Xylem is a Fortune 500 global water solutions company dedicated to advancing sustainable impact and empowering the people who make water work every day. As a leading water technology company with 23,000 employees operating in over 150 countries, Xylem is at the forefront of addressing the world's most critical water challenges. We invite passionate individuals to join our team, dedicated to exceeding customer expectations through innovative and sustainable solutions.
Growth doesn’t come only from selling more - it comes from being deliberate about where the business competes, which customers and products it builds around, and how it prices and serves the profitable core versus the complex tail. This is a global role for a builder who turns that focus into hard financial results.
As Global Commercial Excellence Project Manager (m/f/d), you own the execution engine behind our 80/20 value-creation agenda across the Treatment Segment business. You’ll convert vital-few insights like customer and product concentration, pricing and margin, go-to-market focus and operating-model simplification into initiatives that move the P&L. You will be working across Strategy, Finance, Commercial, and Operations with direct visibility to segment leadership. This is not a coordination seat: you are the architect of how commercial focus gets delivered, and the role is a natural path into broader commercial and general-management leadership.
Locations: Herford or Günzburg with a hybrid working model between on-site presence, international travel and working remotely.
Essential Duties And Principal Responsibilities:
Value creation & delivery
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Lead end-to-end execution of high-impact 80/20 initiatives across markets — portfolio simplification, pricing and margin recovery on the long tail, customer and product focus, go-to-market redesign, and operating-model change.
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Turn analytical insight (customer/product concentration, price-cost-margin, cost-to-serve) into a sequenced, funded, owned roadmap — and own the numbers: build the business case, size the prize, and hold the line on committed outcomes.
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Set the execution cadence — structured reviews, decision forums, roadblock clearing — that keeps complex, cross-border initiatives moving to result.
Commercial focus & margin
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Partner with commercial leaders to concentrate resource on the profitable core, and to price, simplify, or exit complexity in the tail.
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Bring rigor to pricing, product-line, and customer-segmentation decisions, connecting operational simplification to growth, margin, and freed-up capacity — not just cost.
Stakeholder leadership & change
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Drive alignment and accountability with Water Infrastructure leadership and cross-functional stakeholders, influencing across levels and geographies from analyst to executive sponsor.
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Lead the change agenda — adoption of new ways of working, tools, and decisions — with the communication and engagement strategy that makes it stick.
Governance & impact
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Own the initiative portfolio’s governance, KPIs, and financial tracking, tied directly to 80/20 value creation.
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Deliver board-ready reads on progress, impact, and risk — with recommendations, not just status — and coach initiative owners to build the discipline into how the organization thinks.
Qualifications: Education, Experience, Skills, Competencies, License/Certification:
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15+ years in multinational organizations across strategy, operations, commercial, or transformation, including 5+ years leading complex, cross-functional programs with cross-border scope.
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Direct experience with 80/20 / value-creation methodologies (Strategex or equivalent) and fluency in at least one adjacent discipline - Lean, Operational Excellence, Pricing, or Commercial Excellence.
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A commercial and financial instinct: comfortable with price-cost-margin, cost-to-serve, and portfolio economics, and building a business case finance will sign.
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A track record of translating strategy into measurable results - you think in “+X% margin,” “–Y days cycle time,” not activity.
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Excellent stakeholder management and change-management capability, with the ability to create clarity in fast-paced, ambiguous environments.
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Nice to have: PMP / PRINCE2 or Lean Six Sigma; exposure to pricing, sales-force effectiveness, or go-to-market design; multilingual, with cross-regional experience.
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Fluent in English, additional languages are a plus
We Offer You More Than Just “A Job”
- Professional Development – To advance the capabilities of our people, we offer a wide variety of experiences to support our employees’ professional growth and continuous learning.
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Total Rewards – We offer comprehensive programs for compensation, benefits, recognition, learning and development, work-life integration and corporate citizenship.
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Watermark – Watermark is our corporate social responsibility program working to provide education and access to safe water to ensure healthy lives, gender equality, and resilient communities. Employees have the opportunity to learn and volunteer on various water-related projects.
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Employee Networks – Our Employee Networks provide a professional, supportive network for employees from diverse backgrounds, including Women’s, LGBT+ and Allies, Veteran’s, People of Color and Allies, Emerging Leaders, and Working Parents Networks.
The minimum salary for this position is 67.000€ / year + Bonus. Depending on qualifications and professional experience, a higher salary is possible.
For questions regarding this opportunity, please reach out to Niklas Naunheim, Talent Acquisition Lead Europe at +49 1621374371.
We are looking forward to your application!
Xylem is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, or other characteristics protected by law.
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Join the global Xylem team to be a part of innovative technology solutions transforming water usage, conservation, and re-use. Our products impact public utilities, industrial sectors, residential areas, and commercial buildings, with a commitment to providing smart metering, network technologies, and advanced analytics for water, electric, and gas utilities. Partner with us in creating a world where water challenges are met with ingenuity and dedication; where we recognize the power of inclusion and belonging in driving innovation and allowing us to compete more effectively around the world.
