Quality Manager 

LOCATION: Salisbury / North Carolina (US-NC), United States | BRAND: New York Air Brake | REQUISITION ID: 2478 | JOB GRADE: 17 

Since 1890, New York Air Brake has been an innovative leader in the heavy-haul railroad industry. As a member company of Knorr-Bremse –the world’s leading manufacturer of braking systems for rail and commercial vehicles--New York Air Brake is recognized worldwide as a Center of Competence for heavy-haul freight railroad control systems. From multiple locations, we serve customers across the United States, Canada, and Mexico—reaching clear across the globe to South America, Africa, the Middle East, China, and Australia. Our talented, diverse, and dedicated teams develop innovative solutions to the challenges facing our customers. Join us in our next steps.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Quality Manager establishes and ensures compliance with the company and site quality system and is responsible for product quality. The Quality Manager acts as an advisor to the Operations manager of the local site, in all General Quality-related issues. Sets up and monitors plant-related Quality improvement projects and oversees the milestone and target achievements. Ensures that quality standards for General Quality operations and processes are met at all times. Initiate improvements and ensures an appropriate workflow environment. Ensures effective cooperation with both, internal and external stakeholders. Clarifies cases as an escalation point. Keeps abreast of industry and legal trends. Shares best practices across project teams and/or the business unit.

Essential Function
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Actively participates and follows Corporate Quality Management's Quality Assurance and Quality Control tools, programs and procedures.
• Act as continuous improvement change agent to lead internal stakeholders in overall quality, lean, and cost out awareness and understanding of the available quality and leadership tools. 
• Direct quality resources in performing root cause analysis on non-conformance and customer complaints.
• Drive improvement of lean plant processes by utilizing continual improvement tools such as DMAIC, Six Sigma, SPC and Lean Manufacturing
• Establish and maintain inspection procedures, sampling test methods, and product quality assurance in compliance with all Integrated management system standards
• Conduct internal audits of quality methods and procedures, facilitate continuous improvement.
• Ensures submittal of accurate  APQP/PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) to the customer for final approval so that production may produce part/component as per customer requirements as well as ensure all Quality documentation is accurate and up to date.
• Directs the activities of the local site quality department during program preparation, program launch, initial production, and production phases, and achievement of quality engineering standards as well as quality criteria.
• Participates in reviews regarding product concept and design offering constructive input about manufacturing feasibility and viability as well as options to achieve best in class processes
• Proactively identifies opportunities for process improvement and cost reductions.
• Provide, as requested, to Corporate Quality budgetary guidance and input via annual standards reviews and department budgets.  Provide nearer term daily/weekly/monthly analysis of operation/quality results and metrics
• Participates in regular discussions with external customers, Product Design/Product Lifecycle Engineering and Sales/Advanced Engineering, and Planning on relevant engineering topics.
• Quality Management Review– Maintain and communicate Corporate Quality related metrics to ensure clear visibility and understanding of our current state of product Quality and of the quality system.
• Manages and support all engineering change activities with internal stakeholders and deploy per customer specific requirements
• Willingness to challenge established ways of doing things in a constructive way.
• Must understand and support all Quality, Product Safety, and Health/Safety/Environmental/Energy policies.
• Must understand and adhere to all relevant statutory or regulatory compliance obligations.
• Must understand, support and adhere to the Integrated Management System policies, procedures and instructions.
• Must understand and support relevant key performance indicators (KPIs), as defined in the goal tree.

Skills and Competencies

• Demonstrate proactive and strategic thinking.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; confident and capable in a customer facing role.
• Ability to make independent decisions and successful track record of influencing key stakeholders.
• Knowledge of T.P.S. or lean behaviors and applications.
• Experience with APQP/PPAP and other relevant qualtiy control procedures and processes.
• The ability to independently analyze data, identify trends, formulate and implement corrective action to improve overall quality systems, compliance, effectiveness, and efficiency.
• The ability to self-motivate to a high level of productivity.
• Ability to develop training plans and conduct training of company personnel at all levels.
• Proficient at data collection, analysis, and presentation.
• Practical knowledge of and ability to use statistical analysis methods and tools.
• Leading Others - Means to give direction, motivate, manage and reward performance, provide constructive feedback and foster individual professional development.
• Teamwork - Means the ability to work with others and build a positive climate and trusting relationships within teams.
• Strategy & Vision - Describes the ability to develop strategies aligned to the organization's vision, putting them into action and taking a big picture view, considering future influences.
• Self-Development & Reflection - Describes the ability to reflect on own performance and make use of feedback in order to continuously learn and improve.
• Managing & Improving Processes - Describes the ability to plan, prioritize, monitor and improve work processes and allocate resources.

Supervisory Responsibility
This position has <5 direct personnel.

Work Environment
The employee will be required to perform duties on a computer terminal. The employee may be exposed to shop floor conditions, i.e. noise, heat, cold, dust/dirt etc. 

Physical Demands
The physical demands are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of an office work environment position.

Required Education and Experience
Bachelor’s Degree

6-8 Years of Relevant Experience

Preferred Education and Experience

Engineering Degree Preferred

Industry related certifications are helpful

*LI-TS1  *LI-Onsite

WHAT WE OFFER
From Engineering to Test Laboratory; Manufacturing & Skilled Machine Operation to Sales and Marketing; Field Service to Customer Service; Quality to HR to Finance to Software Development, our team-based approach is built on inclusion, opportunity, development, social responsibility and rewards. You are afforded the chance to grow personally and professionally through challenging assignments, commitment to continuing education, exposure to a variety of projects, and international travel. Our benefits are cutting edge as we offer student loan repayment assistance, lucrative 401k program, company assisted stock purchase plan, tuition reimbursement, wellness program, onsite workout facilities & classes along with competitive salary and incentive compensation, generous paid time off programs and a full array of medical, dental and vision options. We’ve got the right stuff, do you? Let’s find out together.

ARE YOU INTERESTED?
Then join us! We look forward to receiving your online application!