Quality Engineer Research Triangle Park, NC

Vulcan Elements is manufacturing American rare‑earth permanent magnets for a secure, resilient future. With a focus on national security and economic resiliency, we serve critical industries such as defense, aerospace, and automotive powering a high‑technology future. Vulcan Elements is building a team of ambitious professionals committed to Mission Focus, Technical Excellence and Transparency.

The Quality Engineer is responsible for establishing and maintaining robust quality processes within the Pilot manufacturing facility, ensuring it operates with the discipline and consistency of an ISO 9001‑certified manufacturing site while supporting rapid product and process development.

Working closely with Manufacturing, R&D, Process Engineering, Analytical Lab and Quality, this role develops and implements production quality processes, supports manufacturing operations, drives process improvements, and helps deploy digital quality systems. The Quality Engineer is a key contributor to building scalable manufacturing practices that can be transferred to future production facilities.

This role does not own metrology equipment, measurement system development, or analytical method qualification, but partners closely with the Metrology Lead to ensure appropriate inspection and testing requirements are defined.

This role begins at Johnston Community College, Advanced Manufacturing Facility in Four Oaks, NC and is expected to move to Benson, NC upon completion of new facility.

• Serve as the primary Quality representative for Pilot manufacturing operations.
• Support daily production activities by ensuring quality requirements are understood and consistently applied.
• Partner with Manufacturing and Engineering to resolve production issues and implement corrective actions.
• Lead root‑cause investigations and drive effective corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
• Review and disposition nonconforming material in collaboration with Engineering and Operations.

• Develop and maintain quality procedures, work instructions, forms, and records supporting Pilot operations.
• Implement quality processes aligned with ISO 9001 requirements, preparing Pilot to operate with certified‑quality practices.
• Support document control, change management, record retention, and risk‑based thinking throughout manufacturing.
• Participate in internal audits and management reviews and track actions to closure.

• Develop production quality plans and inspection requirements for Pilot manufacturing.
• Define Critical‑to‑Quality (CTQ) characteristics with Engineering and Manufacturing.
• Create and maintain Control Plans that define inspection points, sampling frequency, and acceptance criteria.
• Collaborate with the Metrology Lead and Analytical Lab Lead to ensure appropriate measurement methods are available.

• Support implementation and continuous improvement of digital manufacturing and quality systems, including MES, ERP, LIMS, and the electronic Quality Management System (eQMS).
• Improve traceability and data integrity across manufacturing operations.
• Help define system requirements for inspections, deviations, nonconforming material, CAPA, document control, and production records and participate in software testing, validation, and user training.
• Analyze production quality data to identify trends and improvement opportunities.
• Develop dashboards and quality metrics to monitor Pilot performance.
• Support standardization of manufacturing processes and best practices.
• Drive projects that improve product quality, process consistency, efficiency, and traceability.

• Help prepare Pilot processes for successful transfer to Benson manufacturing.
• Document lessons learned and best practices.
• Support development of scalable production documentation and training materials.
• Partner with Manufacturing and Engineering to improve production readiness.

Responsibilities and tasks outlined are not exhaustive and may change as determined by the needs of the business.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Materials Science, Manufacturing…