Welding Supervisor

The Welding Supervisor provides operational leadership for the Factory Built Substation (FBS) Welding department, overseeing daily operations and driving safe, efficient, and timely production execution. This role is responsible for ensuring welding activities are performed in accordance with approved welding procedures, quality requirements, and established workmanship standards.

The Welding Supervisor maintains a strong and visible shop-floor presence, combining hands-on leadership and welding expertise with effective planning, coordination, and problem-solving to drive team performance and maintain production flow. This position plays a key role in aligning people, processes, and daily priorities while collaborating across teams to resolve challenges and support production schedules and customer commitments.

Success in this role requires strong leadership, professional communication, sound decision-making, and practical welding and fabrication knowledge. The Welding Supervisor must effectively lead through changing production demands while maintaining a strong culture of safety, quality, accountability, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Customer Focus
• Decision Quality
• Business Insight
• Drives Results
• Collaborates
• Communicates Effectively
• Courage
• Instills Trust
• Manages Ambiguity

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Welding Leadership:

• Lead the Welding department by setting clear expectations, providing direction and support, and holding Welders accountable for safety, quality, productivity, and job performance.

• Foster a culture of safety, teamwork, discipline, professionalism, and operational excellence throughout the Welding department.

• Conduct regularly scheduled Welding Team meetings to communicate production priorities, address operational challenges, strengthen team coordination, and support continuous improvement.

• Support recruiting, candidate interviews, and training efforts for the Welding department; provide feedback to PSS Leadership regarding staffing needs, team capabilities, and workforce considerations based on production demands and departmental needs.

• Develop the technical capabilities of Welders through hands-on coaching and mentorship, reinforcing welding skills, workmanship standards, and adherence to approved welding procedures.

Production Execution:

• Provide active shop-floor leadership and technical support to Welders throughout daily production activities.

• Oversee daily Welding operations to ensure production schedules, quality standards, productivity expectations, and operational targets are consistently achieved.

• Partner with the Production Manager to align Welding activities with short- and long-term production priorities, scheduling requirements, and operational objectives.

• Ensure materials, welding equipment, consumables, tools, and design drawings are available and ready ahead of scheduled production activities to minimize delays and downtime.

• Adjust labor and resources within the Welding department as needed to maintain productivity and respond to changing production demands.

Execution and Problem Solving:

• Proactively identify and respond to welding-related production issues, workflow disruptions, equipment concerns, and process inefficiencies affecting Welding performance and production flow.

• Take timely action to resolve issues within the Welding Supervisor’s area of responsibility and communicate or escalate matters requiring cross-functional support to the appropriate teams.

Welding Quality and Technical Compliance:

• Ensure Welders perform work in accordance with approved welding procedures, engineering drawings, welding symbols, specifications, and established workmanship standards.

• Provide technical guidance and support to Welders, addressing welding and workmanship concerns as they arise and reinforcing proper welding methods and approved procedures.

• Partner with CWI and Quality teams to support required inspections, address weld quality concerns and non-conformances, and implement corrective actions in a timely manner to minimize disruptions to production flow.

Safety:

• Enforce compliance with company safety procedures and safe work practices across all Welding operations.

• Ensure Welders are properly trained on welding equipment, tools, material handling, procedures, personal protective equipment, and applicable safety protocols.

• Maintain accountability for housekeeping, work-area organization, and safe operation of welding and material-handling equipment.

• Partner with Safety and appropriate teams to address hazards, incidents, audit findings, and corrective actions within Welding operations.

Reporting and Performance Analysis:

• Track and analyze Welding production performance, build times, and labor-hour data to identify trends and support production planning, scheduling, and workforce utilization.

• Provide the Production Manager with timely updates on Welding performance, production constraints, staffing needs, quality concerns, and other issues that may impact production commitments.

Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Serve as the primary point of contact for Welding-related production coordination, collaborating with Assembly, the Buffer Coordinator, Quality, Logistics, Engineering and Design, Project Management, Supply Chain, and other DTPS teams to support production execution and coordinate issues affecting the Welding department.

• Proactively communicate design concerns, material issues, inspection constraints, and other cross-functional challenges that may impact Welding operations; engage the appropriate teams to support timely resolution and minimize disruptions to production flow.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE (Required):

• 5+ years of experience in welding and fabrication within a manufacturing or industrial environment, including demonstrated experience in a leadership or supervisory capacity.
• Strong knowledge of welding processes, welding procedures, fabrication practices, joint preparation, weld quality, and workmanship standards.
• Demonstrated ability to read and interpret engineering and fabrication drawings, welding symbols, and applicable specifications.
• Strong experience with aluminum welding and fabrication.
• Experience with structural steel layout and fit-up.
• Strong decision-making and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and respond effectively to welding, quality, workflow, equipment, and production challenges.
• Ability to lead through changing production demands while maintaining a strong focus on safety, quality, execution, and operational efficiency.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across all DTPS departments.
• Strong organizational and workforce coordination skills with the ability to manage changing priorities, labor requirements, and production demands.
• High School Diploma or equivalent.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE (Preferred):

• Technical education or formal training in welding, fabrication, manufacturing, or a related field preferred.
• Experience with 5F fillet welds on aluminum bus pipe preferred.
• Experience with gas metal arc welding processes and aluminum fabrication in an industrial manufacturing environment.
• Experience with electrical substations, high-voltage equipment, or power distribution manufacturing.
• Experience supporting continuous improvement initiatives, lean manufacturing principles, or operational efficiency programs.
• Experience working within complex, multi-department manufacturing operations with high production demands and customer-driven schedules.
• Knowledge of ERP systems and Microsoft Office applications.