Location: Houston
Department: DEPTEC
The OpportunityThe Senior Quality Manager, Factory Operations is responsible for leading daily quality assurance and quality control operations within a large and complex manufacturing facility. This position directs a large Quality organization that may include Quality Supervisors, Quality Engineers, Team Leads, Quality Technicians, Quality Specialists, Inspectors, and Document Control personnel.
The Senior Quality Manager maintains a strong and visible presence on the production floor, ensuring Quality personnel are effectively deployed, supported, developed, and aligned with factory priorities. The position is responsible for the performance of incoming, in-process, final, testing, documentation, nonconformance, corrective-action, and product-release activities across production areas, shifts, and product lines.
This role partners closely with Operations and other factory functions to achieve safety, quality, delivery, cost, and customer commitments while ensuring quality requirements are not compromised. The Senior Quality Manager balances production needs with product conformity, customer expectations, technical requirements, and business risk, and ensures quality issues are identified, escalated, and resolved at the appropriate organizational level.
What you will do?Daily Factory Operations and Production-Floor Leadership- Maintain an active presence on the production floor to understand current conditions, support Quality personnel, remove barriers, and ensure timely resolution of manufacturing-quality issues.
- Participate in daily factory operating meetings, production reviews, and escalation meetings, providing clear updates on quality risks, inspection status, nonconformances, test results, staffing constraints, documentation gaps, and product-release readiness.
- Establish a structured daily operating rhythm for the Quality organization, including shift handoffs, floor coverage, inspection priorities, escalation, action tracking, and communication of changing priorities.
- Ensure adequate Quality coverage across incoming inspection, production, assembly, final inspection, documentation, and ready-to-ship release activities.
- Monitor production flow and proactively resolve quality-related bottlenecks, inspection constraints, documentation gaps, or testing delays that may affect delivery commitments.
- Ensure Quality personnel respond promptly to production needs while maintaining independence and discipline in acceptance, rejection, hold, deviation, and product-release decisions.
- Escalate unresolved risks quickly, with clear definition of the issue, potential impact, containment, decision requirements, ownership, and required completion date.
- Provide direct leadership during significant factory-quality incidents, customer concerns, production holds, recovery activities, and product-release decisions.
Factory Quality Assurance and Quality Control- Direct incoming, in-process, final, and ready-to-ship inspection and testing for mechanical and electrical components, equipment, systems, and assemblies.
- Ensure conformance to current drawings, specifications, bills of material, work instructions, inspection plans, control plans, acceptance criteria, and customer requirements.
- Develop and maintain quality gates, checklists, hold points, witness points, inspection criteria, and product-release requirements.
- Oversee mechanical inspection and testing, including dimensional checks, fit-up, alignment, torque verification, welding and fabrication inspection, pressure testing, leak testing, and functional testing.
- Oversee electrical inspection and testing, including wiring, labeling, termination and torque checks, continuity, insulation resistance, grounding and bonding, and functional testing.
Nonconformance and Corrective Action Management- Oversee factory nonconformance, containment, segregation, disposition, deviation, corrective-action, and closure processes.
- Ensure nonconforming material and product are controlled to prevent unintended use, continued processing, or shipment.
- Lead or sponsor investigations involving significant defects, repeat issues, test failures, customer escapes, or field-reported manufacturing problems.
- Ensure investigations address direct cause, root cause, contributing factors, and escape point, as applicable.
- Review corrective-action plans and require further investigation when actions do not adequately address recurrence or escape risk.
- Monitor NCR aging, repeat defects, rework, scrap, test failures, customer escapes, and corrective-action effectiveness.
- Ensure lessons learned are incorporated into inspection plans, work instructions, training, and production processes.
- Communicate significant quality risks and corrective-action status to Operations and senior leadership.
Process Control, Improvement, and Compliance- Analyze quality data, including inspection findings, first-pass quality, NCRs, rework, scrap, test failures, audit findings, and field feedback, to identify recurring issues and improvement priorities.
