Director of QHSE

Director of QHSE - Quality, Health, Safety & Environmental

Full-Time | On-site | Baton Rouge, LA

Our client isn't your typical HVAC installer — they engineer and validate highly specialized environmental control equipment built for the most demanding facilities in the country, including data centers, industrial sites, and other high-consequence environments where failure is not an option.

We are is seeking an experienced Director of QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety & Environmental) to lead and strengthen our quality, safety, and environmental programs across our growing manufacturing operations.

This is a high-level leadership position responsible for developing, implementing, and continuously improving the systems, processes, standards, and accountability necessary to ensure we manufacture high-quality products while maintaining a safe and compliant workplace.

The Director of QHSE will provide leadership over the Quality Assurance/Quality Control and Safety functions, with the QA/QC Manager and Safety Manager reporting directly to this position.

This individual must be comfortable working directly on the manufacturing floor, identifying problems, understanding why failures and nonconformances are occurring, and developing sustainable processes to prevent recurrence. This is not simply a compliance or administrative position. We are looking for a hands-on leader who can build systems, develop people, improve processes, and drive accountability throughout the organization.

Key Responsibilities

QHSE Leadership

• Provide strategic leadership and oversight for the company's Quality, Health, Safety, and Environmental programs.
• Lead and develop the QA/QC and Safety departments, including direct oversight of the QA/QC Manager and Safety Manager.
• Establish clear responsibilities, expectations, metrics, and accountability across QHSE functions.
• Partner with Operations, Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, Testing, and executive leadership to improve overall operational performance.
• Develop a strong culture of quality, safety, accountability, and continuous improvement throughout the organization.
• Provide leadership with regular reporting on quality trends, safety performance, significant risks, corrective actions, and improvement initiatives.

Quality Assurance & Quality Control

• Develop, implement, and continuously improve the company's overall Quality Management System (QMS).
• Provide leadership and direction to the QA/QC Manager and quality team.
• Evaluate current manufacturing and inspection processes to identify quality gaps, recurring failures, and opportunities for improvement.
• Establish standardized inspection processes, quality checkpoints, acceptance criteria, and documentation throughout manufacturing.
• Oversee the identification, documentation, investigation, and resolution of nonconformance reports (NCRs).
• Analyze NCRs, defects, rework, testing failures, customer issues, and other quality data to identify recurring trends and systemic problems.
• Lead or oversee root-cause analysis and corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) to ensure problems are permanently addressed rather than repeatedly corrected.
• Develop and maintain SOPs, work instructions, inspection procedures, quality standards, and process controls.
• Partner with Engineering and Manufacturing to improve design-for-manufacturability, build quality, and process consistency.
• Establish quality KPIs and dashboards, including NCRs, rework, first-pass yield, defects, testing failures, corrective-action closure, and customer quality issues.
• Support supplier quality and incoming material inspection processes in partnership with Supply Chain.
• Ensure quality requirements are incorporated throughout the entire manufacturing process from incoming materials through fabrication, assembly, electrical integration, HVAC/refrigeration, testing, final inspection, and shipment.

Health & Safety

• Provide leadership and oversight to the Safety Manager and overall workplace safety program.
• Ensure compliance with applicable OSHA requirements and company safety standards.
• Establish and continuously improve safety policies, procedures, training programs, and accountability systems.
• Oversee workplace inspections, job hazard analyses, risk assessments, and corrective actions.
• Ensure effective incident, injury, near-miss, and property-damage investigations are completed and appropriate corrective actions implemented.
• Review safety trends and leading/lagging indicators to proactively identify areas of risk.
• Oversee programs involving PPE, forklift safety, lockout/tagout, electrical safety, hot work, hazard communication, emergency response, and other applicable manufacturing safety requirements.
• Partner with Operations and HR to ensure employees receive appropriate safety training and supervisors understand their responsibilities for maintaining a safe workplace.
• Promote proactive hazard identification and employee involvement in workplace safety.

Environmental Compliance

• Develop and maintain appropriate environmental compliance programs for manufacturing operations.
• Ensure proper management of chemicals, hazardous materials, waste streams, and Safety Data Sheets (SDS).
• Monitor applicable federal, state, and local environmental requirements.
• Oversee appropriate spill prevention, response, storage, labeling, and disposal practices.
• Maintain required environmental documentation, permits, records, and reporting.
• Identify opportunities to reduce environmental risk and improve responsible manufacturing practices.

Process Improvement & Corrective Action

• Develop a structured approach for identifying operational failures and determining true root causes.
• Lead cross-functional problem-solving efforts involving Quality, Safety, Engineering, Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Testing.
• Utilize tools such as 5 Why, Fishbone/Ishikawa, Pareto Analysis, 8D, CAPA, FMEA, and other root-cause and continuous-improvement methodologies.
• Ensure corrective actions have defined owners, deadlines, verification requirements, and documented closure.
• Establish processes to determine whether corrective actions are actually effective after implementation.
• Drive improvements that reduce rework, scrap, production delays, quality escapes, workplace incidents, and customer issues.

Audits, Standards & Compliance

• Develop and manage internal QHSE audit programs.
• Ensure manufacturing processes are documented, followed, and auditable.
• Prepare the organization for customer, regulatory, certification, and other external audits.
• Maintain appropriate records and documentation necessary to demonstrate compliance.
• Support the development and maturity of the company's quality and safety management systems as the organization continues to grow.
• Identify applicable industry standards, certifications, and best practices and develop plans to achieve or maintain compliance.

Leadership Responsibilities

The Director of QHSE will provide leadership and oversight for the company's QHSE organization, including:

• QA/QC Manager
• Quality Inspectors / Quality Technicians
• Safety Manager
• Safety Coordinators

The Director will be responsible for developing these departments as the company grows, ensuring the appropriate organizational structure, staffing, training, processes, and accountability are in place.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Quality, Safety, Environmental Science, Manufacturing, Industrial Technology, or a related field preferred.
• 7 years of progressive experience in quality, safety, manufacturing, or QHSE leadership.
• Prior leadership experience overseeing multiple quality and/or safety functions strongly preferred.
• Strong manufacturing experience required, preferably within industrial equipment, HVAC, electrical, mechanical, fabrication, or engineered-to-order manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated experience developing and improving Quality Management Systems.
• Strong knowledge of NCR management, CAPA, root-cause analysis, process improvement, and quality auditing.
• Working knowledge of OSHA requirements and manufacturing safety programs.
• Experience developing SOPs, work instructions, inspection processes, and operational controls.
• Experience leading teams and holding managers and employees accountable for performance.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to identify trends and translate data into corrective actions.
• Ability to work effectively with executive leadership while remaining highly engaged with employees and operations on the manufacturing floor.

What Success Looks Like

The successful Director of QHSE will build an organization where quality and safety are managed proactively rather than reactively. This individual will help our client understand where failures are occurring, why they are occurring, and what processes must change to prevent them from happening again.

Success will be demonstrated through reduced NCRs and rework, improved first-pass quality, stronger manufacturing processes, timely corrective-action closure, fewer safety incidents, improved compliance, clear documentation, stronger accountability, and a QHSE organization capable of supporting the company's continued growth.