Operational Excellence Engineer I

PPG is seeking an Operational Excellence Engineer I to support continuous improvement initiatives at our Cleveland coatings manufacturing site. This role partners with crossfunctional teams to improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, and sustainability through structured problem solving, standardization, and datadriven decision making.

This is an entrylevel engineering role designed to build core Operational Excellence and Lean Six Sigma capability while delivering measurable improvements to plant performance.

• Support and lead continuous improvement projects using Lean, Six Sigma (DMAIC), and root cause analysis methodologies.
• Analyze manufacturing data to identify performance gaps and improvement opportunities.
• Support daily management systems, including KPI tracking and performance reviews.
• Partner with manufacturing, quality, maintenance, supply chain, and EHS teams to improve process reliability and consistency.
• Develop and sustain standard work and workplace organization practices.
• Participate in shopfloor observations and improvement activities to identify waste and implement solutions.
• Support implementation of process changes, including basic risk assessment and change management.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Chemical, Industrial, Mechanical, Manufacturing, or related discipline).
• 0-3 years of experience in manufacturing, engineering, operations, or continuous improvement roles (internship or coop experience accepted).
• Understanding of Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement concepts.
• Strong analytical and problemsolving skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a teamoriented manufacturing environment.

• Manufacturing experience in chemical, coatings, automotive, or batch process environments.
• Exposure to continuous improvement tools such as DMAIC, Kaizen, value stream mapping, or 5S.
• Experience using Excel and/or basic data analysis tools.
• Interest in pursuing Lean Six Sigma certification.

This role has a salary range $60,000 to $70,000.

PPG /PPG