Quality Manager

Behlen Mfg Co.•Columbus, NE

9d•Onsite

About The Position

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, the role advances a One Behlen approach to quality through shared expectations, consistent processes, cross-functional collaboration, and organizational learning. The Quality Manager leads the quality management system, inspection and verification practices, corrective action, and quality performance reporting, partnering with Operations, Engineering, Purchasing, Sales, and other stakeholders to prevent defects, reduce rework and quality costs, protect customers, and promote shared responsibility for quality. The position maintains and improves quality systems and compliance, establishes inspection and test practices across fabrication processes, verifies product and documentation conformance, and manages nonconforming materials and products. It leads investigations, corrective actions, and continuous improvement, supervises and develops quality personnel, provides training, addresses supplier quality, and communicates performance, risks, and improvement results to leadership. Work takes place in an office and an active fabrication facility, with regular shop-floor presence and exposure to noise, welding activities, moving equipment, and variable temperatures. Required personal protective equipment must be worn. The role requires the ability to perform essential duties with or without reasonable accommodation.

Requirements

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 collaborate across functions, engage respectfully with frontline teams, and drive accountability without creating functional silos.

Nice To Haves

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.
Experience applying Lean manufacturing or Six Sigma improvement methods.

Responsibilities

Promote a company-wide mindset that quality is a shared responsibility and encourage collaboration across business units rather than siloed work.
Work with business unit and functional leaders to share lessons learned, address recurring issues, and advance consistent quality practices.
Build relationships with Operations, Engineering, Purchasing, Sales, and other stakeholders to align quality priorities with customer needs and business objectives.
Provide leadership with visibility into quality performance, significant risks, customer concerns, and improvement opportunities.
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, AWS codes, and AISC requirements where relevant.
Lead internal audits and coordinate customer, certification, and third-party audits; ensure findings receive timely, effective corrective action.
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, and 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, and place work or shipments on hold until requirements are met when necessary.
Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions for internal defects, supplier issues, and customer complaints.
Verify corrective-action effectiveness and implement 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.
Supervise, coach, and develop quality personnel; establish 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.
Own quality measurement, escalation, and improvement coordination; establish annual targets using baseline performance, customer requirements, product mix, and business priorities, and review performance with relevant Operations, Engineering, and Purchasing leaders.
Track first-pass acceptance, cost of poor quality, customer quality escapes and complaints, welding repair rate where applicable, corrective-action timeliness and effectiveness, audit performance and finding closure, inspection and documentation readiness, and calibration compliance.
Model the One Behlen approach by prioritizing customer and company outcomes, sharing information and lessons learned, building productive cross-team relationships, and encouraging consistent standards and continuous improvement.