Director of Technical Customer Service & Metallurgy
Location: Canton, Ohio - Onsite
Company: Canton Drop Forge, Inc.
Schedule: Monday – Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Canton Drop Forge is a worldwide leader in Custom and Closed Die Forgings. Thanks to our over 100 years of prosperity as a company, we provide top benefits for our valued employees to prosper and reach their greatest potentials. Becoming a member of Canton Drop Forge means joining a team that benefits from more than a century of learned knowledge and industry skills.
At Canton Drop Forge, you'll gain valuable experience in servicing our six major markets of expertise. We lead the way in closed die forging innovation for the aerospace, oilfield, power generation, mechanical power transmission, off-highway and railway industries.
Position Overview:
The Director of Technical Customer Service & Metallurgy provides executive leadership for the organization’s quality assurance, metallurgy, technical customer service, and product certification functions. This role is responsible for ensuring forged products and manufacturing processes consistently meet customer, metallurgical, regulatory, and quality system requirements while advancing robust process controls throughout the operation.
Serving as a senior technical authority for the organization, this position combines deep knowledge of metallurgy and metals processing with leadership of Quality Assurance systems and processes. The Director partners closely with Operations, Engineering, Sales, and customers to translate complex technical requirements into effective manufacturing and quality controls, resolve technical and customer quality concerns, and continuously strengthen product and process performance.
Key Responsibilities:
- Quality Assurance Leadership: Provide executive leadership and oversight of the Company’s Quality Assurance systems, standards, processes, and controls. Establish and maintain effective quality processes that ensure product conformity, process discipline, traceability, documentation, and compliance with customer and industry requirements. Drive a prevention-based quality culture focused on reducing variation, defects, and repeat customer quality issues.
- Metallurgy & Materials: Serve as a senior metallurgical authority for forged products, with responsibility for metallurgical requirements involving steel and other applicable alloys, material properties, heat treatment, microstructure, mechanical testing, and product performance. Provide technical direction regarding material selection, metallurgical processing, testing, disposition, and conformance.
- Process & Metallurgical Control: Establish and oversee metallurgical and quality controls throughout the forging process, including forge and heat-treat furnace temperature control and monitoring, material requirements, process routings, testing requirements, and statistical/process controls. Partner with Operations and Engineering to improve process capability and address metallurgical or quality-related manufacturing concerns.
- Quality Management Systems: Maintain executive ownership of the Company's quality management system and ensure continued compliance with applicable ISO, AS, NADCAP, customer, and internal quality requirements. Lead and support certification, surveillance, customer, and quality system audits and ensure effective corrective actions and sustained compliance.
- Technical Customer Services: Serve as a senior technical interface with customers regarding metallurgical, processing, testing, and quality requirements. Lead technical discussions, customer audits, and resolution of significant product or quality concerns while maintaining strong customer relationships and protecting the Company's technical and commercial interests.
- Customer Requirements & Contract Review: Interpret complex customer specifications, drawings, material requirements, and technical standards associated with quoting, order acceptance, manufacturing, inspection, testing, and certification. Partner with Sales, Engineering, Quality, Procurement, and Operations to ensure customer requirements are understood, achievable, and effectively translated into manufacturing controls.
- Quality Investigation & Corrective Action: Provide leadership for customer complaints, claims, nonconformances, and significant internal quality issues. Ensure disciplined root-cause analysis, containment, corrective and preventive action, effectiveness verification, and appropriate customer communication. Use quality data and recurring trends to drive systemic improvement.
- Testing, Inspection & NDT: Establish and maintain appropriate inspection, metallurgical testing, and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) requirements and controls. Ensure internal and external testing processes provide reliable evidence of product conformity and satisfy applicable customer and specification requirements.
- Product Certification & Release: Maintain technical oversight of metallurgical approval and certification of shipments. Establish test-plan requirements, review inspection and testing results for specification conformance, coordinate outside testing where required, and ensure customer certifications and supporting documentation accurately demonstrate compliance prior to product release.
- Supplier & External Process Quality: Establish technical and quality requirements for raw material suppliers, laboratories, outside processors, and other critical service providers. Participate in qualification, approval, performance evaluation, and corrective action activities necessary to protect material and product integrity.
- Continuous Improvement: Partner with Operations and technical teams to identify opportunities to improve process capability, product quality, metallurgical performance, yield, and manufacturing consistency. Apply quality data, statistical methods, metallurgical analysis, and technical investigation to address systemic sources of variation and failure.
- Leadership & Organizational Development: Lead and develop Quality Assurance, Metallurgy, and Technical Customer Services personnel. Establish clear accountability, technical standards, and development expectations while building organizational capability and succession within critical quality and metallurgical disciplines.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science/Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline required; advanced technical degree preferred.
- 10+ years of progressive experience in metallurgy, quality assurance, materials engineering, or related technical leadership within a heavy manufacturing environment, with significant leadership responsibility preferred.
- Extensive knowledge of ferrous metallurgy, steel processing, forging, heat treatment, material properties, microstructure, mechanical testing, and failure analysis.
- Demonstrated experience developing, maintaining, and improving Quality Assurance processes and Quality Management Systems within a highly controlled manufacturing environment.
- Strong working knowledge of ISO-based quality systems and experience supporting or leading customer and third-party quality audits; experience with AS and NADCAP requirements strongly preferred
- Demonstrated experience interpreting complex customer specifications and translating metallurgical, material, testing, NDT, and quality requirements into manufacturing and inspection processes.
- Strong understanding of quality planning, process control, statistical methods, root-cause analysis, corrective action, nonconformance management, and continuous improvement.
- Experience with metallurgical testing, mechanical testing, macro/micro examination, NDT processes, material certification, and product release requirements.
- Demonstrated ability to lead significant customer quality issues, technical investigations, audits, and corrective-action activities.
- Strong executive communication and customer-facing skills with the ability to communicate complex metallurgical and quality matters to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Proven ability to lead technical teams and collaborate effectively across Operations, Engineering, Sales, Supply Chain, and executive leadership.
- Ability to work comfortably in a climate-variable heavy manufacturing environment and maintain regular presence throughout production, testing, inspection, and technical areas.
Canton Drop Forge is an equal opportunity employer qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by law.
Canton Drop Forge offers a comprehensive and competitive benefit package including medical, dental, life disability, 401k matching, vacation, and sick time.
Any offer of employment is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background investigation and drug screen.