Operational Excellence Manager (m/f/d)

About the Role at RobCo At RobCo, we develop AI-powered robotic systems that make industrial processes more autonomous, efficient, and scalable. Our Autonomous Manufacturing Platform combines modular industrial hardware with physical AI, enabling rapid deployment and continuous optimization in real production environments. With locations in Munich, San Francisco, and Austin, and backed by leading investors such as Lightspeed, Lingotto Innovation, and Sequoia, we are working to redefine industrial automation. At RobCo, we automate the ordinary, so humans can do the extraordinary. To achieve this, we are looking for a highly analytical and execution-driven Operational Excellence Manager (m/f/d) to help us streamline our internal engine and prepare RobCo for global hyper-growth. In this pivotal role, you act as the architect of our internal value chain. You don’t just observe processes; you rethink them. Your mission is to bridge the gap between Sales, Engineering, and Solutions Engineering, ensuring that our model scales seamlessly across continents. You are a data-driven problem solver who thrives on turning complexity into clear, repeatable, and automated workflows. Your Responsibilities - Process Architecture & Continuous Improvement: Design, implement, and optimize end-to-end workflows to enhance speed and cost-efficiency. By establishing robust continuous improvement cycles, you’ll ensure the organization remains agile, innovative, and capable of constant adaptation. - Global Scaling & Operational Playbooks: Develop and maintain the operational "playbook" for international expansion. You will balance rapid growth with operational excellence, ensuring seamless collaboration and scalability across global hubs in Munich, San Francisco, and Austin. - Data & Insights: Define, track, and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify bottlenecks and provide actionable insights to the leadership team. - Tooling, Automation & Digital Integration: Partner with IT, AI and Engineering to select and integrate critical internal tools (ERP, CRM, BI). The goal is to eliminate manual data entry, break down information silos, and automate workflows for a "digital-first" operation. - Strategic Project Leadership & Planning: Lead high-impact transformation projects. You’ll serve as a key partner to the Leadership team on strategic planning, resource allocation, and organizational design. - Holistic Quality & Performance Standards: Take full ownership of operational quality by applying Lean or Six Sigma principles. You will collaborate with Quality Engineering to design "quality gates" and feedback loops that ensure exceptional delivery across both physical and digital customer journeys. - Cross-Functional Change Management: Act as the connective tissue between departments like Sales, Engineering, and Solutions Engineering. You will lead transformation initiatives to ensure new workflows, tools and policies are not just launched, but effectively adopted across the business. - Standardization & Operational Accountability: Enforce consistency through the creation of SOPs, checklists, and retrospectives. By leading post-mortem analyses and standardizing best practices, you will drive a culture of accountability and ongoing performance refinement. We're looking for someone who has: - Proven Track Record: Several years of experience in Operational Excellence, Top Tier Strategy Consulting, or a high-growth Operations role within a hardware/software or DeepTech environment. - Analytical Rigor: A degree in Business Administration, Industrial Engineering, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field with a strong focus on quantitative analysis. - Lean Mindset: Deep understanding of Lean Management, Six Sigma, or similar process improvement frameworks, applied pragmatically to a fast-moving startup. - Technical Literacy: Comfortable working with modern data tools (e.g., SQL, Tableau, PowerBI), business systems (e.g., Salesforce, NetSuite, or Jira) and AI (Gemini, Claude). - Ownership Mindset: You are a "doer" who takes full responsibility for a problem until it is solved, maintaining a high bar for quality even under pressure. - Communication Skills: Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate complex operational challenges into clear executive summaries. - Linguistic Proficiency: Fluent English is a must; German is a significant advantage. Why join RobCo? - Develop modular, software-defined robotics solutions with us that set new standards in automation. - Help us build robots equipped with state-of-the-art AI that perceive their environment, analyze data, and make intelligent decisions in real time. - As part of a very dynamic and fast-growing scale-up, you will take on responsibility from day one, drive your own projects, and see the direct impact of your work. - Flat hierarchies, open communication, and regular 360° feedback enable fast dec