Director of Quality - Fabrication & Manufacturing

 

 

About Loenbro

Loenbro is a trusted, long-term construction lifecycle partner to thousands of customers across the U.S. Our market spans all industries and our service offerings include Critical Electrical, Mechanical & Structural, Soft Crafts, Inspection, Underground Maintenance and Installation, and Fabrication. Our expertise lies in simplifying the complex and establishing long-standing relationships with our partners. We have a national presence but a local approach—every customer benefits from our capabilities and our care.

At Loenbro, we don't just offer jobs—we build careers grounded in integrity, teamwork, excellence, and purpose. Join a team where your expertise is valued, your growth is supported, and your work helps expand the reach of the critical infrastructure that powers communities across the nation.

 

Job Summary

The Director of Quality - Fabrication & Manufacturing is responsible for developing, implementing, and leading the enterprise quality strategy across Loenbro's Fabrication & Manufacturing network. This position will establish a consistent, scalable quality management framework supporting mechanical and pipe fabrication, structural fabrication, electrical prefab, modular assembly, and future manufactured products across Loenbro facilities.

A primary initial responsibility will be conducting a comprehensive assessment of existing facility certifications, code qualifications, quality programs, procedures, personnel qualifications, inspection capabilities, and customer-specific requirements. The Director will use this assessment to establish a fleet-wide certification and quality strategy aligned with Loenbro's target markets, facility specialization, and long-term manufacturing strategy.

The Director will lead the transition from predominantly project-specific quality control toward a proactive manufacturing quality model centered on first-time quality, error prevention, standardized processes, measurable performance, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement. The role will work closely with Operations, Engineering, Project Management, Welding and Process Improvement, Safety, Estimating, Supply Chain, Business Development, project teams, and customers to ensure consistent quality delivery.

The Director will also develop quality plans and strategies supporting new products, manufacturing processes, facilities, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and expansion into new end markets, while serving as a senior customer-facing quality leader capable of confidently articulating Loenbro's quality systems, capabilities, certifications, controls, and continuous-improvement philosophy.

 

Essential Job Responsibilities

Enterprise Quality Strategy & Governance

• Develop and implement a standardized Fabrication & Manufacturing quality strategy across Loenbro's manufacturing network.
• Establish enterprise quality standards, policies, procedures, governance, and minimum requirements across mechanical, structural, electrical prefab, modular assembly, and manufactured-product operations.
• Transition the organization toward a prevention-based manufacturing quality model focused on building quality into the process rather than relying primarily on final inspection.
• Define quality roles, responsibilities, accountability, escalation processes, and standardized expectations across facilities and projects.
• Develop a scalable quality framework capable of supporting Loenbro's growth from project-based fabrication into repeatable manufacturing.

Certification & Qualification Strategy

• Conduct a comprehensive assessment and gap analysis of existing certifications, accreditations, code stamps, welding qualifications, procedures, inspection capabilities, personnel qualifications, and facility-specific quality programs.
• Develop and maintain a centralized certification and qualification matrix across all Fabrication & Manufacturing facilities.
• Establish a fleet-wide certification strategy defining which certifications and qualifications should be maintained, expanded, consolidated, or added at individual facilities.
• Align certification investments with facility specialization, customer requirements, target markets, and Loenbro's hub-and-spoke manufacturing strategy.
• Ensure ongoing compliance with applicable AWS, ASME, AISC, NEC/NFPA, UL, ISO, customer-specific, and other relevant requirements as applicable to Loenbro's work.
• Establish governance for welder qualifications, welding procedures, inspection personnel qualifications, calibration programs, and required quality records.
• Develop the quality-system roadmap required to support increasingly regulated and technically demanding markets, including future nuclear/NQA-1 capability where aligned with Loenbro's strategy.

First-Time Quality & KPI Management

• Develop and maintain a standardized Fabrication & Manufacturing quality scorecard focused on first-time quality, error prevention, trend visibility, and accountability.
• Track weld reject and repair rates, weld first-pass acceptance, NDE rejection rates, rework hours and cost, scrap, dimensional and fit-up nonconformances, drawing/fabrication errors, NCRs, corrective-action closure and recurrence, customer issues, supplier quality, punch-list deficiencies, electrical prefab defects, testing failures, first-pass yield, cost of poor quality, and quality-related schedule impacts.
• Establish leading indicators in addition to traditional lagging quality metrics.
• Create dashboards that provide leadership visibility into performance by facility, project, product, process, welder, supplier, and other relevant dimensions.
• Benchmark facilities and processes to identify best practices, systemic risks, and improvement opportunities.

Mechanical, Welding & Structural Quality

• Partner closely with Welding and Process Improvement leadership to establish consistent welding quality standards across the fabrication network.
• Monitor weld reject rates, repair rates, NDE performance, welder performance, WPS adherence, consumable controls, and recurring defect trends.
• Ensure appropriate welding procedures, qualifications, documentation, inspection requirements, material traceability, dimensional control, coatings, and testing requirements are maintained.
• Establish quality controls for structural fabrication, skids, racks, modular assemblies, equipment integration, and related manufactured products.
• Identify systemic fabrication and welding issues and implement corrective and preventive actions across affected facilities.

