QUALITY- Associate Director USCA and LatAm

This role leads the quality strategy for the General Industrial Division, with a strong emphasis on customer-facing quality, including customer complaints, audits, certifications, escalations, and continuous improvement initiatives. The successful candidate will drive large-scale quality improvements, prioritize efforts based on business impact and risk, and build alignment across commercial, operations, and leadership teams. The position also requires global leadership experience, including leading and developing teams across multiple regions while coaching talent and fostering accountability. Based in Minneapolis, MN or Cleveland, OH, this role reports to the R&D Technical Director and serves as a key partner to senior leaders, customers, and cross-functional stakeholders.
 

Job duties include contact with other employees and access confidential and proprietary information and/or other items of value, and such access may be supervised or unsupervised. The Company therefore has determined that a review of criminal history is necessary to protect the business and its operations and reputation and is necessary to protect the safety of the Company’s staff, employees, and business relationships.
 

1.    Customer Facing Technical & Quality 
•    Lead and or participate in complex divisional quality investigations to determine root cause that are customer and/or technical facing.  
•    Key customer and internal contact for Quality Customer Centric programs and meetings.  Includes High Impact leaders, Quarterly Customer Continuous Improvement meetings, etc.
•    Lead regional and/or global projects to execute business quality improvements for General Industrial customers (i.e FMAP, PI, Risk Assessments)
•    Own regional customer facing quality metrics and associated improvement plans (Complaint Resolution Days, Opportunity Cost)
•    Lead Quality prioritization for direct support and service to our customers (MOB, BAR)
•    Early risk identification and escalation for customer facing quality.
•    Accountable for clear, timely, data-based decision making. Provide trade off recommendations and appropriate solutions-based escalation

2.    Global Team Leadership & Development
•    Directly lead and develop regional quality planning and local quality ownership in USCA, LATAM and with indirect leadership of APAC
•    Accountable for global continuous improvement initiatives related to Customer-facing quality (I.e New Product development risk assessments, system/program improvements)
•    Drive compliance to quality standards and work to modify standards for General Industrial processes where necessary (i.e Post add limits, ARC thresholds)
•    Drives strategic quality initiatives across more complex site(s) that may include multiple divisions, high dollar value products being produced, etc.  
•    Strategic planning for future expansion required organizationally and structurally, prioritization of Customer facing related quality tasks such as Claims, Complaints, Customer Certifications and Customer High Impact Teams 
 

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
•    Must be legally authorized to work in the country of employment without needing sponsorship for employment work visa status now or in the future (e.g., OPT, CPT, H1B, EB-1,etc.)
•    Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university.  
•    Must be at least 18 years of age. 
•    Must have at least 11 - 15 years of experience in coatings products development, Operations, Quality, Technical, or Sales
•    Must have the ability to work a flexible work schedule to adapt prioritization changes and needs
•    Demonstrated ability to lead a cross functional team to a successful outcome
•    Presentations skills
•    Program knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word, and Access, Minitab
•    Demonstrated success in leading Root Cause investigations and analysis tools
•    Previous direct customer interaction
•    Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
•    Knowledge of more complex problem solving and error proofing skills
•    Demonstrated problem solving, project, and program management skills for the complex issues.
•    Demonstrated ability to lead and develop global teams across multiple regions, driving strategic quality improvement initiatives and delivering measurable business and customer outcomes.
•    Program knowledge of Business Objects
•    System knowledge of Watson, MES, Product Vision, Discovery, and MES
•    Ability to travel domestically and internationally for work.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
•    Majors in Chemistry, Engineering

Travel Requirements: 40% Domestic and International

This position is not eligible for sponsorship for work authorization now or in the future, including conversion to H-1B visa.

 

Non-Solicit - Successful candidate will be required to sign a Protective Non-Solicitation Agreement where permitted by law.