Senior Quality Manager

About the role

The Senior Quality Manager leads the organization's Quality Management System (QMS) and drives enterprise-wide quality performance across manufacturing, suppliers, and product lifecycle processes. This role ensures compliance with ISO standards, customer requirements, and internal specifications while advancing a culture of quality excellence, defect prevention, and continuous improvement. The position partners cross-functionally with Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, and Leadership to embed quality from design through production and delivery.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop the quality organization, ensuring alignment with company objectives and performance expectations.
• Establish a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and proactive quality ownership across all functions.
• Drive prioritization of initiatives using 80/20 principles to maximize impact on cost of quality and customer satisfaction.
• Define, standardize, and deploy Critical to Quality (CTQ) specifications across products, processes, and suppliers.
• Act as the primary liaison to align internal standards with customer and vendor quality requirements.
• Ensure quality requirements are clearly documented and maintained within Standard Work Instructions (SWIs) and QMS documentation.
• Maintain and improve the ISO 9000-compliant QMS, including document control, process adherence, and audit readiness.
• Ensure all processes consistently meet regulatory, customer, and internal quality standards.
• Safeguard the integrity of the QMS during process changes and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Lead supplier quality strategy, including vendor qualification, performance monitoring, and corrective actions.
• 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 drive defect prevention, process capability, and manufacturing simplification.
• Implement poka-yoke and error-proofing methods to eliminate non-conformances.
• Lead capability studies, validation (including new equipment), and SPC deployment across production processes.
• Lead structured problem-solving efforts using RCCM methodologies and support Engineering Change Notice (ECN) processes.
• Drive root cause identification and systemic corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
• Champion lean, Six Sigma, and statistical methods to improve quality performance and reduce waste.
• Oversee execution of incoming, progressive inspection, 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 requirements for customers, suppliers, and new product/equipment introductions.
• Define, monitor, and report key quality metrics, including cost of quality, FPY, scrap, warranty, and non-conformance trends.
• Analyze data to identify risks, drive corrective actions, and achieve KPI targets.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Manufacturing, Industrial, Mechanical, Systems, or Quality Engineering (or related field).
• 5–10+ years of progressive experience in quality leadership within manufacturing environments.
• 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, and statistical analysis tools.
• Familiarity with supplier quality management and vendor development.
• Experience with highly regulated quality standards.
• Experience in automated or highly engineered manufacturing environments.