Quality Manager

Midstate Spring, Inc.•Syracuse, NY

3d•$60,000 - $90,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Quality Manager is responsible for leading Midstate Spring’s Quality Department while serving as a key technical communication link between customers, engineering, production, and internal quality personnel. This role is heavily focused on understanding customer requirements, interpreting prints and specifications, communicating quality concerns clearly and professionally, and helping drive practical solutions to product and process issues. This position is intended to function with a strong product engineering mindset, combining hands-on technical knowledge with ownership of customer quality issues, internal quality performance, inspection priorities, corrective actions, Quality Management System requirements, and department leadership. The Quality Manager will be expected to communicate effectively with customers regarding nonconformances, corrective actions, specifications, product performance concerns, and quality documentation, while ensuring that internal teams understand and respond appropriately to customer expectations. This role has responsibility for the day-to-day operation and effectiveness of the Quality Department, including ISO 9001:2015 audit readiness, Quality KPI reporting, and Cost of Quality performance.

Requirements

Strong ability to communicate clearly and professionally with customers regarding technical and quality-related issues.
Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify root causes and implement practical corrective actions.
Ability to read, interpret, and apply customer drawings, specifications, tolerances, and purchase order requirements.
Strong mechanical aptitude and ability to understand product design, manufacturability, inspection requirements, and customer application concerns.
Ability to work closely with engineering, production, customer service, management, and external customers.
Strong leadership skills with the ability to manage department priorities, coach employees, and hold the team accountable.
Strong attention to detail and a high degree of accuracy.
Ability to remain professional and solution-oriented when communicating about quality problems or customer concerns.
Basic computer skills required, including Microsoft Office, email composition, and other communication/collaborative tools.
Ability to prepare clear written communication, corrective action responses, inspection summaries, and customer-facing quality documentation.
Experience with precision measurement tools and inspection methods.
Familiarity with SPC, control plans, corrective actions, nonconformance documentation, and root cause analysis.
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Quality Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Technology, or a related technical field preferred.
Equivalent combination of technical education, quality experience, and manufacturing experience may be considered.
3–5 years of quality, engineering, or technical manufacturing experience in an industrial environment preferred.
Prior experience communicating directly with customers regarding quality, engineering, product, or technical issues strongly preferred.
Prior leadership or supervisory experience preferred.
Experience supporting or leading ISO 9001:2015 audits, quality management systems, KPI reporting, or Cost of Quality improvement efforts preferred.
Experience in spring manufacturing, wire forms, stampings, precision metal components, or related manufacturing preferred.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with ISO 9001:2015 requirements, audit preparation, Quality KPI reporting, and Cost of Quality concepts preferred.
AutoCAD or similar print/drawing experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead the Quality Department, including scheduling work, assigning priorities, managing department performance, supporting employee development, and resolving day-to-day issues within the department.
Oversee first piece inspections, in-process audits, final inspections, sorting activities, and other quality checks necessary to verify conformance to customer requirements.
Ensure inspection personnel are properly trained on customer requirements, inspection methods, documentation expectations, and quality standards.
Maintain and improve systems for documenting, tracking, and resolving internal and external quality issues.
Maintain the effectiveness of the Quality Management System and ensure ongoing compliance with ISO 9001:2015 requirements.
Help determine when product should be accepted, rejected, sorted, reworked, or escalated for further review.
Maintain general housekeeping standards within the quality work area.
Perform other duties as assigned.
Serve as a primary customer-facing contact for product quality issues, including customer complaints, nonconformances, corrective actions, requests for information, and quality-related technical concerns.
Communicate quality issues to customers in a clear, professional, timely, and technically accurate manner.
Interpret customer prints, specifications, purchase order requirements, and quality expectations to determine product requirements and appropriate inspection or control methods.
Work closely with engineering, production, customer service, and management to evaluate customer requirements and resolve product-related quality concerns.
Assist customers and internal teams in reviewing product designs, spring requirements, tolerances, manufacturability concerns, inspection criteria, and quality expectations.
Review customer drawings for completeness, accuracy, and clarity, and communicate concerns or questions to the appropriate internal or external contacts.
Coordinate with customers regarding returned product, rejected material, sorting requirements, replacement product, credit requests, and containment actions.
Complete customer compliance requests, surveys, quality questionnaires, corrective action responses, and related documentation as needed.
Support the development, review, and maintenance of shop prints, inspection criteria, control plans, and quality documentation based on customer specifications and product requirements.
Lead and support root cause investigations for internal and external quality issues.
Develop, assign, and follow up on corrective and preventive actions to ensure issues are resolved effectively and recurrence is reduced.
Maintain, review, and analyze Quality KPIs, including inspection results, nonconformance trends, customer complaints, corrective action performance, scrap/rework data, and Statistical Process Control data, to identify opportunities for improvement.
Prepare and present Quality KPI performance to the leadership team on a monthly basis, including key trends, concerns, corrective actions, and improvement priorities.
Own and help reduce the organization’s Cost of Quality by tracking the impact of scrap, rework, returns, sorting, defects, customer complaints, and corrective actions.
Support production teams by helping resolve quality concerns in real time and by ensuring quality requirements are understood within the manufacturing process.
Provide technical support for measuring springs, wire forms, stampings, and formed metal parts using appropriate precision gauging tools and inspection methods.
Partner with engineering and production leadership to improve product quality, reduce defects, improve manufacturability, and strengthen customer satisfaction.
Oversee ISO 9001:2015 audit activities, including annual certification or surveillance audit requirements, internal audit readiness, audit follow-up, and maintenance of required quality system documentation.