Manufacturing Technical Program Manager / Quality Engineer (Heat Pumps FATP)
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Job at a glance
Manufacturing Technical Program Manager / Quality Engineer (Heat Pumps FATP) As the Manufacturing Technical Program Manager / Quality Engineer in the Hardware Operations team, you will be responsible for ensuring the highest quality standards for mid to high-volume production of our heat pump units. This role focuses on the Final Assembly, Test, and Pack (FATP) stages, overseeing in-process quality and the transition from the assembly line to the customer.
The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on experience in high-volume electromechanical assembly, rigorous yield management, and a proactive approach to driving quality improvements within a Contract Manufacturing (CM) environment. You will be driving the technical aspect of production and the primary gatekeeper for fully assembled units, ensuring that every heat pump meeting our customers’ hands is defect-free. Key Responsibilities Production & Yield Management Drive production yield: Monitor daily production yield and lead the "Top Yield Hitters" forum with the CM factory team to identify, contain, and resolve the primary drivers of fallout.
You have the authority to pause production on high fallout and convene the team for resolution before restarting. Own first pass yield, the failure Pareto, and reporting. In-process quality control (IPQC): Oversee the effectiveness of in-process stations, ensuring assembly and test processes adhere to established standards. Yield reporting: Maintain real-time quality dashboards and provide detailed yield analysis to leadership, highlighting trends and risks.
Production Test Station bring-up and qualification: Lead bring up and qualification of end-of-line test stations at the CM, including capability studies and golden unit correlation before a station is released to production. Test limits and coverage: Own pass/fail limits and their traceability to product specification. Confirm the test suite detects the failure modes identified in the PFMEA and close coverage gaps when defects escape.
Failure triage and station health: Triage test failures, separating true failures from false rejects and retest passes. Maintain calibration and preventive maintenance schedules, and ensure test results are traceable to each unit's serial number. Process Control & Documentation Control Plans & PFMEA: Develop, maintain, and audit Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA) and Control Plans so that all critical-to-quality (CTQ) parameters are mitigated.
Documentation: Keep final product inspection standards and SOPs current. Ensure SOPs capture all corrective actions arising from production, supplier, and field quality issues, and update PFMEAs and Control Plans accordingly. Continuous improvement: Lead improvement initiatives on the factory floor using Lean and Six Sigma methods to reduce variability and scrap. Quality Assurance & Out-of-Box Audit OBA & sampling: Manage the Out-of-Box Audit process and sampling inspections for fully assembled units to validate the customer view of quality.
Root cause analysis: Investigate assembly-level failures and drive corrective actions (8D, CAPA) with CM production and engineering teams. Cross-functional liaison: Act as the primary feedback loop to Design Engineering and Supplier Quality Engineering (SQE), reporting issues found during assembly that stem from design flaws or incoming material (IQC) defects. Where needed, support supplier development and work directly with vendors.
Shop Floor and Traceability: Work closely with process engineers to make sure CM has proper traceability for the product as it flows through the production line. Good documentation of serialization. Field Returns & Failure Analysis RMA lead: Drive failure analysis of field-returned product with the CM. Determine root cause and drive corrective actions at the factory, or work with SQE to drive improvements at the supplier facility.
Containment: Manage containment at the CM for any fini