Engineering Lean Cost Champion

GE Healthcare GE Healthcare · Healthcare · Waukesha, WI +1 · Engineering / Technology

This role focuses on managing and optimizing R&D budgets, product costs, and variable cost productivity within GE Healthcare's Magnetic Resonance (MR) division. It involves strategic leadership in planning, investment, and value delivery, partnering with various leadership teams to translate strategy into execution and drive cost-out initiatives through lean thinking and process improvements.

What you'd actually do

  1. Establish and own the Global MR R&D budget operating plan in partnership with Engineering and Product Management leadership.
  2. Lead and influence a large, global network of budget owners and program leaders to deliver quarterly financial and operational results aligned to the operating plan.
  3. Develop and execute proactive strategies and informed trade‑off decisions to keep the business’s highest‑priority initiatives on track amid headwinds and unforeseen challenges.
  4. Manage and integrate a broad range of budget categories, including program materials, purchased services, capitalized equipment, software capitalization, base cost, and travel.
  5. Drive consistency and standard work across global budget leadership sites through innovative, scalable, and lean process solutions.

Skills

Required

  • Bachelor's degree with a minimum of 5 years of operational, analytical, or leadership experience in a technical, healthcare, engineering, or business environment, or equivalent related fields.
  • At least 5 years of experience leading cross‑functional teams to achieve business objectives, with demonstrated success in coaching, mentoring, and developing individuals, teams, tools, and process improvements.
  • Proven experience driving change and solving complex problems through the application of Lean principles and methodologies.
  • Hands‑on experience managing and controlling R&D budgets within a manufacturing and/or engineering environment.
  • Prior New Product Introduction (NPI) experience, particularly in driving variable cost productivity through close partnership between engineering and supply chain organizations.
  • Direct business‑level finance experience, including budget ownership, financial analysis, and cost governance.
  • Demonstrated experience leading Variable Cost Productivity initiatives within product development environments, focused on cost reduction and design optimization.
  • 3+ years of experience operating in a global business environment, with a strong understanding of global processes, tools, and governance models to manage segment‑level cost evaluations.
  • 3+ years of experience using enterprise financial systems and analytics tools, along with advanced Excel skills for data analysis, compilation, and aggregation.
  • Proven experience applying Lean processes and tools to deliver measurable business outcomes, including current‑state cost analysis, future‑state improvement planning, and predictive cost innovation to support NPI and portfolio‑level strategy.

Nice to have

  • Demonstrated experience driving functional excellence through technology and process improvements to deliver measurable business outcomes.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical and business topics into clear, concise, and compelling messages for diverse audiences.
  • Ability to partner effectively with contract service providers to deliver high‑quality outputs against well‑defined, accountable timelines.

What the JD emphasized

  • Lean principles
  • cost management
  • product cost
  • Variable Cost Productivity (VCP)
  • Total Landed Cost (TLC)