Quality Manager

Boon Edam, Inc.•Lillington, NC

About The Position

The Quality Manager leads product, manufacturing, supplier, incoming-material, field, and installation quality across Boon Edam Americas, with primary responsibility for consistently achieving factory and product quality requirements. The role manages the Quality team and drives effective containment, root-cause correction, and prevention of recurring quality issues. The Quality Manager maintains and improves the Quality Management System (QMS) in support of operational quality responsibilities, establishes meaningful quality measures, and provides leadership with visibility into performance, risks, and improvement priorities. The role partners across functions to strengthen shared ownership of quality while staying connected to day-to-day product and operational quality performance. The position leads quality initiatives and communication, oversees operational quality processes and audits, and has authority to contain material quality risks and require corrective-action plans. It coordinates continuous improvement and corrective action across internal teams and suppliers, oversees supplier-quality processes, supports quality throughout the product lifecycle, and investigates significant customer, field, warranty, and installation concerns. The Quality Manager also leads, coaches, and develops the Quality team. Travel of up to 25% to suppliers, customers, field locations, company facilities, and other business locations is required.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Quality Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, or a related technical or business field; equivalent relevant experience may be considered.
Seven or more years of progressive experience in quality, manufacturing, engineering, operations, or a related field, including responsibility for quality systems and improvement initiatives.
Experience leading quality activities and employees within a manufacturing or technically oriented organization.
Strong working knowledge of Quality Management Systems, internal auditing, corrective and preventive action, root-cause analysis, quality controls, and continuous-improvement methodologies.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional improvement efforts and influence outcomes across departments without relying solely on direct authority.
Ability and willingness to travel up to 25% to suppliers, customers, field locations, company facilities, and other business locations.

Nice To Haves

Experience with ISO 9001 or a comparable Quality Management System standard.
ASQ certification, such as Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), or Certified Quality Auditor (CQA).
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.
Experience in an engineered-to-order, configurable-product, industrial-equipment, or similar manufacturing environment.
Experience with SAP or a comparable enterprise resource planning system.

Responsibilities

Champion quality across operations and key interfaces, reinforcing shared accountability for product, supplier, manufacturing, field, and installation quality.
Own internal communication about quality priorities, corrective actions, projects, and progress.
Maintain and continually improve the QMS in support of product, supplier, manufacturing, incoming-material, field, and installation quality.
Maintain quality policies, procedures, standards, records, controls, and escalation requirements for operational quality processes.
Establish ownership, expectations, decision rights, and measures for quality processes, delegating execution while retaining accountability for results.
Ensure products, services, and business processes meet established quality, reliability, functionality, and customer requirements.
Lead the internal quality audit program, including planning, reporting, corrective-action follow-up, and development of qualified internal auditors.
Contain material quality risks, including initiating product, process, production, or shipment holds and approving release following appropriate evaluation and corrective action.
Require corrective-action plans from internal teams and suppliers when requirements are not met; approve or reject supplier deviations and quality exceptions within delegated authority.
Escalate unresolved or significant quality risks to the Plant Manager and appropriate executive leadership.
Lead cross-functional root-cause analysis, containment, corrective action, and preventive improvement for significant quality issues.
Promote structured problem-solving methods, including 5 Whys, Fishbone/Ishikawa analysis, Pareto analysis, and corrective and preventive action.
Partner with Operations and other functional leaders to eliminate recurring issues and strengthen prevention.
Establish, monitor, communicate, and improve quality measures, including COPQ, warranty incidence and cost, first-pass yield, scrap and rework, supplier defects, corrective-action effectiveness and aging, field failures, and installation-related quality issues.
Report quality performance, significant risks, corrective actions, and improvement priorities to leadership.
Own the QMS and its planned developments; ensure employees are trained, understand roles and expectations, and use the QMS as designed.
Oversee supplier-quality performance and supplier qualification, evaluation, auditing, and corrective-action processes.
Partner with Supply Chain, Engineering, Manufacturing, suppliers, and the Quality team to resolve supplier issues and prevent recurrence.
Ensure incoming-material, production, and process-quality controls are defined, implemented, monitored, and improved.
Support quality throughout the product lifecycle, including new-product introduction, engineering or supplier changes, manufacturing, installation, and field performance.
Partner with customer-facing teams to investigate significant customer, field, warranty, and installation-quality concerns, coordinate corrective action, and translate findings into improvement priorities.
Communicate with customers directly or through new product sales and service teams on elevated issues; provide plans, timelines, progress, and corrective-action status, and coordinate solutions and preventive actions with installation and service teams.
Coordinate cross-functional teams resolving product, supplier, manufacturing, field, installation, and customer-quality issues.
Keep cross-functional problem solving focused on facts, root causes, sustainable corrective action, and customer impact.
Incorporate quality controls and risk considerations into new products and process changes early in planning and implementation.
Lead, coach, and develop the Supplier Quality Engineer, Production Quality Engineer, inspection resources, and other Quality team members.
Establish priorities, objectives, responsibilities, and success measures for the Quality function and team members; delegate execution while maintaining oversight and accountability.