Supplier Quality Engineer

Title: Supplier Quality Engineer

Location: Palo Alto, CA - Onsite

Duration: Long-Term Contract

JD:

• Manage quality performance for an assigned group of suppliers and serve as a key point of contact for supplier quality matters.
• Monitor supplier performance using quality data, dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators. Communicate emerging risks, performance concerns, and improvement priorities to suppliers and internal stakeholders
• Investigate supplier-related issues affecting incoming inspection, manufacturing, installation, and field service. Coordinate rapid containment and risk-mitigation activities to protect production, customers, and patients.
• Lead or support root cause investigations and Supplier Corrective Action Requests using structured problem-solving methods such as 8D, 5 Whys, Ishikawa diagrams, and statistical analysis.
• Review supplier corrective actions to confirm that root causes have been identified, appropriate actions have been implemented, and recurrence has been effectively prevented.
• Support Qnote/NCR and Material Review Board activities involving supplier-provided components. Help minimize production disruption, blocked inventory, scrap, rework, warranty costs, and field impact.
• Work with suppliers to improve manufacturing processes and implement appropriate quality controls, including PFMEA, Control Plans, Statistical Process Control, Measurement System Analysis, process capability analysis, Cpk/Ppk, and process validation.
• Support Quality at the Source (“light” PPAP) by helping suppliers move from reliance on inspection toward prevention, process control, and data-driven validation.
• Participate in New Product Introduction and design-transfer activities. Partner with Engineering and suppliers to review drawings, specifications, tolerances, critical attributes, manufacturability requirements, and inspection strategies.
• Support supplier readiness through First Article Inspection, PPAP, APQP, inspection planning, and other qualification activities based on product and process risk.
• Review Supplier Change Notifications involving materials, manufacturing processes, equipment, tooling, sub-tier suppliers, quality systems, or manufacturing locations.
• Coordinate with Engineering, Procurement, Manufacturing, Regulatory Affairs, Service, and other stakeholders to evaluate supplier changes and ensure required qualification and validation activities are completed before implementation.
• Conduct or participate in supplier audits, process assessments, supplier qualifications, and for-cause investigations. Document findings and track corrective actions through effective closure.
• Partner with Service and other functions to review field-performance and warranty data, identify supplier-related trends, and drive appropriate investigations and corrective actions.
• Analyze non-conformance, scrap, rework, warranty, and operational data to identify opportunities to reduce defects and Cost of Poor Quality.
• Participate in cross-functional forums to support timely decisions and resolution of supplier-related issues.