Senior Supplier Quality Engineer

Job Purpose

The Senior Supplier Quality Engineer owns the technical health of Hyliion's precision machining supply base and serves as the senior technical authority for machined content on the KARNO Power Module. This role sets the standard for supplier quality practice, including qualification evidence, inspection methods, and technical judgment for borderline parts. It works outward to build engineering‑grade partnerships with machining suppliers and inward to hold Product Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations accountable for releasable drawings, defined acceptance criteria, realistic schedules, and closed feedback loops.

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AI is core to how we work. Every team member is equipped with leading AI tools and is expected to use them to move faster, solve harder problems, and help realize the full potential of KARNO technology.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as the engineering authority for machined commodities, including turning, milling, grinding, honing, lapping, EDM, balancing, deburring, edge condition, and associated special processes such as heat treat, coating, plating, and NDT.
• Assess and develop the machining supply base through process capability studies, machine and fixture capability, tooling strategy, work‑holding for distortion‑prone geometry, and capacity readiness for planned rate increases; conduct process‑based audits rather than checklist audits.
• Own first‑article inspection and part qualification, including AS9102‑style FAI, dimensional layout, key characteristic definition, and a PPAP‑style evidence set scaled to a low‑volume, high‑consequence environment.
• Review drawings before release to RFQ, challenging datum schemes that cannot be fixtured, tolerances no process can hold, surface‑finish callouts without functional basis, and inspection requirements no gauge can verify.
• Build inspection and acceptance strategy, including inspection plans, key characteristics, sampling versus 100 % inspection, source inspection and delegation decisions, certificates of conformance, material certification, and traceability.
• Own measurement agreement between suppliers and Hyliion metrology, including CMM programming and fixturing, form and roundness measurement, surface profilometry, air gaging, and gauge R&R and MSA studies; resolve measurement disagreement at its source.
• Lead containment, root cause, and corrective action with suppliers using 8D and structured problem solving, driving to a process condition as root cause, verifying fixes with data, and analyzing escapes to determine why the internal acceptance system did not catch them.
• Assess the impact of engineering changes on supplier tooling, fixturing, programs, and inspection before release, and make the cost of late change visible to internal decision makers.
• Build and run the supplier quality system, including conformance tracking, scorecards, risk‑proportionate surveillance plans, quality agreements, and approved supplier status.
• Own the interface where additively manufactured components meet finish machining, including datum establishment on as‑built surfaces, stock allowance, fixturing of thin‑wall and distortion‑prone geometry, witness surfaces, and verification of internal features.
• Represent supplier constraints and capability inside Hyliion with the same rigor applied to representing Hyliion requirements to suppliers, and escalate internal failures to the same evidence standard as supplier failures.
• Hold internal functions accountable for the inputs suppliers depend on: releasable and unambiguous drawings, timely disposition of supplier questions and deviations, defined and consistently communicated inspection methods and acceptance criteria, realistic lead times and clean purchase orders, and downstream feedback on delivered parts.
• Set the technical standard for supplier quality on machined content, including mentoring engineers, technicians, and inspectors, guiding judgment calls on borderline parts, and representing Hyliion technically in supplier management reviews.
• Perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned, needed, or required for the business.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
• 8 + years of experience in supplier quality, quality engineering, or manufacturing engineering with hands‑on ownership of precision machined commodities.
• Experience conducting supplier capability assessments and process‑based audits against AS9100, ISO 9001, ISO 13485, or comparable quality management systems.
• Success leading supplier corrective action to verified closure using 8D or equivalent structured problem solving.
• Experience with finish machining of additively manufactured components (preferred).
• Experience in aerospace or defense supply chains (AS9100, NADCAP) or precision medical device manufacturing under ISO 13485 and FDA regulation (preferred).
• Experience with rotating machinery, turbomachinery, or engine components; sealing surfaces, leak‑tight joints, helium leak testing; thin‑wall or distortion‑prone geometry; CT scanning and industrial radiography for internal feature verification (preferred).
• Experience developing a low‑volume, high‑mix supply base or supporting U.S. Government/DoD programs (preferred).
• ASQ CQE or CQA certification, Lean Six Sigma certification, or experience with ERP or QMS implementation (preferred).

Skills and Abilities

• Practical command of machining processes (turning, milling, grinding, honing, lapping, EDM) and associated work‑holding, tooling selection, thermal effects, distortion, residual stress, and cleanliness.
• Expert fluency in GD&T per ASME Y14.5, including datum schemes and tolerance stack‑up analysis, with ability to distinguish functional requirements from inherited ones.
• Hands‑on metrology expertise: CMM programming and fixturing (PC‑DMIS, Calypso, or equivalent), form and roundness measurement, surface‑finish measurement, air gaging, gauge R&R and MSA studies.
• Working knowledge of first‑article inspection and part qualification (AS9102, PPAP elements, control plans, key characteristics) and of process capability and SPC in practice.
• Ability to read, interpret, and challenge engineering documentation (drawings, models, BOMs, ECOs, specifications).
• Ability to build supplier relationships that endure difficult technical conversations and to influence internal functions without direct authority.
• Ability to serve as senior technical authority on machined content, set standards, mentor engineers and inspectors, and make judgment calls on borderline parts.
• Willingness to work hands‑on in supplier machine shops and on the build floor, assessing fixtures, processes, and parts directly.
• Ability to thrive in a high‑change environment where product configuration is still evolving.
• Willingness to deliver difficult findings to internal teams with supporting evidence.

Role Classification and Working Conditions

• Salaried, exempt‑level position.
• Typical work environment: production/assembly/engineering lab.
• Physical requirements: ability to stand and walk for extended periods, access equipment in confined or elevated positions, and lift/move up to 40 lb.
• Travel: 50 %–60 % of the time to supplier facilities, primarily domestic.
• Compliance with all Hyliion and supplier site PPE and safety requirements.
• Applicants requiring sponsorship are not being considered at this time.

Benefits

• Medical plans with PPO or HDHP options.
• Dental plans with buy‑up option.
• Vision plan.
• Life insurance and accidental death & dismemberment plans, with buy‑up options.
• Short‑term disability (company‑paid).
• Long‑term disability (company‑paid).
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) and Health Savings Account (HSA).
• 401(k) / Roth 401(k) retirement plans.
• Voluntary accident plans.
• Voluntary critical illness plans.
• Hospital indemnity plan.