Sr. Quality Engineer

AGCO • Beloit, WI

28d • Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Quality Engineer is a plant technical leader for manufacturing quality strategy, control-system design, launch governance, and complex problem solving. The role leads the translation of product and process risks into robust special-characteristic controls, measurement strategies, Control Plans, functional test requirements, MSA, SPC, PPAP evidence, Safe Launch plans, quality gates, and finished-product verification. Working across Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Supplier Quality, and Product Integrity, the Senior Quality Engineer influences critical decisions, coaches Quality Engineers, resolves high-risk technical issues, and delivers measurable improvement in customer, supplier, launch, and manufacturing quality performance.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Quality, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Industrial, Electrical Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing quality, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, supplier quality, reliability, or a related technical field, including leadership of complex cross-functional issues or launches.
• Demonstrated advanced application of APQP, PFMEA review, Control Plans, PPAP, special characteristics, MSA, Gauge R&R, SPC, process capability, and structured problem solving in complex manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrated experience developing and approving inspection, measurement, and functional-test strategies, including acceptance criteria, reaction plans, validation evidence, and quality records.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority, lead technically complex cross-functional decisions, coach engineers, challenge weak evidence constructively, and communicate risk and recommendations to plant and functional leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead plant Quality Engineering deliverables for major or high-risk NPI and APQP programs, establishing the quality strategy, reviewing technical adequacy, challenging weak evidence, escalating unresolved risk, and advising leadership on launch readiness.
• Lead special-characteristic management across assigned products and processes; challenge characteristic flow-down, approve control and measurement strategies, and ensure KC/CC/SC requirements are traceable to reaction plans and objective evidence.
• Provide senior technical challenge during PFMEA development, using field, warranty, supplier, capability, and lessons-learned data to influence risk prioritization and ensure significant risks are addressed in Control Plans and verification strategies without assuming PFMEA ownership.
• Lead internal PPAP approval for complex or high-risk launches; determine evidence of sufficiency, resolve cross-functional gaps, and withhold quality approval when risk or evidence is unacceptable.
• Establish and govern risk-based Safe Launch strategies, enhanced controls, escalation thresholds, exit criteria, and leadership status reporting; authorize or recommend exit based on demonstrated capability and defect containment.
• Represent plant Quality Engineering in DFMEA, DFM/DFA, production readiness, and launch maturity reviews; influence design and process decisions using technical evidence, manufacturing risk, and customer impact.
• Lead control strategy development and approve Production Control Plans for complex assembly, fabrication, machining, stamping, paint, welding, and special processes; mentor others in risk-based control selection and change control.
• Define and technically approve inspection and functional-test strategies, including method selection, coverage, sampling, acceptance criteria, reaction plans, data retention, and correlation to product risk and customer requirements.
• Design and optimize quality-gate and finished-product-audit strategies using risk, defect escape data, process capability, and detection effectiveness; recommend control reduction or escalation based on evidence.
• Provide technical leadership to Manufacturing Engineering during functional-test development and integration; review test architecture, failure detection, repeatability, false-pass risk, correlation, and validation evidence against approved quality requirements.
• Establish governance that keeps Control Plans aligned with engineering changes, process changes, lessons learned, nonconformities, warranty signals, and emerging field risks; audit effectiveness across assigned areas.
• Serve as the technical authority for measurement strategy, gauge selection, MSA design, Gauge R&R interpretation, uncertainty and bias considerations, calibration linkage, and fitness-for-use decisions on complex applications.
• Lead plant SPC methodology and advanced application, including characteristic selection, rational subgrouping, chart selection, limit strategy, reaction plans, automated monitoring, compliance, and escalation.
• Interpret capability and stability using Cp, Cpk, Pp, Ppk, distribution behavior, control-chart signals, and supporting statistical methods; influence Manufacturing Engineering and Operations priorities for unstable or incapable processes.
• Lead technical audits and evidence-based reviews of control effectiveness; identify systemic weaknesses, assign risk-based priorities, and verify sustained corrective action across functions.
• Provide senior quality approval for weld and paint qualification criteria, special-process Control Plans, and quality-control requirements; engage specialists or laboratories where deeper materials, joining, coating, or test expertise are required.
• Lead governance and technical standards for finished-product audits, quality gates, functional testing, dimensional and metallurgical analysis, and weld-quality conformance; improve detection effectiveness, data integrity, and decision consistency.
• Chair or lead complex Material Review Board decisions, ensuring technically sound disposition, customer-risk assessment, containment, traceability, deviation control, and escalation of repeat or systemic nonconformance.
• Lead response to significant, recurring, or technically complex customer complaints; coordinate rapid containment, rigorous root cause, executive-ready risk communication, corrective action, effectiveness validation, and enterprise lessons learned.
• Provide plant leadership for incoming supplier quality performance; identify systemic supplier risks, influence Supplier Quality priorities, and support escalation, technical problem solving, and recurring-defect elimination.
• Influence Operations priorities for RFT and DPU improvement through loss analysis, technical coaching, project leadership, and control-system redesign.
• Advise on scrap and OEE improvement while preserving Operations accountability for daily performance.
• Lead Quality Engineering readiness for internal, customer, and certification audits; identify systemic gaps, strengthen plant QMS controls, and provide technical interpretation of applicable quality requirements.
• Lead high-impact and cross-functional problem solving using 8D, A3, DMAIC, Fault Tree Analysis, designed experiments, hypothesis testing, regression, capability analysis, and other appropriate statistical methods; coach teams away from symptom-based conclusions.
• Independently challenge root cause and corrective-action evidence; verify sustained effectiveness and institutionalize learning through updates to Control Plans, test criteria, MSA, SPC, work standards, training, and future-launch requirements.
• Integrate manufacturing, supplier, audit, complaint, warranty, telemetry, and test data to identify systemic risk, quantify customer and business impact, and build fact-based improvement priorities for plant leadership.
• Develop Quality Engineers and cross-functional practitioners through technical coaching, review of work products, structured feedback, training, and facilitation of complex decisions in Control Plans, MSA, SPC, special characteristics, and disciplined quality execution.
• Selects and applies appropriate analytical methods rather than relying on tool completion; explains assumptions, uncertainty, limitations, and residual risk in clear business language.
• Serves as a plant escalation point for advanced MSA, SPC, capability, sampling, test validation, special processes, complex root cause, and control system design.
• Leads a portfolio of significant improvements and ensures gains are verified, sustained, standardized, and transferred into future products, processes, and control strategies.
• Prioritizes work using customer severity, warranty exposure, defect escape risk, launch risk, cost of poor quality, and operational impact; connects technical recommendations to measurable outcomes.
• Provides day-to-day technical coaching and peer review for Quality Engineers; raises consistency and maturity without assuming formal people-management responsibility unless assigned.
• Leads through influence across Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Supplier Quality, and plant leadership escalate respectfully when risk acceptance is unclear or evidence is inadequate.
• Sets technical direction for assigned quality systems and high-risk programs; aligns stakeholders around risk, evidence, customer impact, and business priorities.

Benefits

• Health care and wellness plans
• Dental and vision plans
• 401(k) Savings Plan with company match
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan offering eligible employees the ability to purchase AGCO stock at a discounted price
• Paid holidays and paid time off
• Health savings and flexible spending accounts
• Reimbursement for continuing education
• Life insurance and other supplemental insurance plans

What This Job Offers

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