.DescriptionThis senior position plays a pivotal role in ensuring supplier quality excellence. The position requires strong technical, quality, and manufacturing expertise to enhance supplier performance, support product development, and drive process improvements. Drive collaboration with suppliers, internal stakeholders, and cross-functional teams to permit high quality, technical alignment, and cost-effective solutions.Key Responsibilities:Collaboration and relationship building: Foster strong relationships with suppliers and cross-functional teams (Purchasing, Engineering, and plants).Supplier Qualification and Development: Support informed cross-functional supplier selection and product validation to ensure readiness for production and alignment with engineering and quality standards.Process and Product Validation: Collaborate with suppliers to optimize manufacturing processes for conformance to design specifications, with experience in welding, machining, assembly, and other critical manufacturing processes.Continuous Improvement Initiatives: Lead or support process improvement projects using methodologies in Lean manufacturing, Kaizen improvements, and Six Sigma.Auditing: Conduct supplier audits to assess risk, readiness, and compliance with quality standards, providing actionable feedback to drive improvements.Root Cause and Problem Resolution: Lead and support root cause investigation for supplier-related quality issues and guide corrective actions and their effectiveness.Technical and Process Expertise: Apply knowledge of manufacturing methods, process improvement, and quality assurance tools to achieve defect-free production.Competencies:Effective communication: Tailor communication to various audiences, ensuring clarity and alignment with goals.Customer focus: Develop customer-centric solutions to enhance product and process outcomes.Technical Expertise: Interpret engineering drawings, including Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).Analyze and optimize manufacturing processes to drive total cost of ownership and effective solutions.Design and validate measurement systems to meet technical and customer requirements.Decision Quality: Make good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.Auditing: Experience in auditing to assess the suppliers' quality management systems and processes to qualify and develop suppliers.Problem Solving: Utilize common industry problem-solving techniques to drive continuous improvement and resolve manufacturing challenges effectively.Supplier Quality Management: Lead all aspects of supplier quality management; help develop strategy and collaborative supplier partnerships; identify supplier innovation capabilities; contribute to supplier audit and certification processes; track supplier performance metrics and act to quickly resolve issues to improve supplier quality performance