Director of Product Quality and Supplier Compliance

4Patriots LLC•Nashville, IN

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

4Patriots, LLC, is a fast-growing, nationally recognized direct-to-consumer brand focused on offering high-quality products across multiple categories including camping & outdoor, emergency preparedness and health & wellness. The company is powered by an adaptable, results-focused, data-driven team in a culture that empowers great people to do their best work. We are searching for a driven, detail-oriented Director of Product Quality & Supplier Compliance to join our team. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment with high standards that holds you accountable and rewards accomplishments, look no further. Your family is important, so you have the flexibility to balance both home and work according to your needs. Your natural curiosity will be rewarded through continued professional development opportunities. Living our core values is non-negotiable; you treat others with respect and dignity and expect it in return. Fostering an environment of transparency and authenticity, where one can bring one’s whole self to work, and where differences are celebrated comes naturally to you. Finally, working in an environment where you are appreciated and valued is an important factor in your work life. The Director of Product Quality & Supplier Compliance’s Mission is to build and lead an independent quality function that holds 4Patriots’ third-party suppliers accountable, verifies every product claim and specification before launch, and brings failure rates across the catalog to a defensible, tracked and improving baseline.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in quality assurance or quality engineering, including direct people-leadership experience
Direct, hands-on experience managing quality for third-party or contract manufacturers, ideally with overseas (Asia-based) suppliers
A track record of building or substantially rebuilding a quality function, not solely running one that already exists
Background in hard goods or consumer products, ideally direct-to-consumer, e-commerce or retail (not exclusively industrial, B2B or software QA)
Working comfort with power products, electronics or similarly technical and regulated categories (batteries, chargers, small appliances, tools), or a strong track record of getting up to speed quickly in a new technical category
Bachelor’s Degree or higher in engineering, science, technology, business or a related discipline; equivalent practical experience is welcome in place of a degree
Experience using and analyzing data to assess progress against performance metrics and drive decision making
A genuine collaborator: someone who holds a firm line on standards while still being someone other departments want in the room
Willingness to travel domestically and internationally, including to Asia, on a periodic basis

Nice To Haves

Six Sigma or Lean certification
ASQ certification (CQE, CQM or similar)
Experience with UL, ETL, FCC or CPSC compliance for consumer electronics
Familiarity with lithium-ion battery safety, testing and shipping regulations
Experience across Amazon and big-box retail in addition to direct-to-consumer
Experience with product claims substantiation, or reviewing marketing and technical claims for regulatory risk

Responsibilities

Redesign the 4Patriots quality function to meet its current and future state: determine the processes, standards, staffing and testing infrastructure the business actually needs, and in what order, based on where risk truly lives
Lead the 4Patriots Quality Council, the cross-functional forum spanning Marketing Creative, Supply Chain Operations, Product Development, Quality, Legal, Procurement and Customer Service, presenting top issues, trends and data for open, company-wide accountability
Own supplier quality assurance (SQA) for our third-party manufacturers, including overseas and sub-tier (cell and component) suppliers: build supplier qualification and audit programs, scorecards, sampling (AQL) and 100% test strategies where risk warrants, such as burn-in for power products, and a corrective action (CAPA) process suppliers are genuinely held to
Own and evolve the testing and validation capability, determining what is verified in-house versus through outside labs and certification bodies (UL, ETL, FCC, CPSC, and NSF for water testing and certification), so that every product claim and specification is verified before it ships
Build a quality gate into new product development with the authority to hold a launch when there is a known, unresolved defect, particularly for power products
Lead compliance and claims substantiation: review the claims Marketing and Product Development propose for each SKU, risk-rate them, and route high-risk items to Legal for final sign-off
Partner with Product Development as an equal rather than a downstream checkpoint, pushing back constructively when quality issues are being absorbed instead of resolved at the source
Lead, manage and develop a high-performing team of Quality employees, beginning with the current Quality Analyst, adding structure and specialization as the business and product risk require
Manage the accurate, complete and timely capture of relevant quality data across inbound receiving, returns and testing
Oversee the measurement and reporting of key quality performance metrics (e.g., defect rates, customer return rate, supplier performance, cost of poor quality) and identify trends in order leadership can act on
Lead investigation, root cause analysis and escalation of quality issues to ensure timely and effective issue resolution
Travel periodically to Atlanta, Salt Lake City and China to work directly with suppliers, warehouse partners and internal teams