Electrical Prefab Quality

• Partner with Electrical Prefab leadership to establish appropriate quality controls for electrical assemblies and manufactured products.
• Develop standardized inspection, testing, documentation, traceability, and acceptance requirements appropriate to the type and complexity of electrical prefab being produced.
• Establish metrics addressing assembly errors, wiring and termination defects, dimensional issues, testing failures, labeling/documentation deficiencies, and field rework attributable to prefab.
• Support standardized work instructions, inspection points, testing protocols, and product acceptance criteria as electrical prefab evolves toward increasingly standardized and productized solutions.

Quality Planning & New Product Introduction

• Develop quality plans for major projects, new products, new manufacturing processes, and new end markets.
• Participate early in productization and design-development activities so quality requirements are incorporated into product and manufacturing-process design.
• Establish inspection and test plans, hold/witness points, acceptance criteria, documentation requirements, traceability, and turnover packages as appropriate.
• Participate in design reviews, constructability reviews, manufacturing-readiness reviews, and new-product introduction processes.
• Identify potential failure modes before production and establish controls designed to prevent defects, using risk-based methods such as FMEA where appropriate.
• Establish first-article, prototype, pilot-production, and production-release processes for new standardized products.

Corrective Action & Continuous Improvement

• Establish a consistent NCR, root-cause analysis, corrective-action, and preventive-action process across the manufacturing network.
• Ensure significant quality events are investigated to determine systemic causes rather than simply correcting individual defects.
• Track corrective actions through implementation and verify effectiveness to prevent recurrence.
• Identify recurring trends across facilities and deploy enterprise-level corrective actions where appropriate.
• Partner with Operations and Process Improvement to reduce variation, eliminate recurring defects, improve productivity, and lower the cost of poor quality.
• Establish mechanisms for sharing lessons learned and best practices across the network.

Project, Customer & Commercial Quality

• Partner with project teams early to understand project-specific quality requirements and translate them into executable shop quality plans.
• Ensure alignment among engineering requirements, procurement specifications, fabrication processes, inspection, testing, documentation, and turnover.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for significant Fabrication & Manufacturing quality matters.
• Participate in customer quality meetings, audits, facility assessments, pre-award qualifications, and strategic pursuits.
• Clearly and confidently articulate Loenbro's fabrication and manufacturing quality systems, certifications, capabilities, controls, and performance to customers.
• Support Business Development and Estimating with quality strategies and requirements for strategic pursuits and new end markets.

Supplier Quality

• Partner with Supply Chain to establish supplier and subcontractor quality requirements for critical materials, equipment, components, and outsourced fabrication.
• Develop risk-based supplier qualification, surveillance, inspection, performance-management, and corrective-action processes.
• Track supplier-related NCRs, defects, documentation issues, and other quality impacts and ensure requirements flow through purchase orders and subcontracts.

Quality Systems, Documentation & Digitalization

• Standardize quality documentation, inspection records, turnover packages, NCR processes, audit records, certification records, and records-retention requirements across facilities.
• Partner with Operations and IT to evaluate and implement digital quality-management capabilities supporting the F&M network.
• Develop reliable data collection and analytics that integrate quality information with manufacturing, ERP/MRP, project controls, and operational reporting systems.
• Ensure quality records and traceability requirements scale appropriately as Loenbro moves toward repeatable manufacturing.

Facility Strategy, Acquisitions & Integration

• Assess quality systems, certifications, personnel, procedures, and capabilities of potential acquisition targets.
• Identify certification gaps, compliance risks, required investments, and integration requirements during acquisition due diligence.
• Develop quality integration plans for acquired facilities and support facility specialization decisions.
• Participate in new facility planning to ensure appropriate quality infrastructure is incorporated from the beginning.

Leadership & Organizational Development

• Provide functional leadership to quality personnel supporting Fabrication & Manufacturing facilities and projects.
• Establish competency requirements, training standards, and development pathways for quality professionals.
• Build a culture where quality is owned by Operations and the workforce, with Quality serving as system owner, technical resource, verifier, and improvement partner.
• Promote transparency, accountability, stop-work authority, learning, standardized work, and proactive error prevention.

 

Key Performance Indicators

• Weld reject and repair rates, and weld first-pass acceptance.
• NDE rejection rates and inspection performance.
• Rework hours and cost, scrap, and cost of poor quality.
• Dimensional and fit-up nonconformances, and drawing/fabrication errors.
• NCR volume, corrective-action closure, and recurrence rates.
• Customer issues, punch-list deficiencies, and supplier quality performance.
• Electrical prefab defects and testing failures.
• First-pass yield and quality-related schedule impacts.

