Supplier Quality Engineer II
Phoenix Contact · Middletown, Pennsylvania, United States
Job Summary
The Supplier Quality Engineer II is a fully proficient professional individual contributor responsible for ensuring that purchased electronic, electrical, electromechanical, and mechanical components, materials, assemblies, and supplier-provided services meet company, customer, regulatory, and contractual quality requirements. Working with limited supervision, this position independently manages routine to moderately complex supplier-quality assignments across supplier qualification, risk assessment, auditing, performance monitoring, nonconformance investigation, corrective and preventive action, change management, and continuous improvement. The (Supplier Quality Engineer II) partners with suppliers and internal stakeholders in Strategic Purchasing, Procurement, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Product Management, Logistics, and other functions to resolve quality issues, strengthen supplier capability, reduce risk, and improve product and process performance. The role applies broad working knowledge of quality engineering principles, electronics-component manufacturing processes, drawings and specifications, quality systems, structured problem-solving methods, and statistical analysis to identify root causes, evaluate containment and corrective actions, and recommend practical solutions. Consistent with a second-level professional contributor role, the Supplier Quality Engineer II independently handles varied assignments within established policies and professional standards, exercises judgment when selecting and adapting methods, manages multiple priorities, and escalates issues that involve significant technical, commercial, customer, or compliance risk. The position may lead to defined supplier-quality projects, facilitate cross-functional problem-solving activities, and provide technical guidance or knowledge sharing to less-experienced employees without formal people-management responsibility. This is the second level within the Supplier Quality Engineer career path. This position is an individual contributor role and does not include formal people-management responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities
- Establishes and maintains supplier-quality requirements for purchased electronic, electrical, electromechanical, and mechanical components, materials, assemblies, and supplier-provided processes.
- Participates in the evaluation, qualification, approval, and ongoing monitoring of suppliers based on technical capability, manufacturing processes, quality-system maturity, performance history, risk, and business requirements.
- Reviews supplier quality documentation, including process flows, control plans, inspection plans, work instructions, capability studies, validation records, material certifications, test reports, and change notifications.
- Conducts or supports supplier audits, process assessments, source inspections, and quality-system reviews; documents findings and verifies the effective closure of identified gaps.
- Monitors and analyzes supplier performance data, including defects, deviations, returns, complaints, delivery-related quality issues, corrective-action responsiveness, cost of inadequate quality, and recurring trends.
- Leads routine to moderately complex supplier nonconformance investigations and coordinates containment activities to protect production, inventory, customers, and downstream processes.
- Applies structured problem-solving methodologies—including 8D, 5 Whys, fishbone analysis, Pareto analysis, fault-tree analysis, and other appropriate techniques—to determine root cause and prevent recurrence.
- Issues, reviews, and follows through on supplier corrective-action requests, evaluating whether root-cause analysis, containment, corrective action, preventive action, and effectiveness verification are complete and technically sound.
- Partners with suppliers to develop and implement quality-improvement plans that strengthen process capability, defect prevention, inspection effectiveness, traceability, documentation, and sustained performance.
- Supports Advanced Product Quality Planning, Production Part Approval Process, first-article inspection, component qualification, validation, and product or process launch activities when applicable.
- Reviews engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material, acceptance criteria, and technical requirements to identify supplier-quality risks and clarify inspection, testing, documentation, and traceability expectations.
- Collaborates with Engineering, Manufacturing, and Quality teams on component failure analysis, material review, deviation disposition, design or process changes, and risk-reduction activities.
- Supports supplier change-control activities by evaluating proposed changes to materials, designs, manufacturing locations, equipment, tooling, processes, sub-tier suppliers, and inspection or test methods.
- Uses statistical and analytical methods to evaluate process capability, variation, defect patterns, and supplier performance and to recommend appropriate actions based on the data.
- Supports development and implementation of supplier controls for counterfeit-part prevention, product safety, restricted substances, environmental compliance, electrostatic-discharge protection, and component traceability, as applicable.
- Contributes to the Quality Management System through accurate documentation, record retention, procedure development, audit support, and compliance with applicable standards and company requirements.
- Communicates supplier-quality risks, performance trends, containment status, corrective-action progress, and recommendations clearly to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
- Supports decisions related to supplier escalation, controlled shipping, increased inspection, supplier development, deviation approval, requalification, or disqualification.
- Builds constructive supplier relationships while maintaining accountability for agreed quality, corrective-action, and performance expectations.
- Leads or contributes to cross-functional projects intended to improve supplier quality, reduce cost of inadequate quality, improve component availability, strengthen customer value, and reduce operational risk.
- Shares technical knowledge, tools, and effective practices with colleagues and may provide task guidance to less-experienced quality professionals.
- Maintains awareness of relevant industry standards, electronics-component risks, quality technologies, regulatory requirements, and emerging supplier-quality practices.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Quality Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Science, or related technical field.
- Three or more years of relevant professional experience in supplier quality, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, component engineering, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Working knowledge of supplier-quality management practices, supplier qualification, auditing, nonconformance management, corrective and preventive action, change control, risk management, and continuous improvement.
- Experience supporting electronic, electrical, electromechanical, or mechanical components and familiarity with associated manufacturing, inspection, testing, handling, packaging, and traceability requirements.
- Working knowledge of ISO 9001 or a comparable quality-management
- Demonstrated ability to conduct or support supplier, process, product, or quality-system audits and document objective evidence, findings, and follow-up actions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead structured root-cause analysis and evaluate corrective actions using methodologies such as 8D, 5 Whys, fishbone analysis, Pareto analysis, and mistake-proofing.
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings