Quality Engineer

• Location 3137 East 6th Street,Muscle Shoals, AL, 35661,United States
• Employee Type FT Exempt

• Email

The Quality Engineer is responsible for maintaining and improving quality performance for automotive lighting components produced through injection molding, vacuum metallizing, and assembly operations. This position supports APQP, PPAP, customer requirements, launch readiness, process validation, nonconformance containment, corrective actions, and continuous improvement activities.

• Root-cause analysis and corrective-action discipline
• Process-focused problem solving
• Attention to cosmetic and appearance requirements
• Data analysis and statistical thinking
• Customer communication and urgency management
• Cross-functional leadership
• Documentation control and audit readiness

• Support quality planning and launch activities for new and modified automotive lighting products.
• Develop, maintain, and revise PFMEAs, Control Plans, Process Flow Diagrams, work instructions, inspection standards, and reaction plans.
• Coordinate PPAP submissions, annual validation activities, capability studies, gauge R&R studies, and customer-specific documentation.
• Support injection molding process qualification including first-piece approval, parameter verification, material control, color/appearance validation, and dimensional capability.
• Support assembly processes including poka-yoke validation, error-proofing, functional testing, weld verification, torque verification, visual inspection, and final audit requirements.
• Investigate internal defects, customer complaints, warranty concerns, and supplier-related quality issues using 5-Why, fishbone, 8D, fault-tree analysis, and other root-cause methods.
• Lead containment activities for nonconforming material, including sorting instructions, suspect-material identification, traceability review, disposition, and verification of corrective actions.
• Monitor production quality indicators including scrap, rework, first-pass yield, customer PPM, internal PPM, defects by process, audit findings, and cost of poor quality.
• Conduct layered process audits, product audits, dock audits, and process confirmation audits to verify compliance with Control Plans and standardized work.
• Coordinate and support customer audits, IATF 16949 audits, internal audits, and corrective-action responses.
• Work with manufacturing and maintenance teams to reduce molding defects such as short shots, flash, sinks, splay, burns, flow lines, color variation, contamination, black spots, and dimensional variation.
• Support appearance-quality requirements for lenses, bezels, metallized components, and assemblies, including scratch, haze, contamination, color, black-spot, and cosmetic-defect standards.
• Review and approve inspection methods, boundary samples, defect catalogs, visual aids, packaging standards, and operator training materials.
• Validate measurement systems, inspection equipment, fixtures, attribute gauges, and functional test equipment.
• Support supplier quality activities, including supplier corrective actions, incoming-quality concerns, supplier scorecards, and supplier development.
• Participate in daily production meetings and communicate quality risks, containment status, customer concerns, and corrective-action progress.
• Train production personnel, quality auditors, and team leaders on inspection criteria, defect identification, quality alerts, and revised process controls.
• Support continuous-improvement projects focused on defect reduction, process capability, cycle-time improvement, labor efficiency, and elimination of recurring quality issues.
• Other duties may be assigned

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, or a related technical field preferred; equivalent automotive manufacturing experience may be considered.
• Minimum 3-5 years of quality engineering experience in automotive manufacturing, injection molding, assembly, or automotive lighting.
• Working knowledge of IATF 16949, AIAG Core Tools, APQP, PPAP, PFMEA, Control Plans, SPC, MSA, and 8D problem solving.
• Experience with plastic injection molding processes and common molding defects.
• Exper…