- Support qualification and validation of new products, processes, equipment, tooling, inspection methods, tests, design changes, and supplier changes.
- Ensure compliance with the company QMS, ISO 9001 principles, customer requirements, approved specifications, and applicable standards; support internal, customer, registrar, and third-party audits and factory acceptance tests.
- Represent factory quality during customer visits and communicate product status, inspection results, quality risks, open actions, and release readiness.
Personnel Leadership and Development- Coach and develop supervisors, engineers, team leads, technicians, inspectors, specialists, and Document Control personnel.
- Establish clear expectations for performance, behavior, communication, floor presence, accountability, and follow-through.
- Identify high-potential employees and provide assignments and coaching that prepare them for greater responsibility.
- Ensure new and promoted employees receive appropriate onboarding, role-specific training, and documented qualification.
- Partner with Human Resources on employee relations, attendance, conduct, conflict resolution, performance management, corrective action, and organizational changes.
- Address performance and relationship concerns consistently, promptly, and in accordance with company requirements.
- Promote a respectful environment where employees are encouraged to raise quality concerns and improvement opportunities.
Required Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing, Industrial, or Quality Engineering; Engineering Technology; Operations Management; or a related technical field preferred. Equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
- Minimum 12 years of progressive experience in manufacturing quality, quality assurance, quality control, process quality, production inspection, or a related technical quality function.
- Minimum 8 years leading Quality Supervisors, Team Leads, Inspectors, Technicians, Document Control personnel, or other factory quality employees.
- Demonstrated experience with incoming, in-process, final, testing, and product-release quality; NCR/CAPA; controlled documentation; audits; and cross-functional issue resolution.
- Working knowledge of ISO 9001 principles, manufacturing inspection, testing, quality planning, process controls, configuration discipline, and release requirements.
- Ability to interpret mechanical and electrical drawings, schematics, specifications, bills of material, inspection criteria, and test procedures.
- Ability to analyze trends and make sound decisions balancing customer requirements, production needs, product risk, and operational priorities.
- Strong leadership, communication, organization, prioritization, coaching, decision-making, and problem-solving skills.
- Candidates must have practical factory-quality experience in either mechanical or electrical manufacturing and sufficient working knowledge of the other discipline to lead an integrated quality organization.
- Mechanical: skids, modules, piping, valves, pumps, tanks, cooling systems, fabricated structures, welded assemblies, dimensional inspection, fit-up, torque, alignment, pressure/leak testing, and familiarity with ASME, AWS, ASTM, GD&T, and NDT requirements.
- Electrical: panels, controls, wiring, cable routing, sensors, motors, power distribution, grounding and bonding, schematics, continuity and insulation-resistance testing, functional testing, and familiarity with NEC, UL, NFPA 70E, IEC, and IPC/WHMA-A-620 requirements.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience in manufacturing, industrial equipment, modular construction, equipment fabrication, data center infrastructure, or another complex engineered-product environment (Preferred).
- Preferred credentials include ASQ CQE, CQA, or Six Sigma Green Belt; AWS CWI, ASME, GD&T, NDT (ASNT), for mechanical focus; NFPA 70E, NEC, UL, electrical inspection, or electrical testing for electrical focus.
How we support youWe believe your best work happens when you feel supported - professionally, personally, and financially. That's why we offer a range of benefits designed to help you thrive, stay healthy, and plan for the future.
- Performance-driven rewards - Competitive pay with incentive opportunities that recognize your results and contributions.
- Comprehensive healthcare - Medical, dental, and vision coverage that supports you and your family's total well-being.
- Security and peace of mind - Life and disability insurance programs that provide protection when it matters most.
- Flexible benefits options - A variety of voluntary benefits so you can personalize coverage to fit your needs.
- Time to recharge - Generous paid time off to relax, travel, and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
- Investing in your growth - Education assistance and tuition support to help you build skills and advance your career.
- Planning for the future - Retirement and savings programs that help you achieve long-term financial confidence.
