Quality Engineer

Founded in London in 1946, Goodfellow is a global leader in advanced materials, enabling innovation globally across high-tech sectors including aerospace, medical research, electronics, and green energy. With a portfolio of more than 170,000 specialist products , we support scientists, engineers, and manufacturers worldwide in transforming ideas into real world solutions. Position Summary The Quality Engineer will support high-volume advanced manufacturing operations involving laser processing, fragile material handling, inspection, cleaning, packaging, and customer quality requirements. This role is responsible for developing, maintaining, and improving the data collection systems needed to understand process performance, identify defect trends, support root-cause analysis, and ensure that production controls are effective and documented. A primary focus of this position will be creating reliable process data across each step of production, including incoming inspection, lamination, laser processing, cleaning, final inspection, packaging, and shipment. The Quality Engineer will work closely with Operations, Engineering, Manufacturing, Materials, and customer-facing program teams to ensure that quality risks are identified early, contained quickly, and permanently addressed through disciplined corrective action. Key Responsibilities Develop and maintain the quality data collection system for all critical process steps. Define what data must be collected at incoming inspection, lamination, laser processing, cleaning, inspection, packaging, and shipment. Ensure data is tied to part number, revision, serial number, lot number, purchase order, process step, equipment, operator, inspection result, and disposition. Track defects by type, location, severity, process step, equipment, lot, operator, and customer impact. Create trend reports to identify recurring issues, abnormal variation, yield loss, scrap drivers, and process drift. Support daily, weekly, and customer-facing quality reviews with accurate, timely data. Develop dashboards, logs, trackers, and reports that allow the team to understand process capability and risk. Ensure that quality data is complete, controlled, accurate, and usable for root-cause analysis. Wafer and Fragile Material Quality Control Support quality control for laser-processed wafers, thermal interface material, and other fragile or customer-sensitive materials. Develop inspection methods for wafer bow, edge chips, micro-cracks, cracks, scratches, contamination, coating defects, handling damage, and packaging-related damage. Support evaluation of inspection technologies such as profilometry, digital microscopy, optical inspection, SWIR imaging, infrared inspection, or other economically feasible detection methods. Establish documentation methods for defect location, including photo records, clock-position mapping, and serial-number traceability. Help determine whether incoming conditions, process steps, handling methods, cleaning, chucking, or packaging contribute to cracking or other defects. Support containment and disposition of suspect wafers, TIM parts, and nonconforming material. Root-Cause Analysis and Corrective Action Lead or support root-cause analysis for scrap, yield loss, customer complaints, nonconforming material, process escapes, and recurring defects. Use structured problem-solving methods such as 5 Why, fishbone analysis, Pareto analysis, fault-tree thinking, process mapping, and data correlation. Work with Engineering and Operations to identify whether defects are related to incoming condition, equipment, tooling, fixtures, vacuum hold-down, cleaning, handling, operator method, packaging, environment, or process parameters. Develop and track corrective and preventive actions. Verify effectiveness of corrective actions through data, inspection results, and sustained process performance. Ensure lessons learned are incorporated into work instructions, Control Plans, PFMEAs, training, and inspection procedures. Control Plan, PFMEA, and Process Documentation Develop, maintain, and improve Control Plans for production processes. Support PFMEA development and ensure that identified risks are linked to actual process controls and reaction plans. Ensure Control Plans include clear inspection points, measurement methods, sampling plans, acceptance criteria, escalation triggers, and containment actions. Maintain quality procedures, inspection instructions, data collection forms, nonconforming material records, and customer-required documentation. Ensure that process changes, revision changes, tooling changes, inspection changes, and customer requirements are properly documented and communicated. Support preparation for customer reviews, audits, and quality meetings. Inspection and Measurement Systems Define inspection requirements for incoming, in-process, and final inspection. Support development of visual standards and acceptance criteria for fragile materials, including wafers and thermal parts. Work with Engineering and Operations to select appropriate inspection methods and measurement equipment. Support measurement system analysis, gage repeatability and reproducibility, correlation studies, and inspection method validation where required. Ensure inspectors and operators are trained to identify, document, and elevate quality issues consistently. Maintain quality records and ensure inspection data is traceable and retrievable. Nonconforming Material and MRB Support Support the nonconforming material process, including identification, segregation, documentation, disposition, and corrective action. Participate in or coordinate MRB activity for wafers, TIM parts, and other customer-sensitive materials. Ensure that questionable material is not moved forward without proper review and disposition. Document customer communication, deviations, concessions, rework decisions, and scrap decisions as required. Help establish a practical MRB cadence to support fast decision-making during production ramp. Customer Quality Support Support customer-facing quality communication with accurate data, clear status, and documented actions. Prepare quality summaries for customer meetings, internal reviews, Control Plan reviews, PFMEA reviews, and corrective-action updates. Help ensure that customer requests for serial numbers, defect locations, process-step history, inspection data, and closure dates are answered quickly and accurately. Support customer audits, supplier qualification requests, corrective-action requests, and technical reviews. Maintain a professional, data-driven approach to customer quality issues. Production Ramp Support Support the transition from development or low-volume production to stable high-volume manufacturing. Identify quality risks that may increase as volume, equipment count, staffing, and material movement increase. Support validation of new or recommissioned equipment, including laser systems, cleaning systems, fixtures, chucks, inspection methods, and packaging methods. Monitor ramp performance and help identify whether yield, scrap, cycle time, inspection burden, or customer quality risk is changing. Work cross-functionally to make sure production growth is supported by proper quality controls, material controls, training, and documentation. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Materials Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. Experience in a manufacturing quality engineering role. Strong ability to develop and maintain production quality data systems. Experience with root-cause analysis, corrective action, process control, and defect tracking. Familiarity with Control Plans, PFMEA, work instructions, inspection plans, and nonconforming material processes. Ability to analyze data, identify trends, and convert findings into practical actions. Strong communication skills with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Materials, and customer-facing teams. Strong attention to detail and commitment to documentation accuracy. Preferred Qualifications Experience with laser processing, semiconductor materials, wafer handling, micro-machining, optics, electronics, medical device, aerospace, or other precision manufacturing environments. Experience with fragile materials, wafers, thin films, coated materials, or thermal interface materials. Experience with optical inspection, digital microscopy, profilometry, metrology systems, SWIR/IR inspection, or automated inspection methods. Familiarity with ISO 9001 or similar quality management systems. Experience with MSA, gage R&R, SPC, capability analysis, Pareto analysis, and structured problem-solving. Experience working in a production ramp, new product introduction, or high-growth manufacturing environment. Success Measures Establish reliable quality data collection across all critical process steps. Improve visibility to defect trends, scrap causes, and yield-loss drivers. Support reduction in wafer cracks, edge damage, handling damage, and customer escapes. Improve speed and accuracy of root-cause analysis. Maintain effective Control Plans, PFMEAs, inspection records, and reaction plans. Support timely customer responses with accurate serial-number, defect, process-step, and disposition data. Strengthen MRB discipline and nonconforming material control. Help the operation scale without losing quality control or customer confidence. #J-18808-Ljbffr