Position Title: Senior Quality Engineer
Candidates must be local to the Chicago area.
Overview:
We are seeking a hands-on, driven Senior Quality Engineer to join a high-volume manufacturing operation that supports both domestic and international production. The ideal candidate will bring strong technical depth in quality engineering principles, statistical process control, and cross-functional problem solving within a fast-paced, automated production environment.
This position is a replacement hire reporting directly to the Quality Manager and is part of a larger quality team including salaried engineers and hourly quality techs. While the quality team is based in Chicago, this role focuses on the quality of soft tile ceiling products manufactured in Mississippi and imported from international sites, as well as occasional involvement in the Chicago-based metal grid product line.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead quality initiatives for both domestic and imported products, with a focus on continuous improvement and defect prevention.
- Own internal and external quality metrics, customer complaints, and product development quality.
- Apply Six Sigma and statistical tools to root cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Collaborate across production, engineering, and supplier quality to drive improvements in product consistency and process capability.
- Develop and implement Control Plans, PFMEAs, Gage R&Rs, and SPC tools from scratch.
- Serve as a quality liaison between the manufacturing site, suppliers (including international), and internal stakeholders.
- Spend 60–70% of time on the production floor engaging with operators and monitoring process performance.
- Use Excel and data analysis to communicate results and drive fact-based decisions.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a closely related technical field.
- Minimum of 5 years’ experience in high-volume manufacturing environments.
- Strong proficiency with quality core tools: 8D, Control Plans, PFMEA, Gage R&R, SPC.
- Experience working in automated, high mix/high-volume environments (100M+ parts per week). Job shop experience is not applicable.
- Proficient in Minitab for SPC and Gage R&R analysis; recent (past 2–4 years) usage preferred.
- Familiarity with SPC tools such as histograms, control charts, X-bar & R, IMR, P and U charts.
- Demonstrated ability to develop control plans and FMEAs from the ground up.
- Six Sigma certification (Green or Black Belt), CQE, or equivalent strongly preferred.
- Strong communication and emotional intelligence; able to influence and drive initiatives across functions.
- Comfortable working both independently and in a collaborative team environment.
