Quality Assurance Manager

Help build quality into every product

Steel & O’Brien is looking for a hands-on Quality Assurance Manager to support our data center cooling (DCC) fabrication and manufacturing operations. In this role, you’ll lead daily quality activities, strengthen our quality systems, and work closely with Operations, Engineering, and Supply Chain to prevent defects and keep products moving to customer requirements.

Reporting to the Director of Quality, you’ll oversee product and process quality, inspections, nonconforming material, customer concerns, and corrective actions. You’ll also maintain our ISO 9001 quality management system and help prepare for certification and ongoing audits. The work is practical and collaborative: turning customer specifications and applicable requirements into clear controls, training, and records that teams can follow on the manufacturing floor.

What you’ll do

Quality and manufacturing support

• Manage receiving, in-process, and final quality assurance activities. Confirm inspections and tests follow approved drawings, specifications, acceptance criteria, and documented plans.
• Work with Engineering and qualified technical personnel to establish inspection standards, sampling plans, test methods, and clear acceptance and escalation criteria.
• Maintain controls for nonconforming product, including containment, identification, segregation, rework, disposition, and release within your approval authority. Escalate unresolved quality risks.
• Track defects, scrap, rework, first-pass yield, customer complaints, and cost of poor quality. Use trends to prioritize corrective actions and improve process performance.
• Maintain inspection and test records, measurement equipment calibration controls, and the readiness of required quality tools. Support new product and process readiness reviews.
• Maintain and improve the ISO 9001 quality management system. This includes gap assessments, procedures, internal audits, management review inputs, and coordination with certification bodies.
• Build and maintain practical controls for document approval, revision management, change control, record retention, training, and competency records.
• Plan and coordinate internal, customer, and certification audits. Maintain objective evidence, support auditor objectivity and impartiality, and work with process owners to resolve findings.
• Partner with Engineering and functional owners to identify applicable quality standards, customer specifications, contractual obligations, and product-related regulatory requirements, then translate them into documented controls.
• Maintain controls for material certifications, heat and lot traceability, weld procedures and qualification records, inspection and test results, and certificates of conformity, as applicable.

Customer and supplier quality

• Manage customer quality concerns and supplier nonconformances with Operations, Engineering, and Supply Chain. Coordinate containment, communication, investigation, and corrective actions.
• Work with Supply Chain to establish supplier quality and documentation expectations. Support supplier qualification, performance reviews, and audits based on assigned scope and risk.
• Oversee the completeness and traceability of customer quality packages and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) submissions when required. Confirm records support acceptance and authorized product release.

Corrective action and continuous improvement

• Manage corrective and preventive actions (CAPAs) related to audit findings, production defects, customer complaints, supplier issues, and compliance gaps. Assign owners and track actions through verified closure.
• Coordinate containment, root cause analysis, corrective actions, due dates, and effectiveness checks. Follow up on incomplete investigations or actions that have not solved the problem.
• Apply Lean, Kaizen, process mapping, 5 Whys, and other structured problem-solving methods to prevent repeat issues, reduce variation, and improve process controls.
• Report quality trends, overdue actions, recurring failures, and resource needs to the Director of Quality. Escalate barriers that could delay resolution.

Team leadership

• Lead assigned Quality engineers, technicians, inspectors, and quality activities. Set priorities and coordinate floor coverage around production and customer needs.
• For assigned direct reports, manage onboarding, training, development, performance feedback, and accountability.
• Coach process owners on quality and compliance requirements.
• Bring practical judgment, clear communication, strong documentation, data analysis, audit skills, and reliable follow-through to an active manufacturing environment.
• Engineering and qualified technical personnel retain responsibility for technical interpretation and procedure approval within their designated authority. Inspection acceptance, product disposition, and release follow established approval authority. Functional process owners remain accountable for execution within their departments.

What you’ll bring

• Bachelor’s degree in quality, engineering, manufacturing, business, or a related field—or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• At least five years of progressive manufacturing quality assurance, quality systems, or related experience, including leadership of quality activities, program implementation, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience with inspection controls, nonconforming product, customer and supplier quality issues, CAPA, and verification of corrective action effectiveness. People management experience is preferred.
• ISO 9001 Internal Auditor or Lead Auditor credential required; Lead Auditor preferred.
• Hands-on experience implementing or maintaining an ISO 9001 quality management system and supporting certification or surveillance audits required.
• Lean and/or Kaizen certification required, along with demonstrated application and measurable results.
• Experience with metal fabrication, welding operations, material traceability, drawings, measurement methods, and customer quality documentation strongly preferred.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, particularly Excel.
• Experience with Dynamics 365 Business Central or a comparable ERP system. Power BI experience preferred.

Work environment and travel

This role combines office work with regular time on the manufacturing floor. Required site safety practices and personal protective equipment apply. Travel to supported sites, suppliers, or customer locations is required as business needs dictate.

Salary Range: $ 120-150K , 10% annual bonus

Attendance Requirements:  Attendance on a regular, consistent basis is mandatory.

Accommodations: Essential functions of this position may include but are not limited to lifting, reaching, bending, stooping, twisting, kneeling, crouching, carrying objects, ascending/descending stairs and commuting to work location. If you are an individual with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to perform the essential job functions under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) or other state or federal law, you may request the accommodation below.