Quality Manager

Ruger • Mayodan, NC

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. is seeking an active, hands-on Quality Engineering Manager for its onsite Mayodan, North Carolina location. The manager will develop, establish, and continually improve manufacturing systems and processes by coaching and mentoring manufacturing leaders, engineers, purchasing staff, and other team members. The role calls for associate-focused leadership and a kaizen improvement culture, using lean thinking to improve process stability and robustness and deliver customer satisfaction.

The manager will oversee quality goals and systems across supplier, process, product, and customer quality; support new product development and APQP; maintain engineering and inspection standards; and lead technical problem-solving and supplier quality efforts. The role also leads customer-return repair technicians and supports manufacturing change control. Leadership responsibilities include recruiting key team members and participating in performance evaluations and development plans.

Requirements

• Five or more years of Quality Management experience preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Quality, or Business Administration.
• Must successfully pass a drug and background screening.
• Must be eligible and willing to handle firearms.

Nice To Haves

• Lean manufacturing experience preferred.
• Membership in an industry-related professional body would be advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Establish and maintain short- and long-term manufacturing quality goals covering supplier, process, product, and customer quality.
• Maintain a balanced scorecard tracking cost of poor quality and quality-system measures, including customer returns, scrap, change control, deviations, supplier issues, and new-product-development launches and PPAP.
• Maintain and improve the Quality System in collaboration with Gun Division Quality Managers.
• Guide manufacturing engineers in developing processes with defined content, sequence, timing, and outcomes, and robust plans for process control and waste reduction.
• Collaborate with manufacturing and product lead engineers to develop, deploy, and maintain product and internal quality standards.
• Coach and mentor engineers on new-part and process introduction and ongoing process-change integrity.
• Ensure new-product-development efforts follow the New Product Development Process and manage quality through support of APQP.
• Establish Quality Engineering roles and responsibilities for programs and promote early quality planning and a zero-defect expectation.
• Develop and maintain plant-wide Quality Engineering Standards, including process capability, pFMEA, process sheets, gage control plans, gage qualification, and MSA practices.
• Develop and evaluate measurement practices and inspection equipment to meet current and future production needs, including NDT, metallurgical inspection, CMM, Keyence, variable-data, and functional gaging.
• Maintain a quality laboratory in accordance with Ruger Quality Standards and ensure key measurement equipment is calibrated at the necessary frequency.
• Guide and assist engineers and team members with technical problem-solving and root-cause analysis using methods such as DMAIC, 5 Why, Find and Fix, Symptomatic Analysis, and Good Bad Comparison.
• Maintain inspection processes for incoming supplier parts, macro and micro hardness, non-destructive testing, and specialized engineering checks.
• Support purchasing through supplier quality engagement, supplier development, issue tracking, and permanent corrective actions.
• Build relationships with Ruger suppliers and internal Value Streams as customers.
• Support manufacturing Process Change Request and approval processes; track changes through closure, mitigate concerns, and help prevent untracked changes and unintended consequences.
• Lead customer-service repair technicians handling customer returns; maintain customer-service KPIs, including an average dock-to-ship turnaround time under five days.
• Lead and support monthly reporting to Value Streams on top issues, coordinate repairs with Value Streams, and drive permanent corrective actions to their source.
• Coach and mentor manufacturing team members through servant leadership and communication with shop-floor associates and stakeholders.
• Participate as a leader in recruiting key team members and in their performance evaluations and development plans.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and compensation package.
• Company-performance-based bonus and profit sharing.
• Medical, dental, and vision health benefits.
• 401(k) match and discretionary supplemental 401(k) contribution.
• Basic and supplemental life insurance options.
• Short- and long-term disability plans.
• Paid time off (PTO).
• Quarterly profit sharing for associates based on company profits earned for the quarter.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager