Quality Engineer

Smiths Group•Cookeville, TN

1d•Onsite

About The Position

TUTCO, LLC is seeking a detail-oriented Quality Engineer in Cookeville, Tennessee. The role is responsible for product and process quality throughout the product life cycle, with emphasis on quality planning, manufacturing readiness, defect prevention, and customer satisfaction. The engineer leads cross-functional quality planning, maintains core quality documents, analyzes product and process performance, and drives corrective and preventive actions. The position also serves as a primary quality contact for assigned OEM customers, providing responsive communication and ensuring alignment with customer-specific requirements. The role supports new products, transfers, design and process changes, and supplier changes from concept through production release. It coordinates customer approvals and submissions, production readiness, customer quality matters, inspections, testing, problem solving, supplier quality activities, audits, training, and continuous improvement. Work takes place in office, quality laboratory, and manufacturing settings, with travel to customer, supplier, and company locations as business needs require.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Engineering Technology, Quality, or a related technical field preferred; equivalent relevant education and manufacturing quality experience may be considered.
Experience in a manufacturing quality engineering role, preferably supporting OEM customers in HVAC, appliance, industrial, or related markets.
Working knowledge of quality planning and core quality tools, including process flow diagrams, PFMEA, control plans, PPAP, FAI, SPC, MSA, capability studies, and structured root cause analysis.
Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, specifications, tolerances, test requirements, and customer quality documentation.
Strong analytical, problem-solving, project-management, and organizational skills, including the ability to manage multiple customer and launch priorities.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to explain technical information clearly and professionally to OEM customers and cross-functional teams.
Proficiency in data analysis, report preparation, and Microsoft Office applications.
Sound judgment, accurate recordkeeping, ability to protect confidential customer information, and appropriate risk escalation.
Ability and willingness to travel by automobile or airplane to customer, supplier, and company locations as business needs require.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of ISO 9001:2015 quality management system requirements and audit support.
Experience with advanced product quality planning or equivalent structured quality planning methods.
Familiarity with OEM customer portals, customer-specific requirements, and formal corrective action formats such as 8D.
Knowledge of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, mistake-proofing, risk-based thinking, and continuous improvement methods.
Quality and regulatory support experience related to RoHS, REACH SVHC, CMRT, EMRT, California Proposition 65, TSCA, PFAS, and other customer compliance requests.

Responsibilities

Lead quality planning for new products, product transfers, design changes, process changes, and supplier changes through production release.
Collaborate with Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales, and Operations to identify risks and define controls.
Develop, review, and maintain process flow diagrams, PFMEAs, control plans, inspection plans, test plans, and other quality records.
Define critical-to-quality characteristics, acceptance criteria, sampling, measurement methods, validation, and documentation requirements.
Coordinate PPAP, FAI, and other customer approval submissions and supporting records.
Assess quality impacts of engineering and process changes and ensure required verification, validation, training, and customer approvals are completed.
Facilitate production readiness reviews and verify quality requirements, inspection methods, gauges, work instructions, and control documents are ready for launch.
Serve as the primary quality interface for assigned OEM customers and maintain responsive working relationships.
Interpret customer drawings, specifications, quality manuals, portals, and customer-specific requirements, and communicate them internally.
Coordinate responses to customer requests, including PPAPs, FAIs, RMAs, corrective action requests, deviations, source inspections, audits, and compliance inquiries.
Lead or support customer complaint investigations, containment, root cause analysis, corrective actions, and effectiveness verification.
Prepare and present technical updates, quality data, investigation findings, and action plans to customers.
Coordinate customer visits, audits, and quality reviews, and follow through on commitments and action items.
Escalate significant customer, product, or compliance risks to Quality Leadership and affected functions.
Analyze production, inspection, test, scrap, rework, warranty, and complaint data to identify trends, risks, and improvement opportunities.
Lead structured problem solving and root cause investigations and implement sustainable corrective and preventive actions.
Perform or coordinate inspections, dimensional verification, reliability testing, and laboratory testing.
Apply statistical methods, SPC, process capability analysis, measurement system analysis, and other quality tools to evaluate performance and reduce variation.
Partner with Manufacturing and Engineering to resolve production issues, prevent recurrence, improve first-pass yield, and reduce poor-quality costs.
Maintain accurate quality records, reports, approvals, and objective evidence in accordance with document-control and retention requirements.
Support supplier qualification, PPAP review, incoming quality planning, and supplier corrective actions.
Participate in supplier, internal, and customer audits and support closure of resulting actions.
Train and guide manufacturing and quality personnel on control plans, inspection requirements, quality standards, and new processes.
Support continuous improvement and promote prevention, accountability, and customer focus.
Perform other duties as assigned by Quality Leadership.