Director of Quality

Director of Quality

Reports To: Vice President of Operations / Executive Leadership

Scope: Quality leadership for two manufacturing facilities

Position Summary

The Director of Quality is responsible for leading and driving the overall quality strategy, systems, performance, and culture across two manufacturing facilities within a Tier 1/Tier 2 automotive supplier environment.

This position will provide leadership to plant quality teams and ensure consistent execution of quality standards, customer requirements, and continuous improvement initiatives across both locations. The Director of Quality will serve as the senior quality leader for the organization, with responsibility for customer quality, plant quality, quality systems, supplier quality, launch readiness, and corrective action effectiveness.

The ideal candidate will have a strong automotive manufacturing background with experience in metal-forming and fabrication processes such as stamping, welding, robotic welding, metal fabrication, and assembly. This individual must be a hands-on leader who is comfortable working directly on the plant floor, interacting with customers, developing quality teams, and implementing sustainable solutions to complex manufacturing and quality problems.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide overall leadership and strategic direction for the Quality function across two manufacturing facilities.
• Develop, implement, and continuously improve the company's quality strategy, systems, procedures, and performance standards.
• Lead and develop Plant Quality Managers, Quality Engineers, Quality Technicians, and other quality personnel across both facilities.
• Establish consistent quality processes, metrics, expectations, and accountability across both plants.
• Ensure compliance with IATF 16949, ISO 9001, customer-specific requirements, and applicable automotive quality standards.
• Serve as the primary senior-level quality contact for major automotive customers and OEM/Tier 1 customer organizations.
• Lead resolution of significant customer quality concerns, escalations, corrective actions, and containment activities.
• Drive disciplined root cause analysis and permanent corrective actions utilizing tools such as 8D, 5 Why, Ishikawa/Fishbone, fault-tree analysis, and other structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Reduce customer complaints, warranty exposure, internal scrap, rework, sorting, containment costs, and Cost of Poor Quality.
• Establish and monitor key quality performance indicators across both plants, including:
• Customer PPM
• Internal PPM
• Scrap and rework
• Customer complaints
• Corrective action closure
• Supplier performance
• Audit performance
• Cost of Poor Quality
• Identify recurring quality trends and implement systemic corrective actions across multiple facilities.
• Partner closely with Operations, Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and Program Management to improve manufacturing performance.
• Ensure quality requirements are incorporated into new product launches, process changes, capital equipment installations, and continuous improvement activities.
• Provide oversight and leadership for APQP, PPAP, PFMEA, Control Plans, MSA, SPC, capability studies, and related automotive quality tools.
• Ensure manufacturing processes are capable, controlled, documented, and consistently producing product that meets customer specifications.
• Lead internal, customer, and third-party audits and ensure timely closure of findings and corrective actions.
• Support manufacturing process improvements involving stamping, welding, robotic welding, metal fabrication, assembly, tooling, fixtures, and related processes.
• Establish strong layered process audit and process-control disciplines throughout both facilities.
• Drive improvements in inspection methods, mistake-proofing, error detection, traceability, and process controls.
• Participate in customer visits, quality reviews, audits, and escalation meetings as required.
• Support supplier quality improvement efforts and resolution of significant supplier-related quality issues.
• Build a proactive quality culture focused on prevention rather than detection.
• Mentor and develop quality leaders and establish succession and professional development plans within the Quality organization.
• Communicate quality performance, risks, corrective actions, and improvement initiatives to executive leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Operations, or a related technical discipline strongly preferred.
• Significant progressive quality leadership experience within an automotive Tier 1 or Tier 2 manufacturing environment.
• Previous experience leading Quality across multiple plants or significant responsibility within a complex manufacturing organization strongly preferred.
• Strong experience with IATF 16949 and automotive customer-specific quality requirements.
• Demonstrated experience managing automotive customer relationships and resolving significant customer quality issues.
• Strong working knowledge of:
• APQP
• PPAP
• PFMEA
• Control Plans
• MSA
• SPC
• 8D Problem Solving
• Root Cause Analysis
• Layered Process Audits
• Process Capability
• Corrective and Preventive Action
• Experience within metal manufacturing processes strongly preferred, particularly:
• Metal stamping
• Progressive stamping
• Welding
• Robotic welding
• Metal fabrication
• Assembly
• Tooling and fixtures
• Proven track record of improving customer quality performance and reducing scrap, rework, PPM, and Cost of Poor Quality.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated ability to develop strong Quality Managers, Engineers, and plant-level quality organizations.
• Ability to operate effectively at both the strategic leadership level and hands-on plant-floor level.
• Strong communication, leadership, organizational, and customer-facing skills.
• Ability to travel regularly between the two manufacturing facilities and to customer locations as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting major automotive OEM and Tier 1 customers.
• Multi-site Quality leadership experience.
• Experience with stamped and welded automotive components or assemblies.
• Six Sigma, CQE, CQM/OE, or other recognized Quality certifications.
• Experience leading significant quality turnarounds or building standardized Quality systems across multiple manufacturing locations.