Product Quality Engineer (Manufacturing)

Location: Research Triangle Park, NC; based at the Pilot Operations Facility in Durham, NC. Regular production-floor presence is required, including standing, walking, climbing stairs, and working in hot, humid, or noisy environments.

Company

Manufactures American rare-earth permanent magnets for defense, aerospace, automotive, and other critical high-technology industries.

What you will do

• Own customer qualification from requirements intake through approval, including PPAP, FAI, validation plans, customer-specific requirements, and supporting documentation.
• Translate customer drawings, specifications, quality manuals, and supplier requirements into inspection, testing, acceptance, documentation, and traceability requirements.
• Plan and execute customer sample and qualification builds, coordinating inspections, testing, evidence packages, and release decisions.
• Coordinate qualification testing with internal and external laboratories and review results against customer acceptance criteria.
• Lead customer-facing quality issues, including containment, product disposition, deviations, 8D responses, CAPAs, returns, and corrective-action closure.
• Track product quality performance and convert recurring issues into improvements to inspection methods, product requirements, process controls, supplier controls, or QMS procedures.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing, Chemical, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in product, customer, manufacturing, supplier, or production quality in a hardware manufacturing environment.
• Experience translating technical drawings, specifications, and customer requirements into inspection, testing, and acceptance criteria.
• Experience with product qualification, validation, production release, prototype-to-production, or new product introduction.
• Experience investigating nonconforming product and executing containment, root cause analysis, corrective action, and documented closure.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export-controlled information or facilities.

Nice to have

• 5+ years of experience in hardware manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, defense, or other high-reliability applications.
• Experience with PPAP, FAI/AS9102, validation plans, control plans, 8D, CAPA, MRB, deviations, and waivers.
• Working knowledge of ISO 9001, AS9100, IATF 16949, GD&T, and dimensional inspection methods.
• Experience with external laboratories, suppliers, manufacturing data analysis, Excel, Minitab, or Power BI.
• Experience working directly with customers on technical quality requirements, qualification, or product issues.

Culture & Benefits

• Work directly with R&D, Manufacturing, Process Quality, Commercial, customers, suppliers, and external laboratories.
• Regular use of personal protective equipment, including respirators, is required.
• Required fit testing and compliance with facility safety policies, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
• Work in a production environment supporting domestic manufacturing and supply-chain resilience.