Quality Manager

Job Description

Job Description

SUMMARY: The Quality Manager is responsible for leading, governing, and continuously improving the company’s Quality Management System (QMS) to ensure compliance with AS9100, ISO 9001, regulatory, and customer‑specific requirements. This role translates quality strategy into disciplined execution across inspection, auditing, corrective action, supplier quality, and continuous improvement.

Reporting to the Director of Engineering & Quality, the Quality Manager serves as a key member of site leadership—driving product conformity, reducing risk and cost of poor quality, strengthening customer confidence, and fostering a culture of accountability, integrity, and continuous improvement across the organization.

This role is expected to strengthen Quality system maturity, reduce risk and cost of poor quality, and build a high‑performing Quality organization that supports sustainable business growth.

CORE VALUES

All employees are expected to demonstrate the Company’s Core Values through daily actions, decision-making, and interactions:

• Client Oriented – Focus on developing long-term relationships, products, and services that meet client needs.
• Open – Communicate honestly and transparently about capabilities, challenges, and solutions.
• Nimble – Think critically, respond quickly, and adapt effectively to changing priorities and situations.
• Necessary – Recognize that every role contributes to organizational success and take ownership of outcomes.
• Engineering Mindset – Approach challenges by developing practical, thoughtful solutions regardless of role.
• Continuous Improvement – Actively seek opportunities to improve processes, performance, and personal development.
• Teamwork – Collaborate effectively with coworkers, leadership, vendors, and clients to achieve shared goals.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Championing a strong quality culture by setting clear expectations, modeling desired behaviors, and holding teams accountable to standards and core values.
• Define and deploy the site Quality strategy aligned with business objectives, customer expectations, delivery performance, and cost of poor-quality reduction.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership by providing data‑driven insights, risk assessments, and recommendations impacting operational and strategic decisions.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the Quality organization (Engineers, Technicians, and Inspectors), establishing goals, training plans, performance expectations, and succession readiness.
• Own, maintain, and continuously improve the Quality Management System (AS9100 / ISO 9001), ensuring effective governance of procedures, records, audits, training, and management reviews.
• Ensure compliance with customer, contractual, regulatory, and internal requirements throughout product realization, manufacturing, and change management activities.
• Establish and govern the corrective action and risk management systems, ensuring effective root cause analysis, sustainable prevention of recurrence, and proactive mitigation of quality, supplier, and process risks.
• Administer the Material Review Board (MRB) process, ensuring timely nonconformance analysis, disposition, documentation, and customer coordination when required.
• Plan and oversee internal, external, customer, registrar, and supplier audits, including preparation, execution, corrective action responses, and effectiveness verification.
• Establish, govern, and ensure effective deployment of process documentation and controls—including SOPs, PFMEAs, control plans, work instructions, SPC, and Cp/Cpk—ensuring ownership, consistency, and disciplined revision control.
• Establish, monitor, and report quality KPIs (scrap, rework, escapes, audit results, corrective action effectiveness), driving continuous improvement initiatives and measurable reduction in COPQ.
• Serve as the primary quality interface for customers and strategic suppliers, partnering cross‑functionally with Engineering and Operations to support NPI, design transfer, issue resolution, and sustained compliance.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Leadership & Influence: Able to lead through influence, set direction without direct authority, and drive accountability across functions.
• Collaboration, leadership & Execution Ability: Brings a positive, team‑centered mindset that fosters collaboration and enables teams to thrive. Capable of independently executing and managing projects, influencing peers and cross‑functional teams, and driving initiatives to completion without direct authority.
• Continuous Improvement & Problem-Solving Ability: Demonstrates a strong commitment to driving systemic quality and continuous improvement through data‑driven analysis, root cause investigation, and rapid experimentation. Apply lean and quality tools to identify process gaps, eliminate waste, reduce defects, and implement sustainable improvements across the value stream.
• Decision Quality: Makes balanced, timely decisions considering organization factors, such as customer impact, risk, financial impact, impact on core values and/or ability to scale solution appropriately while maintaining focus on long-term business sustainability.
• Prioritization : Able to prioritize tasks and activities while considering the business needs today vs. the business needs of the future.
• Communication : Proven ability to communicate complex information both verbally and in writing clearly and effectively at all organization levels, including executive and external audiences.
• Ethics & Values : Willing and able to uphold high quality standards and stand firm on decisions that may negatively impact production or sales, but are in line with Customer specifications, qualifications, regulatory requirements and/or safety protocol.

KEY COMPETENCIES:

❑ Customer/Client Focus

❑ Accountability and Ownership

❑ Collaboration and Teamwork

❑ Adaptability and Agility

❑ Continuous Improvement Mindset

❑ Integrity and Transparency

❑ Solution-Oriented Thinking

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related technical field; master’s degree preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive quality experience in a manufacturing or regulated quality environment, with at least 5 years in a leadership role managing a strong and accountable Quality team.
• Aerospace, defense, medical devices or other regulated industry experience preferred.
• Proven experience managing customer quality performance, including handling escapes, customer complaints, scorecards, corrective actions, and executive‑level customer communications.
• Strong experience with risk‑based thinking, quality planning, and change management in manufacturing environments, including product and process changes.
• Demonstrated experience influencing and driving quality culture across operations, engineering, supply chain, and leadership teams.
• Experience managing quality cost metrics (COPQ), driving continuous improvement initiatives, and delivering measurable business impact.
• Strong experience with supplier development, including audits, corrective actions, risk mitigation, and quality improvement partnerships.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in fast‑paced, high‑mix, low‑volume and/or high‑volume manufacturing environments.
• Hands‑on experience balancing business pragmatism with strict quality compliance, making sound, data‑driven decisions under pressure and walk the line between a win / win for both the customer and the business.
• Motivational and Influential (always leading by example.)
• Must be able to Multitask.

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS:

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

1. Stand under 1/3 of the time.
2. Walk under 1/3 of the time, externally between buildings at times.
3. Required to sit for long periods of time.
4. Use hands to finger, handle, or feel 1/3 to 2/3 of the time.
5. Reach with hands and arms 1/3 to 2/3 of the time.
6. Talk or hear 1/3 to 2/3 of the time.
7. Lift up to 20 pounds under 1/3 of the time.
8. The above physical demands include duties such as sitting at workstation using PC, making and receiving phone inquiries, packing files, moving within company to communicate with other departments.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

1. Working conditions are normal for an office environment and may require occasional weekend and/or evening work.
2. Moderate noise (examples: business offices with computers and printers, light traffic and visits to factory).
3. Some travel (1-3%) may be required during the year for supplier / customer visits.