Director of Quality

Company Overview

Grid Structures, a division of Southland Steel, manufactures steel poles and structures supporting electric utility and renewable energy infrastructure. Our Amite, Louisiana operations play an important role in serving customers nationwide. We are building an organization capable of delivering reliable quality, dependable execution, and sustained growth.

Position Summary

Grid Structures is seeking an experienced, hands-on Director of Quality to lead quality assurance, quality control, and nondestructive testing (NDT) for our utility steel structures manufacturing business. This is a transformational leadership role—not simply a position administering inspections or maintaining procedures. The successful candidate will build reliable quality systems, develop our shop-floor team, strengthen customer confidence, and prevent defects at their source.

This leader must bring meaningful electric utility structures experience, NDT Level III technical expertise, direct customer-facing capability, and the willingness to work side by side with inspectors, welders, fitters, operations leaders, and engineers. The Director of Quality will combine sound technical judgment with servant leadership, disciplined processes, clear accountability, and measurable improvement in Safety, Quality, Delivery, and Cost (SQDC).

Core Accountabilities

Lead Quality Where the Work Happens

· Own quality performance across incoming material, fabrication, welding, dimensional verification, NDT, coating/galvanizing interfaces, final inspection, and product release.

· Lead, coach, and develop hourly and salaried Quality and NDT personnel; establish clear standards, staffing plans, training, and accountability.

· Maintain a highly visible daily shop-floor presence; engage employees, solve problems at the source, and reinforce quality ownership throughout production.

· Establish effective quality hold points, nonconforming material controls, inspection discipline, and timely escalation with authority to contain or stop nonconforming work.

· Partner with Operations, Engineering, Procurement, Supply Chain, and Project Management to protect safety, product conformity, customer commitments, and cost performance.

Own Utility Structure and Welding Quality

· Apply practical knowledge of electric transmission and distribution steel poles, tubular structures, engineered assemblies, and utility customer specifications.

· Ensure compliance with approved drawings, material requirements, weld symbols, applicable AWS D1.1 provisions, ASCE 48 requirements where applicable, contractual inspection requirements, and other governing standards.

· Apply ASCE 48 requirements as relevant to the design, fabrication, inspection, and acceptance of steel transmission pole structures; coordinate specification interpretations with Engineering and customers.

· Oversee welding and fabrication quality, including plate preparation, forming, fit-up, longitudinal and circumferential welding, dimensional controls, and final acceptance.

· Review welding procedure specifications (WPS), procedure qualification records (PQR), and welder performance qualifications in coordination with qualified technical personnel.

· Provide hands-on technical guidance on weld discontinuities, repairs, inspection interpretation, material traceability, and recurring fabrication nonconformances.

Provide Technical Leadership of NDT

· Serve as the designated Responsible NDT Level III upon verification of qualifications and applicable certification requirements, or obtain the required qualifications within an agreed timeframe. Until qualified, ensure appropriate Level III technical oversight is maintained.

· Oversee ultrasonic testing (UT), magnetic particle testing (MT), visual testing (VT), and other methods applicable to Grid Structures products and contracts.

· Develop, review, approve, and maintain NDT procedures and techniques within the scope of the individual’s qualifications and applicable requirements.

· Oversee inspector qualification, examinations, training, certification records, calibration, testing equipment, and outside NDT resources.

· Ensure the employer-based NDT certification program meets the governing written practice and applicable SNT-TC-1A, CP-189, or customer-mandated requirements.

Own Customer Quality and Restore Confidence

· Serve as the senior quality contact for utility customers, engineering organizations, third-party inspectors, and project stakeholders.

· Lead customer audits, technical reviews, complaints, field concerns, and difficult specification or weld-acceptance discussions with professionalism and sound judgment.

· Drive timely containment, root-cause analysis, corrective action, customer communication, and verification of sustained effectiveness.

· Establish clear alignment with customers and third-party inspectors on inspection scope, required hold and witness points, report content, submission timing, and acceptance criteria; address documentation gaps or disagreements promptly.

· Ensure inspection reports, certifications, NDT results, test records, and project turnover documentation are accurate, complete, traceable, and delivered to customers and third-party inspectors when required.

· Proactively understand customer-specific quality requirements before manufacturing begins; turn customer feedback into durable process improvements.

· Own ongoing maintenance and renewal of Grid Structures’ AISC and EXO certifications, including audit preparation, internal compliance assessments, evidence and record control, corrective action, and coordination with certifying bodies.

Build Processes That Sustain Results

· Build and sustain a practical quality management system meeting Grid Structures’ existing AISC and EXO certification requirements, aligned with relevant ISO 9001 principles, applicable contracts, and manufacturing realities; ISO 9001 certification is not currently held by Grid Structures.

· Standardize inspection and test plans, quality gates, work instructions, material traceability, nonconformance controls, audits, and record retention.

· Use structured 5 Why, 8D, and other root-cause methods to separate immediate containment from permanent corrective and preventive action.

· Implement daily visual quality measures, leader standard work, escalation routines, layered process audits, and follow-through.

· Partner with Operations and Engineering to improve first-pass yield, reduce scrap and rework, strengthen process capability, and prevent repeat defects.