Product Quality Leader- NPD & Change MGMT

Rehlko•Hattiesburg, MS

9d•$89,800 - $114,100

About The Position

The Product Quality Leader – NPD & Change Management manages and owns quality performance for new product development projects, safe launches, VAVE/cost-out initiatives, and product/process change management. This role serves as the primary quality leader for launch readiness, change control, validation, customer protection, and early production stability. This role also owns quality performance for all non-top strategic customers and partners with engineering, manufacturing, supplier quality, service, product management, and operations to identify risks, contain issues, drive corrective action, improve launch execution, strengthen PFMEAs and control plans, reduce customer escapes, and lower Cost of Poor Quality.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Operations, Process Management, or related field.
Minimum of 5 years of experience in manufacturing, quality, reliability, operations, product launch, or change management.
Proven experience supporting NPD, safe launch, production validation, VAVE/cost-out, or product/process change implementation.
Working knowledge of PFMEA, control plans, inspection methods, corrective action, APQP principles, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement.
Demonstrated ability to prioritize work, influence cross-functional teams, and deliver results in a fast-paced environment.

Nice To Haves

Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.
Experience with AIAG APQP, PFMEA, control plan, PPAP, MSA, and capability study principles.
Experience supporting engine, mechanical, electrical, or complex assembly manufacturing.
Experience with safe launch, early production containment, customer protection plans, or launch readiness reviews.
Background in cost of poor quality (COPQ) reduction, warranty analysis, and reliability improvement.
SAP Experience

Responsibilities

Support new product development projects by ensuring quality requirements, validation activities, manufacturability expectations, and customer protection plans are defined and executed.
Lead launch quality readiness activities, including launch control plans, inspection strategy, containment requirements, entry criteria, exit criteria, and post-launch monitoring.
Monitor launch performance through FPY, defect trends, customer escapes, containment results, test failures, early warranty indicators, and defect pareto reduction.
Drive immediate containment, root cause analysis, corrective action, and escalation when launch defects, readiness gaps, or customer risks are identified.
Ensure product and process risks are reviewed and controlled prior to production release, with verified corrective actions and objective evidence required before safe launch exit.
Apply post-launch lessons learned from warranty, field failures, customer complaints, manufacturing defects, and launch performance to strengthen future product and process designs.
Lead quality review and validation for VAVE, cost-out, design change, and process change initiatives.
Ensure changes are not released without risk review, validation evidence, updated documentation, training, inspection requirements, and process control verification.
Partner with engineering, manufacturing engineering, supplier quality, and operations to confirm changes are controlled before implementation.
Drive post-change monitoring to verify changes do not create customer escapes, rework, warranty exposure, process instability, or hidden COPQ.
Manage product quality performance for all non-top strategic customers, maintaining accountability for customer escapes, chronic issues, warranty trends, and reliability performance.
Identify and prioritize product and customer risks using manufacturing data, field feedback, warranty data, test results, and performance indicators.
Lead containment and mitigation actions to protect customers and minimize operational and business impact.
Support customer communication and issue resolution with clear status, ownership, timing, and corrective action follow-up.
Partner with manufacturing operations to improve First Pass Yield, reduce quality holds, eliminate rework, and improve launch and change-related process performance.
Ensure in-process controls, inspection strategies, verification methods, final test requirements, PFMEAs, control plans, work instructions, quality alerts, and inspection requirements are current, aligned, and consistently executed.
Analyze quality-related losses and use data-driven methods to prioritize actions that reduce scrap, rework, test failures, warranty cost, customer complaints, and change-related defects.
Lead structured problem-solving and corrective actions that strengthen process controls, layered process discipline, launch readiness, and prevention of repeat issues.