Senior Quality Engineer

Description

Ready to make an impact? Join a stable and growing organization where your career can flourish! If you're excited about new opportunities, keep reading!

At Trace-A-Matic, our people are our greatest assets! We offer a friendly, clean, and safe work environment where everyone can thrive. Our mission is to achieve excellence in complex precision machined components and ensure customer satisfaction. Plus, we have a fantastic Gainsharing program: when the company profits, we share 50% with our employees, paid out quarterly!

Trace-A-Matic offers:

• 10 Paid Holidays
• Service-Based PTO
• Gainsharing
• Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
• 401k with company contribution
• Exciting, fast-paced environment with cutting edge equipment/manufacturing processes
• On-site Fitness Center & Medical Clinic
• Weekly Pay
• Performance Merit Raises
• Climate Controlled Environment
• Career development and growth opportunities

Position Overview:

The Sr. Quality Engineer supports advanced quality planning for CNC machining operations in an AS9100-certified environment by developing, optimizing, and maintaining manufacturing quality plans that ensure product quality, on-time delivery, and cost efficiency. This role bridges project management, manufacturing engineering, and production operations with a strong focus on aerospace requirements, measurement system analysis, statistical process control, and six-sigma continuous improvement.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Manufacturing Quality Engineering

• Develop, document, and optimize manufacturing quality control plans for CNC machining (milling, turning, multi-axis) processes. 
• Create and maintain quality process flow diagrams, PFMEAs, and control plans that will include inspection gage plans, quality work instructions, and floor inspection reports.
• Select appropriate gages, inspection/CMM fixtures, inspection frequencies, and quality control strategies.
• Support new production parts with advanced quality planning, measurement system analysis, first article inspections, and production qualification using statistical analytics.
• Provide hands-on shop floor support to resolve manufacturing and quality issues.

AS9100 & Quality Compliance

• Ensure all manufacturing processes comply with AS9100, customer, and regulatory requirements.
• Support First Article Inspection (FAI) per AS9102 requirements and/or Production Part Approval Processes (PPAP).
• Participate in internal and external audits; support corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
• Assist with root cause analysis and implementation of corrective actions for nonconformances.
• Maintain process documentation and change control per quality system requirements.

Continuous Improvement & Cost Reduction

• Identify opportunities for process improvement and scrap reduction.
• Lead or participate in Lean, Six Sigma, or Kaizen initiatives.
• Analyze manufacturing data to improve quality, efficiency, and throughput.
• Support standardization and best practices across machining operations.

Collaboration & Communication

• Work closely with management, manufacturing engineers, production leads, supervisors, purchasing, and scheduling planners.
• Interface with customers, suppliers, and internal teams on technical manufacturing matters.
• Support vendors and subcontractors as required.

An individual in this position must be able to successfully perform the essential duties and responsibilities listed above. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position. The above list reflects the general details necessary to describe the principle and essential functions of the position and shall not be construed as the only duties that may be assigned for the position.

Requirements

 Skills and Competencies:

• Expert knowledge of ISO 9001/AS9100 quality management systems and associated industry standards
• Proficient understanding of CNC machining processes: milling, turning, grinding, multi-axis machining
• Ability to interpret GD&T per ASME Y14.5
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills
• Experience with multi-axis CNC machining and complex precision parts.
• Thorough knowledge of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) for CNC machining processes
• Attention to detail and documentation discipline
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced manufacturing environment
• Hands-on, proactive approach to process improvement
• Excellent organizational skills
• Experience with industry standards, material requirements, and subcontractor processes.

Qualifications: 

Education -  Requires bachelor’s degree in engineering, or seven to ten years of progressively related experience 

Experience and/or Training -  3+ years of manufacturing engineering experience in a aerospace/defense CNC machining manufacturing environment.

• Working knowledge of AS9100 quality systems, NADCAP, and customer-specific requirements
• Lean Manufacturing/Six Sigma certification
• Familiarity with ERP/MES systems.

Licenses/Certificates - ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, preferred

Technology/Equipment:

• Advanced experience with CMM programing and inspection (PC-DMS, Calypso, or similar)
• Strong understanding of Gage R&R, bias, linearity, and stability Studies
• Experienced in data analysis for statical process control using Minitab, QDAS, or other SPC software
• Proficient with manual and automated measurement tools: calipers, micrometer, height gages, optical comparators, surface roughness testers