Customer Quality Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Title : Customer Quality Engineer

Hire Type : Direct Hire

Location : St. Charles, IL 60174
Salary : $75,000 - $90,000 (Potential flexibility for candidates with strong automotive and electronics experience)

Benefits : Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, paid time off, paid holidays, and 401(k).

Our client, a global manufacturer serving the automotive industry, is seeking a Customer Quality Engineer to manage quality activities for a key OEM customer account. This highly visible role will serve as the primary quality contact for a major automotive customer and will be responsible for driving customer satisfaction, resolving quality issues, and supporting new product launches.

The ideal candidate will have prior automotive manufacturing experience and a strong background in customer quality, problem solving, and continuous improvement. Experience with electronic components or assemblies is highly preferred but not required.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary quality contact for a major automotive OEM account.
• Lead customer quality issue resolution and drive corrective actions to closure.
• Build and maintain strong customer relationships while ensuring customer requirements are met.
• Support new product launches, APQP activities, and PPAP submissions.
• Analyze warranty data, identify trends, and implement improvement initiatives.
• Collaborate with manufacturing, engineering, and cross-functional teams to improve product quality and reduce defects.
• Lead root cause investigations utilizing tools such as 8D, 5 Why, Fault Tree Analysis, and FMEA.
• Monitor and maintain key quality metrics including PPM, warranty performance, and cost of quality.
• Support change management activities related to products and processes.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives within a high-volume manufacturing environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical field.
• Minimum of 3 years of quality engineering experience within an automotive manufacturing environment.
• Experience serving as a customer-facing quality representative for automotive OEMs.
• Strong knowledge of APQP, PPAP, FMEA, SPC, and problem-solving methodologies.
• Experience with IATF 16949 and automotive quality standards.
• Excellent communication and customer relationship management skills.
• Electronics manufacturing experience is a plus.
• Internal Auditor certifications (ISO 9001/IATF 16949 or VDA 6.3) are preferred.

Preferred Experience

• Automotive electronics, PCB assembly, or electronic component manufacturing.
• Experience supporting OEM customers such as Ford, GM, Stellantis, BMW, Volkswagen, or Mercedes.
• Familiarity with automated assembly processes, vision systems, and manufacturing quality tools.

Travel: Up to 10%