Director of Quality Job in Buffalo, New York Us
The Director of Quality is a key member of the Leadership Team. The individual will be actively involved in all aspects of managing the Quality System and Quality Improvement Plan with the aim to meet or exceed agreed quality targets. The Director of Quality reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer and is a member of the Leadership Team.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following, other duties may be assigned:
- Management:
- Provides a clear vision, strategy and plan to continuously improve product quality for WAM worldwide that customers trust and value and provides profit for our businesses.
- Develops and strengthens leaders within the Quality organization.
- Facilitates and shares leadership with the COO for Lean Sigma process as a means to generate improved business performance.
- Carries out managerial responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws.
- Provides business leadership by participation on Leadership team.
- Acts safely and ethically at all times and is responsible for the quality department’s safety performance. Upholds and acts according to our values, mission, and vision.
- Continuous Improvement:
- Provides leadership and direction for the Lean Sigma Program. Participates in the Lean Sigma Steering Committee.
- Drives continuous improvement processes utilizing Six Sigma Lean techniques.
- Completes Black Belt/Green Belt reviews, schedules Lean Sigma training and mentors Black Belts.
- Maintains, reports and develops goals with clearly defined action plans to improve key metrics (Cost of Quality, Customer Complaint metrics, Yield) that increase organizational effectiveness and reduces cycle time. Meets performance targets for quality improvement and lean sigma initiatives.
- Customer Requirements:
- Function as the customer advocate in the introduction of new products and development of mutual expectations for ISO9000 Design Control and customer needs mapping.
- Interact with customer base and internal customer contacts in regards to specifications and standards.
- Coordinate customer audits
- Completes customer visits to understand customer requirements
- Quality Management System:
- Maintains and promotes the use of the ISO9000 Quality System and or any other customer required certification.
- Maintains the integrity of the Customer Complaint System – acts as the Voice of the Customer.
- Seeks to increase the effectiveness of the Quality Management System through benchmarking and sharing of best practices.
- Develops and maintains a Supplier Quality system that ensures a reliable, product is delivered on time to the organization.
Education and Experience:
- Must have 10-15 years of manufacturing and quality control / quality system and/or TQM experience showing progression with at least 8-10 years supervisory experience. Quality Management experience is required.
- Bachelors degree in Business or Technical field; Masters degree or PhD preferred
- Lean and or Six Sigma certification required; Master Black Belt preferred.
- Requires experience and knowledge of manufacturing systems, the quality function and technical products. Further experience with calibration, metrology and quality system auditing would be beneficial.
- Requires prior experience with ISO9000 requirements and certifications (may substitute TS16949 or AS9100).
