Quality Manager

Balanced Body•Sacramento, CA

2d•$120,000 - $150,000

About The Position

Balanced Body is hiring a Quality Manager to lead and consolidate quality across the full manufacturing flow, from suppliers through customer delivery. This newly consolidated role will establish a disciplined, criteria-driven quality system and serve as the voice of the customer inside the factory. It is a hands-on player-coach position, particularly during the first year, involving floor inspections, writing standards, and working directly with suppliers as well as leading and coaching the quality team. The Quality Manager will own customer-facing quality, written acceptance criteria, the quality management system, supplier quality, and cross-functional quality leadership. The role will also support quality planning for new product launches, qualification of new manufacturing sources—including international operations—and a quality transition during an upcoming facility move. EHS and Supply Chain are separate functions that this role will partner with, not manage. Balanced Body is a Sacramento-based manufacturer of premium Pilates equipment and has operated since 1976. The company describes its mission as building tools that help people move better, feel better, and enjoy their lives more.

Requirements

At least 7 years of progressive quality experience in discrete manufacturing.
At least 3 years of experience leading a team.
Hands-on, current quality experience rather than experience leading exclusively through managers.
Hands-on ownership of a QMS, such as QT9 or an equivalent system, including CAPA, non-conforming product, MRB, and audit management.
Supplier quality experience, including FAI, PPAP or equivalent, supplier audits, and corrective-action follow-through.
Experience working with small or informal suppliers, not only suppliers with established quality systems.
Direct customer-facing experience, including complaint resolution, 8D reporting, and making and keeping commitments to accounts.
Ability to write acceptance criteria for a high-mix, craftsmanship-driven environment.
Ability to build metrics and dashboards in Excel.

Nice To Haves

Experience with premium consumer, fitness, or furniture products.
ASQ certification such as CQM/OE or CQE.
Experience qualifying international manufacturing sources.
Lean or Theory of Constraints background.
New product introduction experience.
Bilingual English and Spanish.
Power BI experience.

Responsibilities

Handle customer complaints, field failures, and warranty claims; prepare 8D reports, drive corrective actions, and feed field data back to the factory floor.
Write acceptance criteria for every part family and chair the Material Review Board, providing inspectors and technicians with consistent standards.
Own QT9 as a functioning quality management system, including the CAPA pipeline, non-conforming product trends, and audit readiness.
Build leadership dashboards and metrics, including cost of poor quality, first-pass yield, and supplier rework.
Establish an end-to-end supplier quality process, from supplier quality agreements through first article inspection and incoming inspection.
Develop structured improvement programs for high-impact suppliers and work directly at supplier sites, including helping small or informal suppliers establish processes and controls.
Lead a weekly quality and supply cadence with Supply Chain.
Set standards for and coach inspectors, technicians, and supplier quality engineers.
Develop quality plans for new product launches, including the Luna Reformer.
Qualify new manufacturing sources, including international operations.
Ensure a zero-gap quality transition during the upcoming facility move.
Partner closely with the separate EHS and Supply Chain functions.