How Much Does a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Make?
Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belts are some of the most sought-after professionals in the continuous improvement field. Green Belts understand the process improvement concept and the tools and techniques that can be used to improve organizational output.
Green Belt’s use the DMAIC method to their advantage, analyzing processes and creating new process maps to determine the current state of that process. From there, they can develop new processes that are more efficient and have less waste.
Learning these improvement techniques can take time. Having your Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification is evidence that you’ve learned these techniques and a neutral 3rd party certification body has verified them.
How can we determine the average salary?
Most organizations don’t have a specific job role for Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Instead, most organizations will train someone already working for the company in the tools and methods of Six Sigma and assign them to a project. A company may use their own internal Black Belt to train and certify people, or they may hire an outside training company like Management and Strategy Institute to provide the training to their employees.
This means that determining the average salary of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt is challenging because it will vary from company to company. Let’s look at some job posting examples we found on Indeed to get an average.
How much does a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt make generally?
Quality Assurance Manager
The job title of Quality Assurance Manager is popular in the continuous improvement industry, especially in industries like manufacturing. Here we see a company hiring for the position with a salary range of $100k – $130k. This job posting requires a Six Sigma Green Belt certification, and the role includes production processes quality. That’s a sure sign that the applicant will be using Lean Six Sigma to analyze the production of products.
Continuous Improvement (CI) Manager
This organization is hiring a Continuous Improvement Manager. This is another common job title requiring a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. This company pays between $110k – $135k depending on experience. The job posting states the position requires driving the creation and execution of continuous improvement processes. This means the candidate should understand various lean-agile practices and tools. The CI will work with product owners and enterprise architecture to create roadmaps toward improving the organization.
Senior Program Manager, Process Excellence
Amazon has remote positions available for a Senior Program Manager for Process Excellence. These positions require a minimum of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. The candidate will work with Lean Six Sigma full-time to improve the company’s operations. This is a senior-level position and the candidate should have a Six Sigma certification in addition to several years of hands-on experience using the methods in real-life projects.
Using these three examples, we can see that a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt can expect to make between $100k to $210k per year. The range will vary depending on the type of certification, geographic location, and candidate experience.
Do Lean Six Sigma Green Belt’s pay vary on geographic location?
Yes. As with most jobs, the salary of a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt will vary depending on their location. Some areas like Los Angeles pay more than the average starting salary. Other locations like Jacksonville, FL pay below the industry average. Let’s take a look at three separate locations and see how the salary varies.
California: Continuous Improvement Manager
This company in Costa Mesa, California pays between $110k and $130k per year. The starting salary is $10k more than the average national starting salary. The CI manager Identifies issues and challenges, measures and validates results, and implements solutions. The job posting also shows they are urgently hiring for this position, which shows just how in-demand Lean Six Sigma really is.
New York: Lean Manufacturing Manager
Lean Six Sigma professionals in New York can expect to start at the industry average of around $100k per year. This job posting is a perfect example. Candidates for this position are expected to oversee the production, logistics, day-to-day performance, and safety of the operations team, field specialists, and contractor-partners.
Florida: Value Stream and Continuous Improvement
The creative name for this Lean Six Sigma-focused position is Value Stream and Continuous Improvement professional. While the job position requires the exact same skills as the other positions listed here, we see the starting salary is considerably less, starting at only $75k and maxing out at $83k. While this is technically lower, we need to factor in the cost of living aspect. Costs in Florida are considerably lower than in California, so their pay may balance out.
Final Verdict: Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Salary
The average national salary of a professional holding a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification is $110,000. Experienced project leaders can expect to make 15% to 35% more based on the number of project’s they have completed. New practitioners with limited Six Sigma experience can expect to start around $80k depending on location and the organization they work for.
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