Quality Manager - Lincoln, United States - EF Johnson Technologies Inc.

Description

Job Description

EFJohnson Technologies is (a subsidiary of JVC-Kenwood) designs public safety radios and systems. We have a relaxed work environment of ~40 employees by the Lincoln Airport and are looking for Quality Manager to join our team. You will be working as a liaison between our software and hardware engineering teams, customers and 3rd party vendors. You will also assist in managing quality related issues in our procurement and factory teams. A background in electrical engineering / RF would be a huge plus.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

• To manage all aspects of technical operations and quality to ensure an ultimate end goal of quality, reliability & safety for customer operations. To plan, direct, and participate in vendor qualification, procurement, design for manufacturing, technical support and inventory activities to assure product conformance, process capability and customer satisfaction based on safety and reliability criteria.
• Act as the primary liaison to the JK QA organization to maintain and promote quality in all JKC manufactured and procured products that are shipped by EFJ to its customers.
• Keeping executive management informed of any variances from conformance and the plan for immediate corrective action.
• Provides direct and indirect supervision of personnel in technical operations and quality department.
• Contact with outside suppliers (including JKY and JKQA) and customers is necessary to perform assignments effectively. This position will work closely with our outsource partners to improve manufacturing performance, proactively address field issues, improve quality, and reduce costs.
• Support engineering on electrical design verification, and compliance for subscriber units and interface with the JKC engineering and product management team as needed.
• Work in close collaboration with the product management, sales and internal operations (warehouse and inventory control) teams to make field and deployment decisions that provides the best quality outcome for the end customer keeping the business priorities of the internal teams in mind (revenue, profit, inventory etc.).
• Ensure alignment across all internal teams by communicating pros and cons of quality issues and ensure clarity of understanding across the internal teams always keeping the customer satisfaction as a primary objective.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• This is a leadership role grounded on quality fundamentals in a technically complex environment. The role defines a leader that can roll their sleeves and address technically complex quality issues holistically by keeping customer operational safety and reliability at the forefront of all decisions.
• Address quality issues uncovered in the field, at inventory or in the channel by co-ordinating and collaborating with Engineering departments, JVC factory, Procurement Center and other third-party vendors as needed to resolve such issues (inclusive of detailed work instructions for the complete solution).
• Manages all resources within defined areas to assure that activities are properly executed to determine product or process quality levels and manufacturing support.
• Assesses and participates in activities that support continuous improvement techniques and total quality concepts.
• Assures customer safety and reliability by improving incoming and fielded product qualification by defining the key metrics and measuring against these metrics
• Implementing solid quality control practices and procedures across the EFJ departments (engineering/R&D, product management, procurement, inventory management, fulfillment and warehouse and customer service/technical support, depot and other post sale service departments) to ensure reliable and safe mission critical operations for our customers.
• Manages the quality documentation repository and document control process including approvals and distribution.
• Provides training on quality policies and processes to EFJ departments.
• Communicates directly with internal customers as required and acts as authority to resolve complaints and quality issues on a timely basis. In complex situations, may act as authority across departmental and functional lines.
• Coordinates and provides technical leadership and assistance for radio products, processes or materials as required to assure conformance to specifications including at design inception, incoming receive points for inventory, at the fulfillment and shipping warehouse and at the depot facilities.
• Provides timely and quality technical design and document contributions in support of product development.
• Provides technical troubleshooting and process support for the fulfillment and depot facilities when quality issues arise. Provides guidance and inter-departmental co-ordination across R&D (JVC departments), tech support, inventory management and procurement as it relates to addressing quality issues of products.
• Identifies quality metrics & goals for products and for department processes in the company. Provides periodic reporting on metrics to applicable departments and corrective planning.
• Reports on quality projects and program status to executive management and recommends corrective actions as applicable to meet the defined quality objectives.
• Exhibits desirable and appropriate professional behavior including leadership, sense of urgency, independent judgment, teamwork, ability to get along with others, creative thinking and personal integrity to provide for a cohesive, productive unit dedicated to the achievement of corporate goals.
• Additional duties as assigned or required.

KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering. Strong preference for electrical engineering degree.
• Knowledge of total quality processes, continuous improvement philosophies, and statistical tools in a technical engineering related field or product.
• Product design experience is preferred.
• Certifications or specialized recognitions in quality field is desirable.
• Knowledge of radio or telecommunications products is desirable.

EXPERIENCE AND TRAINING:

• Five years of Quality management experience.
• Five plus years direct land mobile radio service experience is desirable.
• Five years of electrical design experience is desirable.
• Demonstrated experience in working across a cross-matrixed environment across multiple departments and external vendors/entities. Five years of such experience is required.
• Experience in operation of automated tools, computers and databases to develop and measure metrics.

SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Demonstrated skills in customer problem resolution (inclusive of root cause analysis).
• Demonstrated leadership experience in addressing complex quality issues across vendors, internal departments and external customers and bringing to full resolution.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation communications skills.
• Ability to handle multiple complex tasks to completion within deadlines.
• Record of increasing responsibility in supervision of technical personnel.
• Ability to develop and manage departmental budget effectively.
• Ability to contribute to revenue generation that meets or exceeds goals set for fiscal year.
• Ability to work effectively with all departments within the organization and external vendors, customers and trade organizations.
• Ability to multi-task consistently with effective results.
• Ability to lead employees. Ability to effectively communicate with employees, vendors and customers.
• Ability to prioritize and display a sense of urgency based on actions required.

Travel:

• Up to 25% (Domestic and International)