Head of Quality & Continuous Improvement

INFICON is seeking a transformational Head of Quality & Continuous Improvement to serve as a strategic change agent for our ISS Business Unit. Reporting to the Vice President of Operations, ISS Division, you will unite Quality Excellence and Lean Continuous Improvement under a single, integrated vision. This is a build role: you will create the systems, standards, culture, and operating discipline that elevate product and process quality, eliminate waste, strengthen industrial engineering capabilities, and establish a model that can scale across INFICON globally.

Leading a team of approximately 15–20 professionals across Quality Systems, Process Quality, Sustainability & Compliance, and Lean Continuous Improvement and Industrial Engineering, you will create alignment across historically separate functions while driving improvements in safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, productivity, and customer experience.

Success in this role will require building a culture of continuous improvement, strengthening root-cause-based quality problem solving, advancing Lean Daily Management and industrial engineering practices, accelerating AI-enabled quality and operational capabilities, and developing leaders and operating standards that drive sustainable performance improvement.

• A unified Quality, Lean Continuous Improvement, and Industrial Engineering organization operating under a single, integrated vision and serving as a model for future deployment across INFICON globally.
• A culture of continuous improvement that develops managers into coaches, technicians into problem solvers, and engineers into teachers.
• An AI-enabled Quality & Continuous Improvement capability that accelerates problem detection, root cause analysis, and productivity improvement across operations.
• A next-generation visual factory where wins, gaps, and opportunities are visible, creating alignment and focused productivity improvement.
• Scalable playbooks, standards, methods, and training that can be deployed consistently across global manufacturing sites.
• A pipeline of Lean and Quality leaders capable of leading future transformation initiatives across the organization

• Lead the ISS Division's Quality Systems, Process Quality, Sustainability & Compliance, and Lean Continuous Improvement and Industrial Engineering functions, driving a unified vision that advances quality, productivity, and customer experience.
• Oversee Quality Systems including QMS, BPMS, ISO 9001/14001, CAPA, audits, supplier and customer quality processes, and regulatory compliance, driving improvements in product quality and process performance.
• Build and embed a culture of continuous improvement through Lean Daily Management, visual factory principles, and disciplined problem solving, driving waste elimination, productivity improvement, and operational excellence.
• Lead CI and Industrial Engineering initiatives including process flow improvement, time studies, material flow optimization, and facility layout planning.
• Provide leadership for sustainability, ESG reporting, environmental management systems, and compliance programs.
• Drive the adoption of AI-enabled Quality and Continuous Improvement capabilities, including predictive quality analytics, computer vision and automated inspection, intelligent SPC, and AI-assisted root cause and CAPA.
• Develop scalable standards, methods, training, tools, and playbooks while building future Lean and Quality leaders capable of supporting improvements across global sites and future business growth initiatives.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Operations, or a related technical discipline.
• Master's degree preferred.

• 10+ years of progressive Quality and/or Operational Excellence leadership in complex manufacturing, including 5+ years leading managers.
• Demonstrated track record across both Quality (ISO 9001/14001/27001, supplier/customer quality, 8D, CAPA, SPC) and Lean / CI (VSM, Kaizen, 6S, LDM, SMED, TPM).
• Demonstrated experience advanced manufacturing operations.
• Proven success leading and influencing in a global, multi-site,…