Senior Quality Engineer - Expanded Beam Optics

3M•Maplewood, MN

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Quality Engineer owns Expanded Beam Optics (EBO) product quality governance and manufacturing quality performance. The role ensures that quality requirements, control plans, risk registers, defect definitions, metrics, and lessons learned remain current and aligned across manufacturing locations and customer regions. It leads quality issue resolution, drives continuous improvement for the manufacturing site, and supports global customer issues. The position is based on-site at the 3M Center in Maplewood, Minnesota, at least four days per week, and may involve up to 30% domestic and/or international travel. Relocation may be authorized. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the country of employment without employment-visa sponsorship. Responsibilities may involve access to information or systems subject to U.S. export control regulations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, quality, and/or manufacturing, completed and verified before starting.
At least three years of experience in product and manufacturing quality, including advanced quality planning, process controls, customer issue resolution, manufacturing defect investigation, and product design risk management.
At least three years of experience leading or supporting quality improvement and risk management activities, including PFMEA, control plans, change impact assessments, root cause analysis, corrective actions, SPC, and process capability.
Legally authorized to work in the country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status.
Ability to work on-site at the 3M Center in Maplewood, Minnesota at least four days per week.
Willingness to travel up to 30% domestically and/or internationally.

Nice To Haves

Experience with optical products, connectors, electronics, precision assembly, or high-reliability manufacturing.
Experience with product transfers or cross-site process alignment.
Experience supporting global products manufactured across multiple sites.
Experience with product lifecycle quality, design change review, process change review, or product transfer.
Strong cross-functional leadership.
Proficiency in Mandarin.

Responsibilities

Lead or support manufacturing quality improvement, root cause analysis, and corrective actions.
Maintain the EBO product quality baseline, including critical-to-quality characteristics, known risks, acceptance criteria, and quality requirements.
Govern global product-level control plans, inspection expectations, and defect classification standards.
Maintain the EBO product quality risk register across customer, manufacturing, metrology, application, and design risks.
Lead periodic product quality reviews using data from customers, manufacturing locations, and failure analysis.
Review product, process, tooling, test method, material, and site changes for quality impact.
Support global quality triage when Menomonie production is involved.
Ensure lessons learned from customer issues, internal defects, site qualification, and failure analysis are incorporated into controls and improvement plans.
Standardize quality dashboards, defect libraries, and product quality reporting.
Partner with engineering, manufacturing, customer quality, site quality, and metrology teams.
Comply with corporate policies, procedures, and security standards while performing assigned duties.
Contribute to a strong Environmental Health and Safety culture by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.