Quality Assurance Director - Arkansas

Lennox International•Stuttgart, AR

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Quality Assurance is a critical member of the Stuttgart leadership team and is responsible for the long-term quality strategy for the Commercial business. A 750,000-square-foot facility with over 1,750 employees, the Stuttgart factory is the foundation of the Lennox North America Commercial Unitary HVAC business. The selected candidate will develop, execute, and maintain processes and systems to ensure that all products engineered and manufactured within the Commercial division meet customer specifications and achieve superior quality and reliability. The Director of Quality Assurance will enjoy significant interface with all functional areas within the Commercial division, with specific emphasis on Engineering and Operations. The selected quality leader will be responsible for developing a system for measuring quality, complete with specific metrics designed to surface what’s working, what’s not working, determine root cause, and enable the necessary corrective action to occur with speed and accuracy. The Director of Quality Assurance will drive processes that not only define and detect quality issues for improvement, but also partner with the manufacturing team to identify and support improvements in the manufacturing processes and products. The design and implementation of a “Quality Management System” (QMS) is a key to success.

Requirements

Proven Lean Strategic Planning and execution, with at least 6-10 years of staff-level leadership experience
Manages the hiring, direction, assessment, and development of the Quality team members
Able to motivate and lead teams to achieve goals
Champion the Commercial culture, driving an environment of accountability, open communication, and high ethical standards
Drive process and efficiency improvement across all functions
Support Lean “Change Management” leadership to be proactive in anticipating, assessing, and addressing the needs of the factory
Must have proven success in a Lean environment, Quality deployment strategies, and driving continuous improvement strategies within the Quality organization and manufacturing operation
Support the Vision and Mission statement of the Commercial business segment
Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal skills that result in effective communications
Exceptional presentation skills to senior executives
Experience utilizing a wide array of Lean Six Sigma tools and processes
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business, or Finance, with an advanced degree preferred.
Significant Lean/Sigma experience and knowledge of Lean analytics
Self-motivated, resourceful, and entrepreneurial; demonstrating willingness to learn and improve
Well-developed quantitative and qualitative analytical skills and critical thinking skills
Strong influencing and communication skills; capable of securing management buy-in, sponsorship, and investment through strong articulation of business benefits aligned to broader organizational objectives
Skilled with the use of Microsoft and other business software applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SAP, etc.
Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal skills that result in effective communications.
Exceptional presentation skills to senior executives.
Able to motivate and lead teams to achieve goals.
The successful candidate will be comfortable working on the factory floor and will be expected to have a strong factory presence.
The ideal candidate will have a background encompassing Design Quality, Quality Control, Compliance Test Development, Customer Quality, Manufacturing Quality, and Supplier Quality.
Outstanding cross-functional leadership skills; viewed as credible by business unit/functional leaders
Willingness to “constructively dissent” and challenge senior management thinking
Visionary leader with a strong business perspective
Able to get buy-in and commitment from both internal and external stakeholders
Command respect based on experiences

Nice To Haves

Certification in Lean and Six Sigma Black Belt preferred
Lean and Six Sigma preferred.

Responsibilities

Creates and maintains a comprehensive Quality strategy; tirelessly educates and articulates it throughout the group.
Champions the business’s goal of providing superior quality in products and processes while providing tools and metrics throughout the organization.
Develop and lead comprehensive implementation plans for achieving quality objectives.
Establish quantitative quality objectives based on customer/market requirements.
Develop a consensus with management to integrate these objectives into their annual business plans.
Define systems for measuring, providing feedback, and utilizing quality data that support improvement programs.
Identify, validate, and lead manufacturing process improvements to enhance product quality and increase process yields.
Establish, implement, and maintain a closed-loop quality issues resolution process that ensures that all identified quality issues are prioritized, assigned ownership, and resolved in an expeditious manner.
Will have direct leadership responsibility for the quality department, including Quality Managers and Quality Engineers.
Define and lead the deployment of training programs needed to support quality initiatives. Be actively involved in the initial deployment of existing and new best practices.
Drive change management and employee involvement to support continuous improvement in quality, productivity, and customer satisfaction.
Provide liaison with customers in resolving quality issues. Seeks frank customer feedback and works to surface issues via ongoing personal contact and customer visits.
Build an effective quality team committed to organizational goals; foster collaboration among team members, functional leadership, and the senior leadership in the Commercial division.