Total Quality Leader

About The Kendall Group

The Kendall Group is comprised of eight divisions with 75+ locations in ten states. Combined, we serve the Electrical, Automation, Pipe, Valve, and Fitting products, Steam, Lighting, Industrial Controls, and Instrumentation Industries. The Kendall Group is a 100% employee-owned company. Kendall offers a great opportunity for a rewarding career.

Why The Kendall Group?

Our employee ownership model is the core of who we are. You will not only own part of the company, but you will own your future. At Kendall, you'll have opportunities to learn and grow while being coached and mentored along the way. We're that company where people stay! We're proud to say more than 60% of our associates have more than 5 years of tenure, and more than 40% have greater than 10 years. At Kendall, you will be valued and supported, your ideas will be heard, your voice will matter, and you'll work alongside incredible people who care about your success.

Role Summary: Reporting to the Program Management Office Manager, the Total Quality Leader is responsible for establishing, owning, and operating The Kendall Group's quality program. This individual contributor role defines quality failures and cost of poor-quality measures, ensures defect data is captured and attributed accurately, and provides reporting that helps leaders understand where failure costs are concentrated. The Total Quality Leader will develop dashboards, supplier quality scorecards, customer satisfaction insights, and other metrics that support data-driven decisions, Continuous Improvement priorities, and measurable operational improvement. This position partners with cross-functional teams and presents clear findings to branch operations and executive leadership to help drive accountability, resolution, and sustained quality performance.

Exciting work you will do:

The essential duties and responsibilities of a Total Quality Leader will consist of, but are not limited to, the following:

• Define and maintain the defect taxonomy, establishing what constitutes a quality failure and resolving disputes over those definitions
• Define and maintain a cost of poor quality (COPQ) model appropriate to distribution rather than manufacturing
• Specify how defect data is captured, reason-coded, and attributed to its origin, working with internal development resources who build and maintain the tooling
• Measure and report customer satisfaction and structured customer feedback, maintained independently of cost data so the two can be compared
• Produce supplier quality scorecards from defect origin data and provide them to Purchasing and vendor management
• Publish a ranked view of where failure cost is concentrated, and support Continuous Improvement in prioritizing work against it
• Track identified opportunities through to closure and verify whether the associated cost actually declined
• Own and operate the quality program day to day once it is established, including reporting, dashboards, and the ongoing accuracy of the data
• Present findings, including unfavorable findings, to branch operations and executive leadership
• Perform other duties as assigned

Competencies you possess:

• Customer Focus
• Results, Action Oriented
• Accountability, and Responsibility
• Teamwork, Collaboration
• Planning, and Organizing
• Problem Solving
• Optimizes Work Processes
• Decision Quality

What you'll need:

• Work Experience: 3 years of progressive experience in quality, continuous improvement, operational excellence, process improvement, or a related discipline; demonstrated experience evaluating and improving business processes using Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, or other continuous improvement methodologies; experience leading cross-functional improvement initiatives, including root-cause analysis, solution development, implementation, and measurement of results; experience developing and utilizing performance metrics, KPIs, and process measures to identify improvement opportunities and evaluate effectiveness; working knowledge of quality systems, standards, process mapping, auditing, and process controls; demonstrated ability to lead projects, develop training, and influence teams across functions and levels to drive adoption and sustain improvements

• Education: Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Engineering, Quality, or a related field. Alternatively, equivalent experience or training in a related field

• Analytics/Computer Skills: working knowledge of cost of quality concepts, defect classification, root cause analysis, and customer satisfaction measurement; comfort working with transactional data: interpreting ERP reports, validating a number, and explaining how it was derived; ability to develop, maintain, and present quality metrics, dashboards, scorecards, and executive-level reporting

• Organization Skills: Ability to take ownership of a program and run it independently once established; ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously; Strong organizational skills and attention to detail

• Cross-functional skills: Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams

• Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Physical, Mental and Visual Skills: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disability to perform the essential functions.

• Ability to see, talk and hear

• Ability to sit for 8 hours a day

• Physical Environment: Normal office environment

• Travel : Up to 30% occasionally overnight

• Driver's License: Must possess and maintain a valid driver's license

Qualifications we prefer but don't require:

• Work Experience: Experience in a distribution, wholesale, logistics, or supply chain environment; experience establishing a quality or measurement capability where none existed previously; experience with cost of quality or COPQ modeling outside of a manufacturing setting; experience with supplier quality, vendor score carding, or chargeback recovery; experience designing voice of customer or customer satisfaction measurement programs; Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent continuous improvement training; familiarity with Epicor or a comparable ERP, and with reporting tools such as Power BI.
• Certifications: Six Sigma Green Belt or higher

The Kendall Group is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, military status, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.