Senior Manager, Product Safety and Technical Compliance

Position Purpose:

The Senior Manager of Product Safety and Technical Compliance is a strategic leader responsible for ensuring both the safety of all products sold and regulatory compliance for all private branded products offered by The Home Depot.  This role is a critical and distinct two-part function:

• Product Safety: Proactively manages the safety of the entire retail catalog, including products from third-party vendors, by implementing systems to identify, investigate, and mitigate safety incidents across all countries of operation.
• Technical Compliance: Leads the execution of technical compliance for all private branded and imported products, ensuring they meet the specific "legal to sell" requirements from the initial design phase to market launch.

This role serves as a key technical authority and a business partner, influencing both internal teams and external suppliers to embed a culture of safety and compliance.

Key Responsibilities:

• 40% Product Safety Management for All Products Sold
  • Incident Response: Own the process for identifying, investigating, and responding to alleged product safety incidents and alleged non-compliance issues from all sources (e.g., store operations, customers, suppliers).
  • Customer-Focused Controls: Develop and manage data-driven process controls that enable corporate operations, store operations, and field managers to effectively report and act on safety incidents.
  • Supplier Engagement: Enforce continuous improvement, corrective action, and preventative action plans with all suppliers to mitigate product safety risks.
  • Government Reporting: Manage and execute government reporting obligations for product safety incidents in all countries where the company operates.
  • Data Analysis: Maintain and analyze data from the field to proactively mitigate risks associated with not identifying alleged product safety incidents.
• 35% Technical Compliance for Private Branded Products
  • Lifecycle Integration: Partner directly with Private Brand Product and Engineering teams to integrate "legal to sell" technical requirements into the product development process from the very start.
  • Testing & Certification: Oversee and manage the entire testing and certification process for private brand products to ensure compliance with mandatory (CPSC, NOM, Health Canada, CCC, EU, etc.) and voluntary (UL, NSF, WCMA, etc) standards. This includes reviewing third-party test protocols to meet policy and process requirements.
  • Registration & Reporting: Responsible for overseeing all quarterly and annual compliance reporting for private brand products to state and federal agencies, including the development and management of the yearly budget for reporting-related costs. This role also oversees the product registration and technical documentation to secure required wireless licensing for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies.
  • Documentation and Policy: Establish and maintain policies and procedures that ensure a smooth product development process and the creation of accurate technical files and certifications.
  • Supplier and Partner Management: Manage relationships with external service providers and third-party test labs to ensure they deliver results that meet policy and process requirements.
• 25% Strategy, Leadership, and Training
  • Strategic Planning: Develop annual operating plans and shorter-term tactical execution plans that support the overall product safety and technical compliance strategy.
  • Team Leadership: Lead, develop, coach, and train direct reports and other associates to deliver results consistent with regulatory compliance.
  • Policy and Process Management: Own the relationship with external service providers and manage the centralized database of technical compliance training materials.
  • Cross-Functional Liaison: Serve as a critical liaison between engineering, legal, supply chain, and quality teams, providing expert guidance and training on all matters of product safety and technical compliance.
  • Audit Support: Ensure compliance with established policy and support findings from the internal audit (AMP) team.

Direct Manager/Direct Reports:

• Position reports to the VP of Product Engineering

Travel Requirements:

• Typically requires overnight travel less than 10% of the time.

Physical Requirements:

• Frequent periods are spent standing or sitting in the same location with some opportunity to move about; occasionally there may be a need to stoop or lift light objects (typically less than 8 pounds).

Working Conditions:

• Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must be eighteen years of age or older.
• Must be legally permitted to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Executive Communication Skills, Project Management Experience in multi-facility, multi-regional environment
• Able to influence actions and decision making without formal authority, achieve cross-functional buy-in and show value to executive leadership team.
• Computer skills sufficient to retrieve, manipulate, analyze and interpret data
• Experience with regulatory aspects of product safety issues in a retail or manufacturing environment.
• Degree in Engineering, Management, Mathematics or Business Administration
• Ability to travel internationally

Minimum Education:

• The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job.

Preferred Education:

• No additional education

Minimum Years of Work Experience:

• 3

Preferred Years of Work Experience:

• No additional years of experience

Minimum Leadership Experience:

• None

Preferred Leadership Experience:

• None

Certifications:

• None

Competencies:

• Knowledge of consumer product safety laws and regulations
• Continuous Improvement
• Root Cause Analysis
• Six Sigma background