Manufacturing Excellence Area Leader

What if you were given the opportunity and responsibility to make a difference? At International Paper, you control your destiny. We offer challenging assignments and total rewards in countries around the world. When we say infinite possibilities, we mean it. Apply now and join a community that improves people’s lives, the planet and our company’s performance by transforming renewable resources into products people depend on every day.

Manufacturing Excellence Leader – Finished Products

Valliant, OK

PL 14

Salary Range ($101,000-134,600) - Multiple factors, including Individual experience, skills, and abilities will determine where an employee is ultimately placed in the pay range. Variable pay may provide additional opportunities for financial awards. This job is eligible to participate in IP’s short–term incentive plan.

The Job You Will Perform: 

The Manufacturing Excellence Leader is a full-time, dedicated resource in the ME organization of the Valliant Mill who reports directly to the Manager of Manufacturing Excellence (MME).  The ME Leader is a senior technical resource within the ME team supporting one of the Valliant Mill’s Business Units.  The ME process uses lean and six sigma concepts to help the mill better identify, prioritize, and implement key process, reliability, and cost improvement projects.  This specific position works within a larger ME team, which may require cross functional responsibilities.

Key Functions (include but not limited to):

The successful candidate will be the key driver for deliberate and continuous improvement efforts in the Finished Products department, which consists of three paper machines and shipping.  The selected candidate will be responsible for:

• Using a data driven approach to identify cost and performance gaps, identifying deliberate improvement opportunities, and prioritizing project efforts that maximize resource utilization and year-over-year improvements
• Ensuring deliberate and continuous improvement efforts align with the department’s goals, which in turn align with mill and corporate objectives.
• Managing and facilitating deliberate improvement efforts for fiber, energy, reliability, productivity, engagement, customers, and safety within Finished Products
• Ensuring ME principles are utilized in daily operations for continuous improvement
• Supervising, mentoring and coaching the ME REACH engineers in Finished Products
• Integrating and coordinating ME efforts with the Finished Products Technical Assistants and other belted area resources.
• Working with the Capital Engineering group to initiate, develop, and successfully implement cost reduction capital opportunities
• The ME Leader will work closely with a variety of different areas throughout the mill including operations, maintenance, technical, and management.
• Influence Business Unit operations teams to utilize IP’s management of change process to drive change and support successful project delivery and sustainability of improvements
• Fulfill weekend duty as scheduled
• Provide support for budgeting cycle targeted at delivering year over year savings

The Skills You Will Bring:

• B.S. degree in Engineering or related field
• 5+ years of experience in Finished Products, Paper Manufacturing, Process Engineering, Management, or Manufacturing Excellence related assignments

• Strong manufacturing management background with a track record of achieving results through systems and teams
• Must have demonstrated the ability to set expectations with stretch goals and measure work to determine the degree of goal attainment
• Experience with continuous improvement concepts and tools is required.  IP Green Belt certification is highly recommended.
• Must have strong written communication and oral presentation skills
• Must have demonstrated the ability to manage project/process improvements and guide a team to successful completion of tasks
• Should be familiar with ME principles and utilization of the tools in a wide variety of applications

Key Competencies:

• Action Oriented
• Functional/Technical Skills
• Informing
• Integrity & Trust
• Managerial Courage
• Managing & Measuring Work
• Motivating Others
• Organizing
• Priority Setting
• Problem Solving
• Process Management
• Data Analytics

The Career You Will Build

• Leadership training
• Promotional opportunities

The Impact You Will Make:

We continue to build a better future for people, the plant, and our company! IP has been a good steward of sustainable practices across communities around the world for more than 120 years. Join our team and you’ll see why our team members say they’re Proud to be IP.

 The Culture You Will Experience:

International Paper promotes employee well-being by providing safe, caring, and inclusive workplaces. You will learn Safety Leadership Principles and have the opportunity to opt into Employee Networking Circles such as IPVets, IPride, Women in IP, and the African American ENC. We invite you to bring your uniqueness, creativity, talents, experiences, and safety mindset to be a part of our increasingly diverse culture.

The Company You Will Join:

International Paper (NYSE: IP) is the global leader in sustainable packaging solutions. With company headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) headquarters in London, UK, we employ more than 65,000 team members and serve customers around the world with operations in more than 30 countries. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Net sales for 2024 were $18.6 billion. In 2025, International Paper acquired DS Smith creating an industry leader focused on the attractive and growing North American and EMEA regions. Additional information can be found by visiting internationalpaper.com

International Paper is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.  International Paper complies with federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact reasonable.accommodations@ipaper.com or (877) 973-3919.
Valliant  OK  74764