Customer Quality Engineer III

Customer Quality Engineer III

The Customer Quality Engineer III is a key technical leader responsible for elevating product quality, strengthening customer relationships, and driving operational excellence across highly regulated manufacturing environments. This role blends deep quality engineering expertise with customer‑facing influence, ensuring that products meet stringent industry standards while enabling continuous improvement across processes, systems, and teams.

Role Overview

You will serve as the primary quality interface for customers—interpreting requirements, resolving complex issues, and ensuring flawless execution of quality processes from qualification through production. This role is central to improving customer satisfaction, reducing defects, and advancing the organization’s quality maturity. You will lead investigations, shape quality documentation, support audits, and champion data‑driven improvements that enhance reliability and performance.

Primary Responsibilities

•Maintain strong customer relationships by independently representing the organization in meetings and effectively using customer portals to exchange quality‑related information.

•Improve customer satisfaction by proactively reducing claims, remakes, scrap, and deviations from standard work.

•Interpret and communicate customer requirements from purchase orders, specifications, and technical documents, ensuring accurate flow‑down to internal teams.

•Review and disposition change requests that may impact customer requirements or product performance.

•Participate in and support Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), ensuring alignment with customer expectations and industry standards such as AS9100.

•Prepare, maintain, and submit required customer quality documentation, including PPAP, VAP, Control Plans, IQ/OQ/PQ, and other qualification packages.

•Develop and maintain Control Plans and FMEAs, defining Critical to Quality (CTQ) attributes and Key Characteristics (KCs).

•Perform and document First Article Inspections (FAIs) in accordance with AS9102 and customer‑specific requirements.

•Lead moderate‑ to high‑complexity 8D root‑cause investigations, communicating findings and corrective actions to customers and ensuring timely closure.

•Improve and stabilize manufacturing processes using SPC, capability analysis, and other statistical methods.

•Demonstrate advanced proficiency in inspection, measurement, and sampling methodologies; lead Measurement System Analysis (MSA) improvements.

•Maintain qualifications for customer‑specific Supplier Quality Representative (SQR) roles when required.

•Develop and deliver training on customer‑specific quality requirements to internal teams.

•Collaborate with Quality Systems to integrate customer requirements into internal processes and procedures.

•Provide guidance in developing customer‑focused product audit plans.

•Facilitate and participate in customer audits and external/third‑party assessments.

•Serve on the internal audit team to support system compliance and continuous improvement.

•Maintain a centralized quality records database, ensuring data integrity and accessibility.

•Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance product and process quality.

•Promote safe working practices and model safety leadership for the quality team.

•Lead small sub‑teams as needed.

•Perform additional duties and special projects as assigned.

Position Requirements

•Bachelor’s degree in engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, or a related technical field.

•Five or more years of experience in a manufacturing quality role, ideally within aerospace or another highly regulated industry.

•Experience with customer quality requirements, audits, root‑cause analysis, and AS9100 processes.

•Strong working knowledge of AS9100 and customer‑specific aerospace standards; familiarity with ISO9001, IATF16949, ISO13485, Nadcap, NQA‑1, and/or 10 CFR 21 Appendix B.

•Deep understanding of quality management system elements and the ability to ensure compliance across departments.

•Proficiency in internal auditing and leading major portions of audits.

•Strong capability in 8D, root‑cause analysis, and corrective action planning for complex issues.

•Solid understanding of SPC concepts, capability analysis, and control charting.

•Working knowledge of heat treatment processes and their impact on product quality.

•Proficiency with metrology tools, gauges, and measurement best practices.

•Ability to understand broader business issues—customer requirements, production constraints, cost drivers—and apply this knowledge to quality decisions.

•Experience leading medium‑scale projects or cross‑functional quality initiatives.

•Ability to identify resource needs, coordinate timelines, and ensure alignment with organizational priorities.

•Understanding of cost impacts of quality decisions and contribution to cost‑reduction efforts.

•Strong verbal and written communication skills.

•Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment.