designing, driving, and sustaining Lean transformation across Johnson Controls’ global Commercial enterprise. This role focuses on customer‑facing, revenue‑generating, and market‑driven processes, including sales, quoting, order management, customer service, and commercial support functions.

This leader brings deep mastery in transactional and operational Lean systems and plays a critical role in embedding Lean thinking into how the Commercial organization engages customers, accelerates growth, and delivers value across end‑to‑end commercial value streams.

Reports To: Lean VP

Key Responsibilities

• Provide visionary leadership, setting strategic direction for Lean across the global Commercial enterprise.
• Align Commercial strategy with daily operations using Hoshin Kanri and Lean Maturity Models, ensuring consistent execution across regions and functions.
• Oversee the Commercial Lean Business System, methodologies, tools, and standard work; establish governance structures, performance dashboards, and sustainment mechanisms.
• Partner closely with executive and senior Commercial leadership to drive strategic growth and operational initiatives.
• Serve as a liaison between executive leadership and key Commercial stakeholders, enabling transparent and effective communication.
• Establish, deploy, and curate enterprise Commercial Lean standards, including methods and tools.
• Identify and mitigate risks impacting customer experience, revenue, and long‑term Commercial performance.
• Coach and develop Lean Associate Directors and senior Commercial leaders to model Lean behaviors and teach advanced Lean concepts.

What You Will Do

• Define, design, and implement Lean methodologies across Commercial and transactional value streams.
• Identify key Commercial value drivers and provide practical tools to improve speed, quality, alignment, and customer outcomes.
• Support vertical and horizontal integration across Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain, and enabling functions.
• Lead critical, large‑scale improvement initiatives aligned to enterprise and Commercial strategy.
• Apply Lean methods to sales, quoting, order‑to‑cash, and customer‑facing processes.
• Conduct and manage Lean training sessions across Commercial organizations.
• Perform root‑cause analysis to identify improvement opportunities and recommend technology and process solutions.
• Facilitate Obeya rooms, Commercial value stream mapping, Kaizen workshops, Daily Management installations, and action‑plan execution.

How You Will Do It

• Enable global Commercial synergies through best‑practice sharing and standardization.
• Partner with executive, regional, and functional leadership to deliver tangible improvements in Commercial performance.
• Mentor improvement leaders to accelerate results and strengthen a culture of continuous improvement.
• Identify Commercial process improvement opportunities and lead standardization efforts.
• Conduct training and workshops that balance Lean theory with practical Commercial application.
• Foster innovation by introducing new CI techniques, methodologies, and tools across the CI community.
• Oversee Commercial Lean maturity assessments and roadmap development.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Quality, Engineering, or related field.
• Minimum 10–15 years of experience in Continuous Improvement across multiple business domains.
• Significant experience leading Commercial or enterprise business transformations with recognized business and customer impact.
• Demonstrated leadership capability, strong business acumen, and ability to align change management with Commercial priorities.
• Strong communication and presentation skills; ability to establish rapport with leaders, customers, and peers.
• Proven analytical and systems‑thinking capability with end‑to‑end Commercial solution design.
• Excellent facilitation and strategic‑thinking skills.
• Experience leading, training, and coaching Lean and Six Sigma methodologies.
• Mastery of Lean systems, cultural transformation, and change leadership.
• Proactive risk management and issue‑resolution skills with appropriate escalation.
• Travel Requirements: 50–75%

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $156,000-235k (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) **This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, and corporate performance.**This position includes a competitive benefits package.**The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply.**To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at https://jobs.johnsoncontrols.com/about-us

Johnson Controls International plc. is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualified individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. To view more information about your equal opportunity and non-discrimination rights as a candidate, visit EEO is the Law. If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please visit here.