Senior Quality Manager

About the role

The Senior Quality Manager will lead the organization’s Quality Management System and drive enterprise-wide quality performance across manufacturing, suppliers, and product lifecycle processes. This role is responsible for ensuring compliance with ISO standards, customer requirements, regulatory expectations, and internal specifications while advancing a culture focused on quality excellence, defect prevention, accountability, and continuous improvement. This individual will partner closely with Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Production, and Leadership to ensure quality is embedded from design through production and final delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop the quality organization to ensure alignment with company goals, customer expectations, and performance standards.
• Create a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and proactive quality ownership across all functions.
• Prioritize quality initiatives using 80/20 principles to maximize impact on cost of quality, customer satisfaction, and operational performance.
• Define, standardize, and deploy Critical to Quality specifications across products, processes, suppliers, and manufacturing operations.
• Serve as a key liaison between internal teams, customers, and vendors to align quality expectations and technical requirements.
• Ensure quality standards are clearly documented and maintained within Standard Work Instructions and QMS documentation.
• Maintain and continuously improve the ISO 9000 / ISO 9001 compliant Quality Management System, including document control, audit readiness, and process adherence.
• Ensure processes consistently meet customer, regulatory, internal, and industry quality standards.
• Protect the integrity of the QMS during process changes, continuous improvement initiatives, and new product or equipment introductions.
• Lead supplier quality strategy, including vendor qualification, supplier performance monitoring, corrective actions, and supplier development.
• Implement and manage supplier scorecards, incoming inspection processes, and AQL methodologies.
• Standardize supplier quality expectations and drive continuous improvement across the supply base.
• Partner with Engineering and Operations to improve defect prevention, process capability, manufacturing simplification, and production quality.
• Implement poka-yoke and error-proofing methods to eliminate non-conformances and improve first-pass yield.
• Lead capability studies, validation activities, new equipment qualification, and SPC deployment across production processes.
• Lead structured root cause and corrective action efforts using RCCM methodologies.
• Support Engineering Change Notice processes and ensure quality considerations are built into process and product changes.
• Champion Lean, Six Sigma, statistical methods, and continuous improvement tools to reduce waste, improve quality performance, and prevent recurrence of issues.
• Oversee incoming, progressive, in-process, and final inspection processes to ensure product conformance.
• Implement robust testing and validation processes for products, equipment, and manufacturing systems.
• Ensure compliance with PSO, SAT/FAT, PPAP, and related customer, supplier, and product introduction requirements.
• Define, monitor, and report key quality metrics, including cost of quality, first-pass yield, scrap, warranty, non-conformance trends, returns, and corrective actions.
• Analyze quality data to identify risks, drive corrective actions, and support achievement of KPI targets.
• Maintain accurate records of quality performance, non-conformances, scrap, warranty claims, and corrective actions.
• Lead response and resolution for customer quality issues and warranty claims.
• Ensure timely root cause analysis, corrective action, and communication to maintain customer satisfaction.
• Track and reduce field failures through structured feedback loops into engineering, design, manufacturing, and supplier processes.
• Partner with Design, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Operations, and ERP teams to integrate quality into all processes.
• Align quality execution with production schedules, delivery deadlines, engineering requirements, and customer commitments.
• Support the digital integration of quality data within ERP or MES environments where applicable.
• Train and develop personnel in quality tools, statistical methods, SPC, QMS requirements, inspection processes, and structured problem-solving.
• Build team capability and promote knowledge sharing, best practices, and quality ownership across departments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Quality Engineering, or a related field.
• 5 to 10+ years of progressive quality leadership experience in a manufacturing environment.
• Demonstrated experience with ISO 9000 / ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems.
• Strong working knowledge of AIAG standards, PPAP, APQP, SPC, and MSA.
• Experience with Lean, Six Sigma, 6S, statistical analysis, and continuous improvement tools.
• Experience with supplier quality management, vendor development, incoming inspection, and corrective action processes.
• Experience working in highly regulated quality environments.
• Experience in automated, complex, or highly engineered manufacturing environments.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a hands-on quality leader who can operate effectively on the manufacturing floor while also driving strategic improvements across systems, processes, suppliers, and teams. This person should be analytical, organized, customer-focused, and comfortable leading through influence. They should bring strong communication skills, a sense of urgency, the ability to simplify technical concepts, and the confidence to handle conflict while building a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.

Physical Requirements & Safety

• This role requires the ability to work in a manufacturing environment.
• Employees may be required to stand, walk, sit, climb, balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, reach, handle materials, and occasionally lift or move up to 50 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities include close vision.
• Employees are required to wear all assigned PPE in designated work areas.
• Safety glasses, steel toe or non-slip safety shoes/boots, and hearing protection are required at all times on the production floor.
• Stainless Tank & Equipment is a drug and alcohol-free work environment.

Pay

$110,000 - $130,000 per year