 

Strategic Priorities

• Baseline all existing F&M certifications, qualifications, procedures, and quality capabilities.
• Develop a fleet-wide certification and qualification roadmap aligned with target markets and facility specialization.
• Establish common quality standards and governance across the manufacturing network.
• Implement a standardized F&M quality scorecard and first-time-quality metrics.
• Reduce welding defects, rework, recurring NCRs, and overall cost of poor quality.
• Establish consistent corrective-action, lessons-learned, and error-prevention processes.
• Integrate quality planning into engineering, productization, estimating, and project execution earlier in the lifecycle.
• Develop scalable quality systems for standardized mechanical, electrical, structural, skid, modular, and integrated M&E products.
• Strengthen customer-facing quality capabilities to support external F&M growth.
• Establish the quality foundation necessary to pursue more sophisticated and regulated markets, including future NQA-1 nuclear capability.

 

Key Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive quality leadership experience in fabrication, manufacturing, construction, EPC, industrial services, or related environments.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing quality-management systems across multiple facilities or operating locations strongly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of welding and fabrication quality systems, inspection, NDE, material control, traceability, and corrective-action processes.
• Working knowledge of applicable codes and standards such as AWS, ASME, AISC, ISO, and other relevant fabrication/manufacturing requirements.
• Experience supporting electrical manufacturing or prefab quality programs preferred.
• Demonstrated experience with root-cause analysis, corrective/preventive action, first-pass yield, cost of poor quality, and continuous improvement.
• Experience developing project-specific and product-specific quality plans and supporting customer audits and qualification activities.
• Experience with new-product introduction, acquisition due diligence, and integration preferred.
• Experience with nuclear quality systems or NQA-1 is highly desirable as Loenbro develops future nuclear manufacturing capabilities.
• Strong analytical and executive communication skills, with the ability to convert quality data into actionable operational improvements.
• Ability to travel regularly among Loenbro fabrication and manufacturing facilities and project locations.

 

Leadership Competencies

• Enterprise Mindset — Thinks beyond individual shops and establishes systems that improve performance across the entire manufacturing network.
• Quality Leadership — Builds a culture where quality is designed into the work and owned throughout the organization.
• Technical Credibility — Engages confidently with craft professionals, inspectors, engineers, project leaders, executives, and customers.
• Prevention Focus — Prioritizes error prevention and process control over inspection and correction after the fact.
• Data-Driven Decision Making — Uses meaningful KPIs and trend analysis to identify risks and improvement opportunities.
• Root-Cause Discipline — Drives corrective actions that address systemic causes and prevent recurrence.
• Customer Confidence — Clearly articulates Loenbro's quality capabilities and strategy to sophisticated customers.
• Continuous Improvement — Develops scalable solutions that improve quality, productivity, and predictability.
• Cross-Functional Leadership — Collaborates effectively across Operations, Engineering, Welding, Project Management, Supply Chain, Estimating, Business Development, Safety, and project teams.
• Builder Mentality — Establishes systems, standards, processes, and organizational capabilities required for a growing manufacturing enterprise.

 

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Quality, Construction Management, Manufacturing, Welding Engineering/Technology, or a related technical discipline preferred; equivalent significant relevant experience may be considered.

 

Measures of Success

Initial success will be demonstrated through completion of a comprehensive network-wide certification and quality-capability assessment; establishment of a clearly defined fleet certification strategy; implementation of standardized quality KPIs and first-time-quality reporting; measurable reduction in weld rejects, rework, recurring NCRs, and cost of poor quality; and implementation of consistent quality planning and corrective-action processes across Fabrication & Manufacturing.

Longer-term success will be measured by Loenbro's ability to deliver increasingly complex and repeatable fabricated and manufactured products with predictable first-time quality, maintain the certifications and quality systems required by targeted end markets, demonstrate continuous quality improvement across the manufacturing network, and establish a scalable quality platform supporting Loenbro's transformation from project-based fabrication into a differentiated manufacturing business.

 

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Work Environment:

• Primarily based in a manufacturing/fabrication shop and office environment, with regular travel across Loenbro's Fabrication & Manufacturing facilities and project sites.
• Frequent visits to fabrication shops, manufacturing floors, and industrial job sites to assess quality programs, certifications, and inspection capabilities.
• Potential exposure to noise, dust, welding fumes, and other typical industrial and manufacturing environment factors while touring facilities.
• Regular engagement with customers, auditors, and facility personnel, which may require regional and national travel by air and ground transportation.

This role requires compliance with all applicable safety regulations, personal protective equipment (PPE) requirements, and Loenbro's Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) policies.

 

Benefits

Loenbro offers a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits package, and rewards to those who join our team:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• Performance-based bonus plan
• Long-term Incentives
• Paid time off (PTO) and holiday pay
• Life and disability insurance
• Professional development and training opportunities
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

Benefits eligibility may vary based on employment classification and hours worked.

 

Guided by Core Values (LEAD), grounded in grit and a commitment to excellence, Loenbro betters our families, customers, and local communities. If you're ready to be part of a company that LEADS by:

• Living with Integrity
• Exceeding Expectations
• Acting with Urgency
• Delivering Excellence

…we want to hear from you.

Loenbro is an Equal Opportunity Employer