Senior Supplier Quality Engineer

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.