Quality Assurance Manager

Industry: Industrial Coatings, Metal Finishing, Fasteners and Surface Treatments

Company Overview

An established industrial manufacturing organization specializing in protective coatings, surface treatments and related processing of fasteners and engineered metal components.

Position Overview

Seeking an experienced, hands-on Quality Manager to lead quality operations at its manufacturing facility located North East of Chicago

This is an important plant leadership position responsible for maintaining strong quality systems, improving manufacturing performance and ensuring that customer requirements are consistently achieved.

The successful candidate will be an established manufacturing quality leader with strong technical knowledge, sound judgment and the ability to communicate effectively with customers, plant leadership and production personnel.

We are particularly interested in individuals who have managed quality in demanding industrial environments and can balance quality system discipline with practical, shop-floor problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the plant's quality organization, including quality systems, inspection, testing, corrective actions and continuous improvement activities.
• Maintain and improve quality management systems consistent with applicable ISO 9001, IATF 16949 and customer-specific requirements.
• Drive effective root-cause analysis, corrective and preventive actions, and sustained resolution of internal and external quality issues.
• Serve as a key contact for customers regarding product quality, complaints, audits, corrective actions and performance improvement.
• Partner with manufacturing, engineering and maintenance leadership to improve process capability, reduce defects and strengthen operating performance.
• Establish and monitor quality metrics, including customer complaints, scrap, rework, internal defects, cost of poor quality and corrective-action effectiveness.
• Ensure appropriate process controls, inspection procedures, testing methods and documentation are established and consistently followed.
• Lead internal and external audits, customer quality reviews and quality system improvement initiatives.
• Support product and process launches, process changes and customer qualification requirements.
• Develop, coach and hold accountable quality engineers, technicians, inspectors and other quality personnel.
• Promote a culture of prevention, accountability and continuous improvement throughout the operation.

Candidate Qualifications

• Demonstrated success as a Quality Manager, Plant Quality Manager or senior quality leader in an industrial manufacturing environment.
• Experience managing a quality function, including people leadership, customer relationships and quality system accountability.
• Strong working knowledge of ISO 9001 and structured quality management systems.
• Practical experience with root-cause analysis, corrective actions, problem-solving and manufacturing process controls.
• Familiarity with automotive quality tools such as 8D, PFMEA, Control Plans, SPC, MSA and PPAP.
• Ability to communicate professionally and effectively with customers, senior management and plant-floor employees.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate quality data into effective manufacturing improvements.
• Demonstrated success improving quality performance in a high-volume or process-intensive manufacturing environment.

Highly Desirable

• Experience with IATF 16949 and automotive customer-specific quality requirements.
• Background in metal finishing, industrial coatings, plating, heat treatment, fasteners or related metal processing.
• Knowledge of coating thickness, adhesion, corrosion resistance, salt-spray testing and related surface-treatment quality requirements.
• Experience with automotive OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers or demanding industrial customers.
• Experience managing customer audits, supplier quality issues and new-product/process qualifications.
• ASQ certifications or equivalent technical credentials.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is an experienced manufacturing Quality Manager who has already demonstrated the ability to lead a quality organization and improve results.

This individual understands quality systems but is not simply a systems administrator. They are comfortable on the manufacturing floor, capable of diagnosing process problems, and effective in working with production and engineering teams to achieve sustainable improvements.

They also have the confidence and communication skills to represent the company with customers, manage difficult quality situations and contribute as a member of the plant leadership team.

Direct experience in industrial coatings or metal finishing would be valuable, but we will also consider strong quality leaders from automotive components, metal processing and other technically demanding manufacturing environments.