Description: The Quality Manager provides leadership for quality assurance and quality control to ensure Behlen products consistently meet customer requirements, engineering drawings, contractual obligations, and applicable codes and standards. Reporting to the COO, this role strengthens a One Behlen approach to quality by promoting shared expectations, consistent processes, cross-functional collaboration, and learning across business units. The Quality Manager leads the quality management system, inspection and verification practices, corrective action, and quality performance reporting. The role partners closely with Operations, Engineering, Purchasing, Sales, and other relevant teams to prevent defects, reduce rework and cost of poor quality, protect customers, and build a culture in which quality is everyone’s responsibility.
Key Responsibilities:
One Behlen Quality Leadership
- Promote a company-wide mindset that quality is a shared responsibility and that business units work together rather than in silos.
- Collaborate with business unit and functional leaders to share lessons learned, address recurring issues, and advance consistent quality practices where appropriate.
- Build strong working relationships with Operations, Engineering, Purchasing, Sales, and other stakeholders to align quality priorities with customer needs and business objectives.
- Provide leadership with clear visibility to quality performance, significant risks, customer concerns, and improvement opportunities.
Quality Systems and Compliance
- Maintain and continuously improve the quality management system, including procedures, work instructions, inspection records, and document controls.
- Ensure compliance with contractual requirements and applicable standards, including ISO 9001, American Welding Society (AWS) codes, and American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) requirements, where relevant to products and certifications.
- Lead internal audits and coordinate customer, certification, and third-party audits; ensure findings are addressed through timely, effective corrective action.
Fabrication Quality and Inspection
- Establish inspection and test plans for incoming materials, fabrication, welding, finishing, and final product release.
- Verify conformance to engineering drawings, dimensional tolerances, material specifications, weld requirements, and customer acceptance criteria.
- Oversee material identification and traceability, including mill test reports and required inspection documentation.
- Coordinate weld inspections and nondestructive testing, as applicable; verify required welding procedures and personnel qualifications.
- Maintain calibration and control of inspection, measuring, and testing equipment.
- Identify, segregate, and control nonconforming materials and products; exercise authority to place work or shipments on hold until requirements are met.
Problem-Solving and Continuous Improvement
- Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions for internal defects, supplier issues, and customer complaints.
- Verify corrective-action effectiveness and implement process improvements that prevent recurrence.
- Partner with Production and Engineering to reduce scrap, rework, weld repairs, and other quality-related costs.
- Review customer specifications and new or revised work before production to identify quality risks and required inspection controls.
- Use quality data and frontline input to identify trends, prioritize improvement work, and measure results.
Leadership, Training, and Communication
- Supervise, coach, and develop quality personnel; establish clear responsibilities, inspection coverage, and performance expectations.
- Train production employees on quality requirements, defect prevention, inspection methods, and documentation.
- Work with Purchasing to address supplier performance and incoming-material quality.
- Maintain a monthly quality scorecard and communicate trends, significant risks, corrective actions, and improvement results to leadership.
- Promote accountability for quality while supporting safe work practices, reliable production, and on-time delivery.
Key Performance Indicators The Quality Manager owns quality measurement, escalation, and improvement coordination. Annual targets should be established using baseline performance, customer requirements, product mix, and business priorities. Performance should be reviewed with relevant Operations, Engineering, and Purchasing leaders.
- First-pass acceptance
- Cost of poor quality, including scrap and rework
- Customer quality escapes and quality-related complaints
- Welding repair rate, where applicable
- Corrective-action timeliness and effectiveness
- Audit performance and closure of findings
- Inspection and documentation readiness
- Calibration compliance
Education, Experience, and Qualifications Required
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, manufacturing technology, quality management, materials science, or a related technical field; an equivalent combination of relevant education, technical training, and progressively responsible experience may be considered.
- Five or more years of quality assurance or quality control experience in steel fabrication, welding, metal manufacturing, or a closely related environment, including supervisory or team-lead experience.
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, fabrication specifications, dimensional tolerances, and applicable quality requirements.
- Working knowledge of quality management systems, inspection methods, measuring equipment, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action processes.
- Strong leadership, communication, analytical, and documentation skills; proficiency with spreadsheets and quality reporting systems.
- Ability to work collaboratively across functions, engage respectfully with frontline teams, and drive accountability without creating functional silos.
Preferred
- AWS Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), particularly where welding inspection is a major responsibility.
- ASQ Certified Quality Engineer or Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.
- Internal or lead auditor training; experience with ISO 9001 and, where applicable, AISC certification requirements.
- Experience coordinating nondestructive testing and applying Lean manufacturing or Six Sigma improvement methods.
Work Environment Work is performed in an office and active fabrication facility, with exposure to noise, welding activities, moving equipment, and variable temperatures. Required personal protective equipment must be worn. The role requires regular shop-floor presence and the ability to perform essential duties with or without reasonable accommodation.
One Behlen Expectations The Quality Manager is expected to model Behlen’s One Behlen approach by putting customer and company outcomes ahead of functional boundaries, sharing information and lessons learned, building productive relationships across teams, and encouraging consistent standards and continuous improvement. The objective is not to centralize every decision, but to ensure quality risks are visible, responsibilities are clear, and teams work together to deliver reliable products and a strong customer experience.