Quality Compliance and Improvement Manager

Plansee•Franklin, MA

2d•$90,000 - $120,000•Onsite

About The Position

This role is responsible for ensuring quality compliance and driving continuous improvement within the organization. The Quality Compliance and Improvement Manager will review customer contracts, purchase orders, drawings, and specifications to identify and interpret quality requirements, ensuring they align with customer, regulatory, and AS9100 standards. This includes flowing down requirements to manufacturing, engineering, procurement, and quality processes, identifying compliance risks, and coordinating resolutions. The manager will also maintain customer-specific quality requirements, support audits and FAI, conduct specification change reviews, and verify requirements are properly communicated to production orders and inspection plans. Additionally, the role involves supporting the estimating team with quality costs and confirming organizational and supplier capabilities to meet contractual requirements. On the improvement side, the manager will develop and execute continuous improvement roadmaps, analyze data to identify trends, lead cross-functional teams focused on recurring issues, facilitate Lean methodologies like Kaizen and VSM, establish and monitor KPIs, and track project performance for measurable results.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Quality, Operations Management, Business, or related field preferred.
Minimum of 5 years of experience in Quality, Compliance, Continuous Improvement, Manufacturing, or Operational Excellence roles.
Working knowledge of AS9100, ISO-based quality systems, and regulatory compliance requirements.
Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, Six Sigma, and root cause analysis methodologies.
Strong analytical, project management, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate across all levels of the organization.
Proficiency with ERP, PLM, quality management systems, and data analysis tools.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional improvement initiatives and deliver measurable business results.
Possess fundamental skills: time/organization management, project management, communication (written/verbal), detail-oriented and ability to read and understand technical publications and instructions.
Proficiency in MS Office 2010 environment (Word, Excel, Project, Outlook), and SAP R/3.
Meet the requirements under ITAR: U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident (Green Card Holder).

Responsibilities

Review customer contracts, purchase orders, drawings, and specifications to identify and interpret quality requirements.
Ensure customer, regulatory, and AS9100 requirements are properly documented and flowed down to manufacturing, engineering, procurement, and quality processes.
Identify compliance risks, specification gaps, and potentially unachievable requirements, and coordinate resolution prior to order acceptance.
Maintain customer-specific quality requirements, change notifications, and compliance records.
Support audits, First Article Inspection (FAI) requirements, and regulatory compliance activities.
Conduct specification change reviews and initiate required Engineering Change Requests (ECRs).
Verify customer requirements are properly flowed down to production orders, inspection plans, manufacturing routings, and supplier purchase orders prior to release.
Provide support to the estimating team to capture quality cost, including cost associated with the inspection, documentation, and verification of product.
Confirm organizational and supplier capability to meet contractual inspection, testing, certification, traceability, and documentation requirements.
Maintain contract review records and support customer communications to resolve unclear or conflicting quality requirements.
Develop and execute continuous improvement roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
Collect and analyze production and quality data to identify trends and improvement opportunities.
Lead improvement efforts and cross-functional teams, focused on recurring issues impacting MRB, Yield, On-Time Delivery (OTD), customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
Facilitate Kaizen events, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and structured problem-solving workshops.
Establish, monitor, and communicate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and performance dashboards.
Track project performance and report measurable savings, efficiency gains, and benefits realization.