Welding Manager - CWI

About Engineered Products

At Engineered Products, our mission is to maximize space efficiency and redefine material handling and storage solutions. As a privately held company with over 50 years of industry experience, we have earned the trust of businesses worldwide by delivering customized storage solutions tailored to their unique needs. Our innovative approach not only streamlines space utilization and reduces costs for our clients, but also offers dynamic career opportunities across all departments. We foster a culture of innovation and empowerment, where every team member contributes to our success by embodying our core values: building strong internal relationships, approaching challenges with optimism and a proactive mindset, and embracing continuous learning and collaboration.

Position Summary

Position: Welding Manager – Certified Welding Inspector (CWI)
Reports to: Plant Manager
Location: Easley, SC

Areas of Responsibility

• Manage daily welding operations to achieve production schedules, quality standards, cost objectives, and delivery commitments.
• Direct, coach, and develop welding supervisors, team leads, welders, fitters, robotic welding operators, and other assigned employees.
• Establish work priorities, allocate labor, monitor production progress, and adjust staffing and resources based on operational demands.
• Ensure welding operations comply with approved Welding Procedure Specifications (WPSs), fabrication drawings, weld symbols, customer requirements, and applicable AWS standards.
• Oversee visual weld inspections and ensure weld discontinuities are evaluated according to applicable acceptance criteria.
• Maintain accountability for welder qualifications, continuity records, inspections, repairs, certifications, and required welding documentation.
• Serve as the designated CWI responsible for qualifying welders and providing the training necessary to meet applicable AWS guidelines, including welder testing, certification, qualification continuity, and ongoing technical development.
• Partner with Quality to manage weld-related nonconformances, repairs, rework, and recurring quality concerns.
• Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions involving weld defects, rejected work, excessive rework, and process variation.
• Ensure welding equipment, consumables, shielding gases, fixtures, tooling, and materials are available, properly maintained, and effectively utilized.
• Own departmental performance results, including safety, productivity, first-time-through, rework, scrap, downtime, labor utilization, and schedule completion.
• Enforce OSHA requirements, company safety policies, PPE standards, and safe welding and material-handling practices.
• Lead pre-shift and departmental meetings to communicate production priorities, safety concerns, quality expectations, performance results, and required actions.
• Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Scheduling, Maintenance, and Supply Chain to resolve production and technical challenges.
• Own the department’s SQDC tier-board process, ensuring accurate metrics, clearly assigned owners, timely countermeasures, and follow-through on corrective actions.
• Lead Lean Manufacturing initiatives to identify and eliminate the eight wastes (DOWNTIME), with particular focus on waiting, motion, defects, over-processing, and excess material usage.
• Drive workcell optimization and production flow through 5S, point-of-use materials and tooling, ergonomic positioning, pre-kitting, and flexible equipment layouts.
• Establish, document, and sustain standardized work for weld sequencing, machine parameters, consumable control, setup activities, and manual welding processes.
• Drive continuous improvement efforts to eliminate bottlenecks, reduce downtime and rework, improve quality, and increase operational efficiency.
• Establish, monitor, and improve welding performance metrics, including first-time-through, arc-on time, takt-time alignment, productivity, rework, scrap, downtime, safety, and schedule completion.
• Lead setup-reduction and process-improvement activities using SMED concepts, modular fixturing, visual controls, and documented best practices.
• Establish and enforce autonomous preventive-maintenance expectations, including routine equipment inspections, consumable replacement, nozzle cleaning, and ground-clamp checks.
• Ensure welding fume-extraction systems and other required engineering controls are properly used, inspected, maintained, and corrected when deficiencies are identified.
• Manage employee onboarding, cross-training, performance evaluations, attendance, coaching, corrective action, and workforce development in partnership with Human Resources.
• Identify and communicate significant safety, quality, staffing, equipment, and scheduling risks to plant leadership, along with recommended corrective actions and resource needs.

Education and/or Training

• Active American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector (AWS CWI) certification required.
• Three or more years of welding, fabrication, inspection, or production leadership experience within a structural steel or heavy industrial environment.
• Previous experience leading welders, fitters, team leads, or skilled-trade employees preferred.
• Working knowledge of AWS D1.1 and AWS D1.3, Welding Procedure Specifications, welder qualifications, visual inspection requirements, and weld acceptance criteria.
• Strong knowledge of structural steel fabrication and common welding processes, including GMAW, FCAW, and SMAW.
• Ability to interpret fabrication drawings, blueprints, weld symbols, specifications, work orders, and production schedules.
• Strong communication, coaching, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Ability to balance production requirements with safety, quality, and welding-code compliance.
• Experience with robotic or automated welding equipment preferred.
• Working knowledge of ERP systems, production reporting tools, and Microsoft Office applications.
• OSHA safety training or related safety credentials preferred.
• Demonstrated capability applying Lean Manufacturing principles, including 5S, standardized work, visual management, waste reduction, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement.

Work Environment

This role is primarily based in a manufacturing facility and requires regular presence on the shop floor. Occasional extended hours or weekend support may be needed based on production demands.

Physical Demands

This position requires frequent movement throughout a large industrial facility, including walking, standing, climbing stairs, and navigating around equipment and materials. The role may occasionally require bending, reaching, or lifting objects up to 25 pounds. While primarily supervisory and administrative in nature, it requires regular on-site presence in production areas, including exposure to noise, dust, and varying temperatures. Good vision, hearing, manual dexterity, and overall physical stamina are necessary to effectively observe operations and ensure a safe and efficient working environment.