Quality Engineer I

About the Role

The Quality Engineer I provides hands-on quality support to an assigned manufacturing area and partners daily with operators, team leads, manufacturing engineers, and Operations leadership to prevent and resolve quality issues. The role is expected to maintain a regular, visible presence on the manufacturing floor, learn the processes and products in the assigned area, and use established quality methods to improve safety, quality, delivery, cost, and customer satisfaction. Work is performed with guidance from more experienced quality professionals and the site Quality leader.

Key Responsibilities

• Provides daily floor-based quality support, responds to production concerns, verifies containment, and helps Operations maintain the flow of conforming product.
• Performs product, process, workstation, and layered audits; documents findings and follows assigned actions through closure.
• Supports nonconformance investigation, material review, root-cause analysis, and corrective action using established problem-solving methods.
• Maintains inspection plans, work instructions, quality records, defect notifications, and objective evidence in approved business systems.
• Collects and analyzes defect, scrap, rework, audit, and process data; communicates trends and abnormalities during daily Operations meetings.
• Participates in continuous-improvement activities, calibration checks, first-article reviews, and operator training as assigned.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Working knowledge of technical drawings, specifications, basic measurement equipment, and structured problem-solving methods.
• Ability to analyze data, maintain accurate records, and communicate respectfully and clearly with operators and leaders in a manufacturing environment.
• Ability and willingness to spend a substantial portion of the workweek on the manufacturing floor and to comply with all required PPE and site safety practices.
• Completion of site-required safety and job-specific training is required.
• Ability to travel up to 5%, generally by car or airplane for training, audits, supplier visits, or issue investigation; occasional overnight travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Materials Science, or a related technical field; OR an Associate Degree plus two years of relevant manufacturing/quality experience; OR four years of equivalent relevant experience.
• 0-2 years of Quality Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Inspection, or Production-Support experience.
• No professional certification is required.

Preferred Skills

• Internship, co-op, or work experience in a heavy industrial, machining, welding, assembly, or similar manufacturing environment.
• Experience with ERP/QMS tools such as SAP Quality Management and with Microsoft Excel.
• Exposure to ISO 9001, 8D, 5 Why, fishbone analysis, FMEA, control plans, or statistical process control.
• Training in Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement.
• Experience using dimensional inspection tools and basic metrology practices.