Director, Quality

Job Description

Job Description

Location: Nevada (Manufacturing Facility) Employment Type: Full-time, Exempt Reports To: VP Manufacturing 

This position plays a critical role in protecting the brand, the customer experience, and the safety of the workforce . In a luxury camper van business, quality failures are highly visible and safety risks are unacceptable—this role ensures both are controlled, measured, and continuously improved.

The Quality Director is responsible for developing, implementing, and leading Noovo's company-wide quality strategy and Quality Management System (QMS) supporting the design, manufacture, delivery, and service of premium camper vans.

This position owns the systems, processes, standards, and organizational capabilities necessary to ensure Noovo consistently delivers vehicles that meet internal quality standards, engineering specifications, customer expectations, and applicable regulatory requirements.

The Quality Director will lead the transition from primarily inspection-based quality control to a mature prevention-based quality organization, where quality is built into product design, supplier processes, manufacturing operations, and standard work.

The role works closely with Manufacturing, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Inventory Control, Product Engineering, Compliance & Product Safety, ERP Operations, and Service & Repair to identify risk, prevent defects, improve First Pass Yield, reduce Cost of Poor Quality, and systematically eliminate recurring issues.

The Quality Director is expected to be highly visible on the manufacturing floor and capable of balancing strategic QMS development with hands-on problem solving in a growing manufacturing environment.

Key Responsibilities

Quality Strategy & Leadership. Develop and execute Noovo's overall quality strategy aligned with production growth and business objectives. Establish annual quality objectives, KPIs, improvement priorities, staffing plans, and organizational capabilities. Build and lead the Quality organization, including supervisors, inspectors, technicians, supplier-quality resources, and future quality engineering functions. Establish clear accountability for quality throughout the manufacturing organization and promote the principle that quality is created by the process—not inspected into the product.

Quality Management System. Own the development, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of Noovo's QMS. Establish controlled procedures for document control, nonconforming material, MRB, corrective action, supplier quality, production control, inspections, audits, calibration, training, and record retention. Lead internal QMS audits and management reviews and drive the organization toward a scalable ISO 9001:2015-aligned quality system.

Manufacturing Quality. Establish quality controls throughout the complete vehicle manufacturing process, from incoming chassis and materials through production, functional testing, road testing, final inspection, and vehicle release. Develop appropriate quality gates, inspection criteria, test methods, specifications, checklists, and acceptance standards. Ensure defects are identified as close as possible to their point of creation and prevent known defects from moving downstream.

First Pass Yield & Defect Reduction. Own measurement and improvement of First Pass Yield across production stages. Analyze defect and rework data to identify systemic issues, recurring defects, and process weaknesses. Lead cross-functional improvement efforts to reduce defects per vehicle, rework hours, quality escapes, and Cost of Poor Quality.

Root Cause & Corrective Action. Establish disciplined problem-solving methodologies including 5 Why, Fishbone, 8D, containment, corrective action, and verification of effectiveness. Ensure significant and recurring defects are investigated to root cause rather than repeatedly repaired. Track corrective actions to closure and verify that implemented solutions prevent recurrence.

Nonconforming Material & MRB. Own the Nonconformance and Material Review Board processes. Ensure nonconforming materials and products are identified, documented, segregated, controlled, and properly dispositioned. Chair or oversee MRB activities and ensure appropriate participation from Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Compliance, and other stakeholders.

Supplier Quality. Develop Noovo's supplier-quality program in partnership with Supply Chain and Purchasing. Establish incoming quality requirements based on supplier and component risk. Monitor supplier defect rates and quality performance, initiate Supplier Corrective Action Requests where appropriate, and participate in supplier qualification, audits, development, and performance reviews. Work with suppliers and Purchasing to eliminate recurring defects at the source.

Incoming Quality. Establish risk-based incoming inspection requirements for purchased materials and components. Define sampling plans, acceptance criteria, inspection methods, documentation, and escalation processes. Reduce dependence on incoming inspection as supplier capability and demonstrated quality performance improve.

Product & Process Quality Planning. Participate in New Product Introduction, engineering changes, and process changes to ensure quality requirements are considered before release to production. Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Product Engineering on design-for-quality, manufacturability, process capability, inspection requirements, validation, and production readiness.

Quality Data & Analytics. Develop reliable quality reporting and dashboards using Noovo's ERP and quality data systems. Establish consistent defect classifications, failure codes, inspection records, and quality metrics. Analyze trends by vehicle model, VIN, production stage, component, supplier, defect type, technician, and other meaningful dimensions.

Customer & Field Quality. Partner with Service & Repair to create a closed-loop feedback system between customer experience and manufacturing. Analyze warranty claims, service repairs, customer complaints, repeat failures, and field-quality issues. Ensure significant field failures are communicated to Manufacturing and Engineering and converted into appropriate corrective actions.

Product Safety & Regulatory Interface. Partner closely with the Compliance & Product Safety Manager on issues that could affect vehicle safety, FMVSS requirements, NHTSA obligations, RV industry requirements, or other applicable standards. Immediately escalate potential safety-related defects and maintain appropriate quality documentation and traceability. The Quality Director supports regulatory conformity through the QMS while the Compliance & Product Safety function retains ownership of regulatory interpretation and certification requirements.

Final Vehicle Quality & Release. Establish objective final vehicle inspection and release criteria. Ensure required inspections, functional tests, road tests, rework verification, configuration checks, and documentation are complete before release. Maintain independence and authority for Quality to prevent release of vehicles that do not meet established requirements.

Continuous Improvement. Partner with Manufacturing leadership and Manufacturing Engineering to improve process capability and eliminate waste associated with defects, inspection, rework, repair, and troubleshooting. Promote standard work, quality at the source, mistake-proofing, visual controls, layered process audits, and other Lean quality methodologies.

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Quality, Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, or a related technical discipline preferred. Equivalent combination of education and significant manufacturing quality leadership experience may be considered.

Experience: 8+ years of progressive manufacturing quality experience with at least 3–5 years in quality leadership. Experience building or significantly improving a manufacturing QMS is strongly preferred. Automotive, RV, aerospace, marine, specialty vehicle, or other complex discrete-manufacturing experience is highly desirable.

Candidates should have demonstrated experience with manufacturing quality, supplier quality, root-cause analysis, CAPA, NCR/MRB, quality audits, inspection systems, quality metrics, and cross-functional problem solving.

Experience operating in a rapidly growing manufacturing organization is strongly preferred.

Technical Skills

Strong working knowledge of ISO 9001:2015 principles, Lean Manufacturing, structured root-cause analysis, 8D, CAPA, MRB, supplier-quality management, statistical analysis, inspection and test methods, process auditing, and quality-data analysis.

Experience with ERP-based quality systems is required; Odoo experience is preferred.

Familiarity with vehicle manufacturing, FMVSS/NHTSA requirements, RV standards, product traceability, configuration management, and serialized manufacturing is highly desirable.

ASQ CQE, CMQ/OE, ISO 9001 Lead Auditor, Six Sigma Green/Black Belt, or comparable certifications are preferred but not required.