Senior Supplier Quality Engineer

@ Zoox
Zooxzoox.com

Senior Supplier Quality Engineer

Posted today

About the job

Zoox specializes in autonomous vehicles; this role ensures quality in seating and interior components, driving supplier collaboration and manufacturing excellence.

Requirements

  • 8+ years in quality or manufacturing
  • Experience with seating and interior trim
  • Hands-on with manufacturing processes
  • Strong problem-solving skills
  • Ability to lead supplier quality

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's in engineering
  • Experience with automotive suppliers
  • Knowledge of quality tools
  • NPI product launch experience
  • Structured problem-solving skills

Full job description

The Senior Supplier Quality Engineer will play a key role in ensuring world-class performance of the Zoox prototype and production Seating and Vehicle Interiors supply base, and drive continuous improvement. The ideal candidate will be entrepreneurial, driven, energetic, detailed, and team-oriented, with deep hands-on knowledge of seat systems and interior trim manufacturing.

Candidates with experience across seating and interior commodities — seat structures and mechanisms, foam-in-place and molded foam, cut-and-sew and trim covers, door trim, headliners, and carpet — and a strong working understanding of manufacturing processes such as injection molding, foam molding, cut-and-sew, lamination and wrapping, welding and stamping of seat frames, and electromechanical sub-assembly will be highly preferred.


In this role, you will:

  • Partner with Vehicle Interiors Engineering, Design, and Strategic Sourcing to select suppliers based on manufacturing capability, capacity, and quality maturity.
  • Collaborate with suppliers on design reviews to ensure seats and interior trim parts are manufacturable, and explore new production techniques and materials where needed.
  •  Lead the supplier industrialization process from design through production ramp-up, including soft tooling to hard tooling transitions.
  • Support suppliers with tooling, foam molds, sew fixtures, gauges, and process qualifications; witness and approve tooling and process buy-offs on site.
  • Drive the APQP process and support PPAP through start of production, including dimensional, material, appearance, and performance validation.
  • Own craftsmanship and appearance quality for occupant-facing surfaces — grain, gloss, color and material matching, gap and flush, seam quality, stitch integrity, and trim fit — and establish master and boundary sample processes with suppliers.
  •  Ensure supplier compliance with seating safety and interior material requirements, including occupant safety performance, flammability, and durability testing.
  •  Assess supplier readiness for vehicle builds and help manage production risk ahead of each build phase.
  • Train suppliers on Zoox quality systems and review prototype and production part quality documentation.
  • Lead root cause and corrective action efforts (8D) for supplier quality issues, and support Manufacturing, Quality, and Vehicle Engineering with analysis and disposition of suspect supplier material.
  • Monitor and report supplier quality metrics to drive ongoing improvement across the seating and interiors supply base.
  •  Use lean and quality tools to improve yield, first-time-through quality, and cycle time throughout the supply base.
  • Improve Zoox supplier quality processes such as supplier assessments, supplier management, part approval, and corrective actions.
  • Be ready for up to 40% domestic and international travel, sometimes on short notice.

    • Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Materials, or a related engineering field.
  • 8+ years of experience in quality, supplier quality, or manufacturing — ideally in automotive. 
  • Direct experience with seating and/or interior trim commodities and their supply base.
  • Hands-on experience launching new products (NPI) and creating or improving quality systems.
  • Experience with manufacturing processes such as injection molding, foam-in-place and molded foam, cut-and-sew, lamination and wrapping, stamping and welding, and electromechanical assembly.
  • Skilled in structured problem-solving methods such as Six Sigma, 8D, Pareto analysis, DOE, fishbone, and Is/Is-Not.
  • Familiar with core quality tools: process flow diagrams, PFMEA, control plans, SPC, MSA, and process capability studies.

    • Bonus Qualifications

  • Experience with seat safety and regulatory requirements, and with seat and trim durability and abuse testing.
  • Experience with soft trim materials — leather, textiles, TPO/PVC skins, foams and adhesives — and with material and appearance approval processes.
  • Experience with seat comfort and craftsmanship evaluation, including CMF (color, material, finish) alignment with Design.
  • Familiarity with seat electronics and mechanisms such as occupant detection sensors, heaters, motors, recliners, and tracks.
  •  Experience with tooling and fixture validation.
  • Certifications such as CQE, ASQ Quality Auditor, or Six Sigma Green/Black Belt.

    • Show full description

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