Quality Director - NPD

Our client is hiring a Quality Director to drive Quality Management System (QMS) effectiveness to ensure new products are functional, reliable, and durable ahead of product launches.  The Quality Director is responsible for Quality Assurance, Quality Engineering, Supplier Management and managing a team of five.  As the Quality Director, you'll help build our new office and quality team in Heber City, UT while managing a remote team in our HQ in Orange, CA.  The ideal candidate has 10+ years of engineering experience with 5+ years focused on quality for new and sustaining products in an OEM environment.  You’re skilled at problem solving, risk analysis and working with internal teams and external suppliers.

Recognized as a Best Places to Work in SoCal in 2023, our client has been delivering rugged, feature-rich tools and testing instruments to HVACR technicians since 1990.  They offer a flexible work schedule with two days’ work-from-home and a hire-to-retire philosophy that encourages employee development and growth.

Responsibilities:

• Manage the Quality team including hiring, allocating resources and performance management.
• Manage supplier quality by building relationships, improving processes, creating quality agreements, conducting audits, and maintaining records.
• Write Product Quality Plan & Test Cases for inspecting, testing, and evaluating product compliance to all quality requirements (accuracy, reliability, and durability).
• Drive quality initiatives to resolution (corrective/preventive actions, new product validation, process improvement, documentation, and internal/external audits) and provide concise, reliable information to inform decisions.
• Collaborate with sales, marketing, and engineering teams to create and approve all requirements.
• Design, specify, maintain, and utilize inspection and test fixtures/equipment.
• Work closely with Engineering and contract manufacturers to resolve product issues before product launch through skilled application of Advanced Product Quality Planning, various preventive quality tools (FMEA, DOE, DFM), and PPAP.
• Manage and conduct Design Verification & Validation that encompasses multiple test points (internal, contract manufacturer, beta testing, third party certifications).

Required Skills and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field.
• 10+ years of engineering experience – preferably in R&D for devices, tools, or instruments.
• 5+ years of quality expertise including QA, QE, and QMS.
• Excellent critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Tactical experience with key statistical-based quality tools, cause-and-effect diagrams, histograms and pareto charting, scatter diagrams, fishbone diagrams, statistical correlation of causality, Lean, and Kepner-Tregoe (KT) tools.
• Strong decision-making, organizational, time management, reporting, and analytical skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work effectively across the organization and external vendors, negotiating improvements after considering risks.   
• Ability to travel globally (up to 20%).