Automobile Quality & Development Engineer

Cesna Recruitment•Decatur, AL

About The Position

The Senior Quality & Development Engineer is responsible for ensuring product quality and supporting product and process development for automotive carpet materials. The role works closely with production, laboratory, and customer teams to maintain quality standards, improve manufacturing processes, and develop products that meet customer specifications and automotive industry requirements. The position covers quality assurance and control, laboratory testing, product and process development, customer quality management, data analysis, continuous improvement, audit support, and compliance with automotive quality systems. The engineer investigates non-conformance issues, supports customer testing and technical discussions, and maintains documentation related to quality and development activities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Textile Engineering, or a related field.
Experience in quality assurance, quality control, or product development within manufacturing.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office and quality data systems.
Attention to detail.
Technical problem-solving skills.
Data analysis and reporting skills.
Cross-functional collaboration skills.
Communication skills for working with customers and internal teams.
Process improvement and innovation skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in automotive interior materials, carpet, felt, or nonwoven products.
Experience with quality tools such as Six Sigma, Root Cause Analysis, and Statistical Process Control.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain quality assurance policies and procedures.
Monitor product quality throughout the manufacturing process.
Plan and conduct inspections and testing of raw materials, in-process materials, and finished automotive carpet products.
Review inspection records, testing results, and certificates of analysis.
Perform laboratory testing of product properties, including weight, thickness, compression, and durability.
Conduct routine production floor inspections to identify potential quality issues.
Support development of new automotive carpet products and materials.
Conduct laboratory trials and material testing for new product development.
Work with production teams to optimize manufacturing processes and product performance.
Evaluate raw materials and alternative materials for product improvement.
Participate in prototype evaluation and customer sample development.
Investigate customer complaints and product non-conformance issues.
Communicate with customers about product performance and quality improvements.
Support customer testing requirements and technical discussions.
Collect and analyze quality and production data.
Identify trends and root causes of product defects.
Develop and implement corrective and preventive actions.
Support continuous improvement initiatives in product quality and manufacturing efficiency.
Support internal and external quality audits.
Ensure compliance with applicable automotive quality systems such as IATF 16949 and ISO 9001.
Maintain documentation related to quality and development activities.