Director, Quality Management Systems

Apogee Enterprises · Wausau

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Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: APOG), founded in 1949 and headquartered in Minneapolis, MN designs and delivers architectural products and services that enclose and enhance commercial buildings.  www.apog.com

Apogee Architectural Metals is a segment of Apogee specializing in aluminum framing, windows, storefront, curtainwall, and entrance systems. We provide integrated capabilities, including design, engineering, extrusion, finishing, fabrication and assembly, across North America. Through our brands including Alumicor, EFCO, Linetec, Tubelite, and Wausau, we deliver quality, consistency, and value-added services throughout our portfolio.

Position Summary

The Director, Quality is a senior quality leader accountable for transforming quality performance, capability, and culture across the business. Reporting to the VP, Operations, this leader will set the quality agenda, lead the Quality organization, and establish the operating discipline, systems, and leadership routines required to deliver consistent customer and operational outcomes. This role requires a proven quality leader who can move beyond compliance to build a scalable quality operating model, elevate accountability across sites, and influence leaders at all levels to adopt new standards, behaviors, and ways of working.

Key Responsibilities

• Set and execute the quality strategy, operating model, governance routines, and performance expectations needed to improve quality outcomes across sites
• Lead, coach, and develop Quality Managers and site quality teams to strengthen capability, accountability, decision-making, and execution discipline
• Build a scalable quality operating system that integrates QMS standards, metrics, technology, problem solving, and leadership routines into daily operations
• Use customer feedback, quality data, audit findings, and operational trends to identify systemic issues, prioritize action, and eliminate recurring failure modes
• Partner with the VP, Operations, site leaders, and functional leaders to align quality priorities with operational performance, customer commitments, and business objectives
• Lead significant customer, product, process, or operational quality issues with clear escalation, root-cause discipline, corrective action, and organizational learning
• Lead quality transformation initiatives that reduce variation, improve process capability, strengthen operating discipline, and deliver measurable customer and business impact
• Influence leaders across operations, engineering, supply chain, commercial, and functional teams to remove barriers and adopt new standards, behaviors, and ways of working
• Report quality performance, transformation progress, risks, recommendations, and business impact to the VP, Operations and senior leadership
• Develop and maintain enterprise-wide Quality Management Systems (QMS), ensuring compliance with applicable regulatory, industry, customer, and company standards.  (This is a key functionality of the role )
• Lead supplier quality strategies, including qualification, performance management, audits, and corrective action processes to ensure consistent raw material and supplier performance. (Supplier , I like to re-emphasize and verbalize this way for role responsibility)
• Ensure data integrity and leverage digital quality tools, analytics, and technology solutions to improve visibility, decision-making, and process control.
• Own customer quality performance, including complaint management, warranty reduction initiatives, customer audits, and key customer quality relationships. (Ownership around customer centric approach)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong quality leadership with the ability to connect quality strategy, operational execution, customer outcomes, and business performance
• Ability to lead managers and teams while influencing cross-functional leaders in a matrixed, multi-site organization
• Strong communication and change leadership skills, including creating clarity, building commitment, managing resistance, and sustaining adoption
• Enterprise mindset with the ability to challenge current-state practices, address systemic issues, and raise the standard for quality performance
• Talent builder and operating leader who can align resources, develop people, and deliver measurable results through others
   

Education and Experience

• Education
  • Bachelor's degree in Quality Management, Engineering, Operations, Business, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred
• Experience
  • 10+ years of progressive quality, operations, or manufacturing leadership experience, including accountability for quality strategy, performance, systems, governance, and standards
  • Experience leading quality managers and teams in a complex, multi-site manufacturing environment
  • Proven success transforming quality systems, operating discipline, metrics, governance, and leadership routines
  • Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders, lead enterprise-level change, and drive adoption across functions, teams, and sites

  • Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) Development and Implementation Experience

    Experience in  TQMS (Total quality management system; this is more driven and aligned with our AMS and Lean CI activities). This also help to target few key organizations I like to target.

    Supplier Quality Management and Audit Programs Management ( many times director roles has supplier quality and Assurance reporting into them and I like to make sure this person has this background)

    Policy Development and Deployment Experience preferred (ex ;Experience in X Matrix, Hoshin Kanri, Strap Planning) to form a strategy and deploy/implementation.
     

Work Environment/Travel Requirements

• Frequent exposure to manufacturing environment
• Overnight travel requirements will be variable based on projects and business activities, expected up to 50% depending on home location
• Physical Requirements
  • Ability to work in both office and manufacturing environments.
  • Lift up to 10 lbs.

This job description outlines the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified.

Our Benefits

Apogee and our brands are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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