Quality Manager, Americas (Manufacturing)

Location: Kansas City, Missouri, USA; international and domestic travel of up to 30% required.

Salary: USD 130,000–175,000 yearly.

Company

Smiths Interconnect, part of Smiths Group, designs and manufactures high-performance interconnect solutions for aerospace, defense, telecommunications, and industrial markets.

What you will do

• Lead quality functions and managers across US and Mexico sites.
• Recruit, develop, coach, and mentor Quality Managers, Quality Engineers, and operational quality teams.
• Drive deployment and standardization of global quality systems, processes, and tools.
• Improve business quality performance, KPIs, resource efficiency, and customer satisfaction.
• Facilitate root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action activities.
• Partner with plant management, sales, engineering, and marketing on manufacturing and business process improvements.

Requirements

• 15+ years of quality, operations, or engineering experience in a management role within a world-class manufacturing environment.
• Experience leading quality across large multinational, multi-site organizations and global cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on knowledge of Lean and Six Sigma methodologies and tools.
• Bachelor’s degree in quality or a technical discipline; a master’s degree is preferred.
• Strong global leadership, communication, resource management, problem-solving, process improvement, conflict resolution, and change management skills.
• English is the primary language; Spanish knowledge is helpful.

Nice to have

• Lean or Six Sigma Green Belt, Black Belt, or formal certification.
• BB/MBB, CQE, CQM, or ISO Lead Auditor certification.
• Experience with Performance/Process Excellence, Built In Quality models, design teams, or maquiladora operations.
• Master’s degree in a relevant discipline.

Culture & Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits.
• Employee resource groups supporting Veterans, Pride, Black employees, women, and neurodiversity.
• Recognition through the annual Smiths Excellence Awards and Smiths Day celebration.
• Inclusive workplace grounded in equality and ethics.