Introduction: A Career at HARMAN Automotive
We’re a global, multi-disciplinary team that’s putting the innovative power of technology to work and transforming tomorrow. At HARMAN Automotive, we give you the keys to fast-track your career.
- Engineer audio systems and integrated technology platforms that augment the driving experience
- Combine ingenuity, in-depth research, and a spirit of collaboration with design and engineering excellence
- Advance in-vehicle infotainment, safety, efficiency, and enjoyment
About the Role
We are looking for a senior process specialist who can stand between business reality and AI delivery. This role partners with business units to capture how work is actually done today, including the work that happens outside formal systems in Excel, email, meetings, shared files, and personal workarounds. The specialist then challenges, simplifies, and redesigns those workflows into practical, measurable TO-BE processes that AI engineers, product owners, process owners, and Functional AI Transformation (AX) teams can act on.
This is not a software engineering role. You will not be expected to code AI agents. You will be expected to understand the organization's AI landscape and solution stack well enough to guide discussions toward practical, implementable solutions rather than theoretical ideas.
What You Will Do
- Lead discovery workshops and stakeholder interviews across product engineering, supply chain, finance, manufacturing, quality, sales, operations, and other enterprise functions.
- Map AS-IS processes, decision points, handoffs, roles, tools, data inputs and outputs, controls, exceptions, and pain points down to task level using clear object/action naming.
- Capture informal and hidden work that is not visible in ERP, CRM, PLM, ALM, workflow, or ticketing systems, especially work managed through Excel, email, documents, and meetings.
- Use process mining or process intelligence where event logs exist to validate actual execution paths, variants, rework loops, waiting time, bottlenecks, conformance issues, and automation opportunities.
- Diagnose bottlenecks, delays, waste, deviations, and root causes; convert findings into clear problem statements, target outcomes, process improvement options, and measurable KPIs.
- Apply lean thinking and process optimization to challenge legacy steps, simplify handoffs, reduce rework, remove non-value-added work, and clarify ownership before automation is proposed.
- Facilitate AI-native process redesign by identifying which steps should be eliminated, replaced by AI or automation, assisted by AI, restructured, or intentionally maintained.
- Design TO-BE processes that clarify what AI does, what humans do, where human review is required, and how exceptions, controls, trust, and explainability should work.
- Translate redesigned processes into actionable requirements for AI engineers and product teams, including user stories, acceptance criteria, data needs, API needs, tool access, controls, and success measures.
- Help shape a common repository for redesigned processes, data flows, semantic logic, and ontology information, including ownership, hierarchy, versioning, change control, auditability, and links to tools, data products, APIs, and controls.
- Define and govern standards for capturing business semantic logic, ontology concepts, business rules, definitions, and relationships, ensuring consistent methods, granularity, ownership, and reuse across business areas while business owners remain accountable for content accuracy.
- Connect process owners with Functional AX teams, AI engineering, enterprise architecture, data owners, LeanIX/tool catalog owners, and governance stakeholders.
- Support pilots and prototypes by defining scope, success metrics, feedback loops, risks, adoption needs, and the backlog required to test new ways of working.
What You Bring
- Typically 8+ years of experience in process improvement, lean operations, business transformation, product ownership, operations excellence, process design, or a related discipline in the automotive industry.
- Strong problem-solving mindset, with the ability to analyze why processes underperform, separate symptoms from root causes, and convert ambiguity into practical improvement actions.
- Lean thinking and process optimization skills, including the ability to challenge unnecessary complexity, simplify workflows, reduce waste, and distinguish true business requirements from historical workarounds.
- Strong facilitation skills, with the ability to listen carefully, ask precise questions, synthesize messy information, and help teams align on how work actually happens.
- Experience analyzing and improving process flows, operating procedures, roles and responsibilities, business rules, controls, data handoffs, and operational KPIs.
- Product ownership and agile delivery skills, including backlog creation, prioritization, user story writing, acceptance criteria, sprint planning, and stakeholder feedback loops.
- Workflow design and UX thinking, especially the ability to make a process usable for the people who must operate it every day.
- Practical AI literacy, with the ability to learn the organization's AI landscape and solution stack across generative AI, prediction models, OCR/document understanding, RPA, scripts/macros, APIs, analytics, and human-in-the-loop review.
- Ability to evaluate process repository options, including specialized process tools and simpler Markdown/GitHub-based approaches, based on governance, cost, adoption, branching/versioning, change control, integration, auditability, and AI-readiness.
- Excellent written communication, with the discipline to create clear, structured, version-controlled documentation that can be consumed by both people and AI-enabled systems.
Preferred or Nice to Have
- Experience with process mining, process intelligence, or BPM tools such as Celonis, SAP Signavio, UiPath Process Mining, Microsoft Process Mining, ARIS, or similar platforms.
- Background as a process improvement consultant, lean/operational excellence practitioner, transformation coach, process mining lead, product owner, or workshop facilitator who has helped teams move from current-state discovery to redesigned ways of working.
- Exposure to ERP, CRM, PLM, ALM, DevOps, ticketing, workflow, service management, or SAP-centered transformation environments.
- Familiarity with tool catalog platforms such as LeanIX, enterprise architecture tools, API catalogs, data product concepts, or integration architecture.
- Experience converting existing documentation, PDFs, SOPs, or workshop notes into structured process models, task inventories, or BPMN-style flows.
- Comfort with Markdown, GitHub, Git, or documentation-as-code practices, even if they are used as an emerging approach rather than the only process platform.
Success Looks Like
- Process owners trust the AS-IS baseline because it reflects real work, including exceptions and manual workarounds.
- AI opportunities are practical, grounded in business value, aligned to the available AI solution stack, and translated into requirements AI engineers can build from.
- TO-BE processes show clear human and AI role allocation, measurable KPIs, implementation constraints, and adoption considerations.
- The organization builds a scalable, AI-friendly process knowledge foundation with versioning, ownership, semantic consistency, change control, tool/data/API links, and auditability.
- Specialized process mining tools are used where they provide unique value, while lower-cost approaches are considered where they can achieve the same outcome with less complexity.
What Makes You Eligible
- Ability to work from an office in Novi, MI, 3+ days per week (hybrid)
- Successfully complete a background investigation and drug screen as a condition of employment
What We Offer
- Access to employee discounts on world-class products (JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG, and more)
- Extensive training opportunities through our own HARMAN University
- Competitive wellness benefits
- Tuition reimbursement
- “Be Brilliant” employee recognition and rewards program
- An inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages professional and personal development