Quality Manager - Materials Testing Laboratory & Inspection

Location:

Chickasha, Oklahoma (on-site)
· Type:
Full-time

American Drillpipe is a family-owned domestic drill pipe manufacturer building its manufacturing and quality systems around API Spec 5DP and API Spec Q1. We are constructing a dedicated laboratory and developing a full in-house materials-testing capability — Charpy V-notch impact, tensile, hardness, metallography, chemical composition, and specimen preparation — alongside a wet fluorescent MT and shear-wave UT inspection booth on our friction-weld line.

This is a greenfield, hands-on leadership position.

• Define the laboratory scope and recommend which testing capabilities should be brought in-house versus retained with an outside laboratory, if any.
• Specify, evaluate, procure, install, and commission equipment for Charpy impact, tensile, hardness, metallography, chemical-composition testing, and specimen preparation
• Establish laboratory layout, sample flow, utilities, safety controls, tooling, fixtures, reference materials, and environmental requirements
• Develop and validate testing methods using representative specimens, certified reference materials, repeatability studies, and split-sample correlation with an independent laboratory

• Commission and operate the in-line wet fluorescent MT and shear-wave UT booth — reference standards, equipment checks, calibration, performance verification, and inspection records
• Administer ADP's employer-based NDE program with technical oversight from our contracted ASNT Level III
• Support employee training, examinations, practical demonstrations, qualification records, and employer certification under ADP's written practice
• Manage the transition from contracted third-party inspection to in-house NDE release

• Write controlled procedures and work instructions based on API 5DP and applicable ASTM or ISO methods
• Define specimen location, orientation, preparation, conditioning, dimensional verification, calculations, acceptance criteria, reporting, and retest handling
• Build the calibration, intermediate-verification, preventive-maintenance, and measurement-traceability program
• Establish sample identification, traceability, test-reporting, record-review, and data-integrity controls
• Write laboratory procedures 17025-aware so that accreditation remains a straightforward future step

• Serve as the accountable authority for laboratory results and inspection acceptance — including incoming acceptance, holds, and nonconformance disposition — reporting to the Director of Quality, who retains final product release
• Recruit, train, evaluate, and lead laboratory and inspection technicians; cross-train so neither function is single-pointed
• Integrate laboratory and NDE controls into the API Q1 quality management system
• Support internal audits, API certification and licensing audits, customer audits, investigations, and corrective actions

• Substantial hands-on experience in mechanical or materials testing — tensile, Charpy impact, hardness, metallography, or closely related metals testing
• Documentable hands-on experience with magnetic particle and ultrasonic examination of pipe, tubular products, welds, or similar components
• Experience commissioning, verifying, troubleshooting, or maintaining laboratory or inspection equipment
• Ability to turn product specifications and standardized test methods into controlled procedures, work instructions, forms, and records
• Technical records that withstand customer, regulatory, or third-party audit
• Ability to train personnel and objectively evaluate practical competency
• Comfortable working in a startup environment with very little existing structure, hands-on through program development and early production
• Full-time on-site in Chickasha, Oklahoma

• Drill pipe, OCTG, tubular products, friction welding, or oilfield manufacturing
• API Spec 5DP or API Spec Q1; ISO 9001 or ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory systems
• Current or previous employer certification to MT or UT Level II; ASNT NDT Level III certification
• Metallurgy, materials science, or welding…