Director of Business Optimization and Strategic Performance

Job Title: Director of Business Optimization and Strategic Performance

Job Location: Cleveland, OH, US; Houston, TX, US; Pune, India: Pudong, China 

Job Type: Full-time, Exempt

Type of Role: Hybrid

About Lubrizol  
The Lubrizol Corporation, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a specialty chemical company whose science delivers sustainable solutions to advance mobility, improve wellbeing and enhance modern life. Founded in 1928, Lubrizol owns and operates more than 100 manufacturing facilities, sales, and technical offices around the world and has about 8,000 employees. For more information, visit www.Lubrizol.com.

We value diversity in professional backgrounds and life experiences. By enabling a consistent, unbiased, and transparent recruitment process, Lubrizol seeks to create a positive experience for candidates so we can get to know them at their best. We recognize unique work and life situations and offer flexibility, ensuring our employees feel engaged and fulfilled in every aspect of life.   

Join Our Thriving Team as a Director of Business Optimization and Strategic Performance

Unleash Your Potential. At Lubrizol we're transforming the world through our Engineered Materials, and looking for exceptional talent to join us on this journey. If you are ready to join an international company with talent around the world, and want to make a real impact, we want you on our team.

As the Director of Business Optimization and Strategic Performance, you and your team will play a pivotal role in reducing our non-value-added complexity, implementing standard processes (e.g. Pricing), enhancing margin management practices by leveraging advanced analytics, and utilizing modern platforms (e.g. eCommerce) to improve customer experience and efficiency. Reporting to the Vice President of Strategy and Commercial Excellence, you will be responsible for driving division-wide global initiatives aimed at reducing complexity, improving margin, enhancing product life cycle management and utilizing data-driven insights to make informed business decisions.

What You Will Do: 

Process Ownership:

• Global process ownership for Pricing: work closely with the Lubrizol Additives division to drive continuous improvement in One Lubrizol Pricing process and capabilities. Develop and implement standard process for new product pricing, approval process for deviations from target price and system enablement for agile tactical pricing execution.
• Global process ownership for eCommerce and self-service capabilities: work closely with the Lubrizol Additives division to drive continuous improvement in One Lubrizol eCommerce and customer self-service capabilities. Drive customer experience and simplification partnering with supply chain, marketing and IT.
• Global process ownership for Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM): develop and implement a robust product life cycle management process, owned by the Product Management function, to maximize the value of products throughout their lifecycle.

Complexity Reduction:

• Identify and advance opportunities to reduce product and customer complexity (e.g., tail management) within the end-to-end portfolio.
• Develop and improve analytical tools and establish business cadence to eliminate non-value-added complexity across LZAM business units, understanding where differentiation creates value and streamlining areas where it creates opportunity cost.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure the successful execution of end-to-end complexity reduction initiatives.

Margin Management:

• Methodically analyze the portfolio to identify and address negative margin and low-margin business segments, considering payment terms, rebates and other value elements.
• Work closely with sales, product management, pricing, and strategic marketing teams to optimize pricing strategies, volume and profitability. Continue to enhance analytical tools to build efficient processes for margin management and to identify and fix value leaks.
• Develop and execute margin improvement programs while ensuring alignment with overall business goals.

Data Analysis and Utilization:

• Work closely with business teams to clean, analyze, and leverage business master data (e.g. product grouping into product lines) to gain insights into profitable complexity and margin expansion opportunities.
• Utilize advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning techniques to support data-driven decision-making and predict customer trends.

Skills That Make A Difference

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Engineering, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• Minimum of ten years of experience in a multinational business environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to turn data into actionable insights.
• Solid understanding of business and operational finance, P&L and margin management.
• Proven track record of successfully leading initiatives that involve transformation and change management.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey complex information to diverse audiences.
• Strong commercial acumen and the ability to align strategy with business goals.
• Ability to foster strong relationships and influence within in a matrixed organization to achieve business objectives.
• Knowledge of the specialty chemicals industry is a plus.

Perks and Rewards That Inspire:

• Competitive salary with performance-based bonus plans
• 401K Match plus Age Weighted Defined Contribution
• Competitive medical, dental & vision offerings
• Heath Savings Account
• Paid Holidays, Vacation, Parental Leave
• Flexible work environment

Learn more at benefits.lubrizol.com!

Ready for your next career step? Apply today and let's shape the future together! 

It’s an exciting time to be part of Lubrizol. Lubrizol is not staying put. We are continually learning and evolving. Our passion delivers our success — not only for Lubrizol but for those who count on us every day: our employees, customers and communities. 

We work with a relentless commitment to operate safely and responsibly, keeping safety, sustainability, ethics, and compliance at the forefront of everything we do. The well-being of our employees, customers and communities is paramount to our culture and in the way we approach our work.

As a diverse, global team, we work together to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. We impact everyday lives through science only Lubrizol can deliver, and we never stop pushing to do it better.

One of the founding principles of The Lubrizol Corporation more than 90 years ago was treating every employee with dignity and respect. That same commitment is only stronger today. 

More than that, we are committed to providing an environment where every employee can be the best they can be, no matter their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic. 

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