Senior Manager, Quality Engineering

Key job responsibilities

• Quality Systems & Standards
• Build the Quality Management System (QMS) from the ground up, define quality policies, procedures, control plans, and inspection standards that scale from pilot through high-volume production.
• Develop and maintain quality control plans for all processes, right-sized for both pilot line development and high-volume operations.
• Establish standards and processes for Incoming Quality Control (IQC), in-process inspection, and final product acceptance. Define sampling plans, inspection methods, and escalation protocols.
• Own the Material Review Board (MRB) process, assess, disposition, and manage non-conforming material, escapes, and quarantines with clear data-driven decision making.
• Implement and manage quality data systems for tracking defects, yields, escapes, and corrective actions. Use data to identify trends, drive improvements, and report quality performance to leadership.
• Design & Process Quality
• Coordinate and facilitate Design FMEAs (DFMEAs) and Process FMEAs (PFMEAs) during product and process development. Ensure cross-functional participation and rigorous risk assessment.
• Influence product and process designs through data-driven arguments, provide quantitative feedback on manufacturability, process capability, tolerance stack-ups, and quality risk to design teams.
• Ensure designs and production processes are entitled to meet quality standards before production release. Lead quality readiness for New Product Introductions (NPI), driving design-for-quality and design-for-inspection principles early in the development cycle.
• Define and execute measurement system analysis (MSA), process capability studies (Cpk/Ppk), and validation protocols to qualify new products and processes.
• Supplier Quality & Incoming Quality Control
• Lead the Supplier Quality Engineering function, ensure suppliers complete Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) and meet our quality requirements before parts are released for production.
• Set and enforce IQC standards for all incoming materials and components. Define inspection plans, sampling strategies, and acceptance criteria based on part criticality and supplier performance history.
• Manage supplier quality performance through scorecards, corrective action requests (SCARs/8Ds), and periodic business reviews. Drive supplier improvement and development.
• Lead first article inspection (FAI) and qualification processes for new supplier parts, engineering changes, and sourcing transitions.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain and Process Engineering to assess and mitigate supplier quality risks for new product introductions.
• Metrology Lab & Measurement Systems
• Own and operate the metrology lab, manage CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) programming, optical measurement systems, gauge calibration, and precision measurement capabilities.
• Ensure measurement systems are validated (MSA/Gage R&R) and capable of detecting variation at the level required by product specifications.
• Provide metrology support to product development, process engineering, and supplier quality teams for dimensional analysis, root cause investigations, and process capability studies.
• Maintain calibration programs for all production gauges, fixtures, and measurement equipment in compliance with quality standards.
• Operations Quality & Root Cause Analysis
• Own quality performance in production, quality technicians execute the control plan, partner with the operations team, and escalate non-conformances through established mechanisms.
• Drive rigorous root cause analysis (RCA) using structured methodologies (8D, 5-Why, Fishbone, fault tree) for internal defects, customer escapes, and supplier quality issues.
• Aggressively manage the escape and quarantine process, rapidly assess impact, contain affected product, govern quarantine inventory, determine disposition, and implement corrective/preventive actions to prevent recurrence.
• Establish quality metrics (DPPM, first pass yield, scrap reduction, escape rate, cost of poor quality) and drive continuous improvement through data analysis and cross-functional problem solving.
• Partner with other teams as their quality interface — ensuring production teams have the quality support, data, and feedback loops to deliver product at standard.
• Team Building & Leadership
• Hire and develop the best: build the Quality Engineering organization from the ground up, Quality Control Engineers, Supplier Quality Engineers, Metrology specialists, and Quality Technicians.
• Manage team structure and operating model to support both development (FMEA facilitation, design reviews, qualification) and sustained production (inspection, RCA, MRB, continuous improvement).
• Create training programs for quality technicians on inspection methods, measurement equipment, control plan execution, and non-conformance reporting. Additionally, develop and deliver quality awareness training for operations and production staff to promote best practices, defect recognition, and quality accountability on the production floor.
• Champion a "built right first time" quality philosophy. Foster a culture of data-driven decision making, relentless root cause analysis, and proactive quality prevention. Integrate quality into the company culture — not just within your team but across operations, process engineering, and design, ensuring quality awareness and accountability are embedded at every level.