Hub NAM Quality & Continuous Improvement Manager

Hitachi•Raleigh, NC

12d•Onsite

About The Position

The Quality & Continuous Improvement Leader for North America leads an integrated Quality and Continuous Improvement organization focused on improving customer outcomes and overall business performance. The role establishes governance, operating discipline, process architecture, and improvement capabilities to surface significant problems, prevent quality escapes, and strengthen execution before process deterioration causes customer, operational, or financial failure. It requires substantial operational leadership experience, strong Quality and Continuous Improvement expertise, and the credibility to challenge and influence senior leaders across Engineering, Project Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Field Service, Product Management, Operations, and global functions. The leader deploys the North American strategy, builds a high-performing organization, governs the business Quality Management System, and ensures quality issues are owned, escalated, and resolved effectively. The role strengthens structured problem-solving and quality capabilities across projects, suppliers, engineering, products, factories, and field execution. It also leads the end-to-end business process landscape and its governance, supports process owners in establishing accountability and outcome-based measures, and uses data and leading indicators to identify deterioration and systemic improvement opportunities. The position connects Quality and Continuous Improvement performance to measurable business outcomes while fostering transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Operations, Business, Quality, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Significant leadership experience within an engineered-products, project-based, manufacturing, infrastructure, or industrial-services organization.
Demonstrated P&L, operating-unit, or substantial operational responsibility, with accountability for customer outcomes, delivery, cost, margin, working capital, productivity, or overall business performance.
Broad practical experience across several functions such as Engineering, Project Management, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Field Service, Product Management, Quality, and Continuous Improvement.
Proven success using Quality and Continuous Improvement to achieve measurable improvement in customer satisfaction, delivery, cost, project margin, working capital, productivity, predictability, or profitability.
Experience leading cross-functional transformation in complex regional and global organizations.
Strong working knowledge of nonconformance management, root-cause analysis, 8D, corrective and preventive actions, escape analysis, recurrence prevention, effectiveness verification, process measures, and leading indicators.
Ability to distinguish immediate symptoms from underlying business, technical, and process causes.
Experience establishing or improving an end-to-end process landscape, clarifying process ownership, and strengthening interfaces across functional boundaries.
Ability to use mission-based KPIs, leading indicators, and process controls to identify deterioration and enable action before failure occurs.
Proven ability to lead systemic improvement across processes beyond individual corrective-action or preventive-action activities.
Experience building organizations, developing leaders, strengthening functional competencies, establishing accountability, and sustaining organizational change.
Executive-level communication and escalation skills, with the credibility to challenge and influence senior functional and operational leaders without relying on direct authority.
Leadership style combining transparency, accountability, practical business judgment, systems thinking, structured problem-solving, and continuous improvement.

Nice To Haves

Quality, Lean, or Continuous Improvement credentials are beneficial but do not substitute for demonstrated operational leadership and sustained business results.
Experience with engineered-to-order systems, complex customer projects, manufacturing operations, infrastructure, or industrial services is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Deploy the North American Quality and Continuous Improvement strategy, priorities, governance model, and operating rhythm in alignment with customer requirements, business objectives, and operational priorities.
Build and lead a high-performing integrated Quality and Continuous Improvement organization with clear accountabilities, functional leadership, succession depth, and appropriate competencies.
Develop leaders and teams in technical knowledge, operational judgment, structured problem-solving, and cross-functional influence.
Establish and maintain the business Quality Management System, including governance of nonconformance reports, Customer Complaint Resolution Process, transactional Net Promoter Score, customer escalations, audits, certifications, and other critical quality systems.
Ensure significant quality issues are visible, assigned to accountable owners, appropriately escalated, transparently aged, and driven through verified closure.
Strengthen problem-solving through root-cause analysis, 8D, corrective and preventive actions, creation-point and escape-point analysis, exposure assessment, recurrence prevention, and effectiveness verification.
Ensure quality investigations follow failure mechanisms across organizational and functional boundaries, including Projects, Engineering, Suppliers, Product, factories, Research and Development, and global functions.
Strengthen project, supplier, engineering, and product-quality capabilities, including quality planning, engineering controls, supplier quality, factory acceptance testing, field execution, and lessons learned.
Provide quality oversight, challenge, and assurance for product reliability and fitness for purpose while maintaining accountability with appropriate business and technical owners.
Develop interfaces with global Product, factory, R&D, Quality, Engineering, Operations, and Supply Chain organizations to ensure North American customer and business issues receive effective ownership and resolution.
Lead development and maintenance of the end-to-end business process landscape and its governance framework.
Partner with business-appointed process owners to clarify process ownership, interfaces, controls, performance expectations, and accountability.
Establish a methodology for mission-based key performance indicators and support process owners in defining measures tied to intended process outcomes.
Provide analytical support and methodology for nested leading indicators and process controls that identify deterioration before failure occurs.
Use quality, customer, and operating-performance data to identify systemic improvement opportunities and recommend cross-functional Continuous Improvement priorities.
Facilitate business-sponsored improvement initiatives while ensuring named business owners remain accountable for implementation, benefits realization, and sustainment.
Connect Quality and Continuous Improvement performance to measurable outcomes, including customer satisfaction, delivery, project margin, working capital, productivity, predictability, and profitability.
Build a culture of transparency, accountability, structured problem-solving, and continuous improvement while ensuring functional organizations retain ownership for the quality and performance of their work.