Position

Senior Quality Manager

Location:

Wood Dale, IL

Reports To:

Senior Director of Quality

Dept / Function:

Quality

FLSA Status:

Exempt

Position Overview:

The Senior Quality Manager is a senior-level quality leadership role responsible for strategic oversight, performance governance, and risk management across multiple customer business segments within the Americas distribution organization.

This role serves as a key extension of the Senior Director of Quality, providing leadership continuity, senior escalation ownership, and executional alignment across segment quality teams. The Senior Quality Manager ensures consistent, high-quality customer experience while balancing operational risk, resource prioritization, and enterprise quality objectives.

Success in this role requires strong customer-facing leadership, sound judgment under pressure, and the ability to lead managers and senior technical professionals in a fast-paced, high-visibility environment.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Provide senior quality leadership across multiple customer segments, owning execution of customer quality strategy and alignment with enterprise quality objectives.
• Serve as the primary escalation authority for high-risk, high-impact customer quality issues, balancing customer expectations, operational risk, financial exposure, and business priorities.
• Partner directly with the Senior Director of Quality on organizational planning, resource allocation, talent development, and succession planning across the Americas Quality organization.
• Lead and develop Quality Managers and senior Quality Engineers, establishing performance expectations, coaching standards, and development pathways to build a strong quality leadership bench.
• Represent the voice of the customer in senior-level operational, commercial, and quality decision-making, including QBRs, APQP activities, launch readiness, and executive escalations.
• Own quality performance governance for assigned segments, including quality inventory, customer complaints, audit findings, corrective action effectiveness, and systemic risk trends, ensuring timely and effective resolution through structured problem-solving (8D, CAPA).
• Ensure compliance with ISO 9001, customer-specific requirements, and internal QMS standards; lead customer audits and formal quality inquiries.
• Drive continuous improvement and quality-related cost containment, including mitigation of customer chargebacks, recovery actions, and proactive risk reduction.

Key Competencies & Skills

• Senior Quality Leadership & Customer Advocacy
• Cross-Segment Governance & Decision-Making
• Escalation Management & Risk Mitigation
• People Leadership of Managers & Senior Engineers
• Data-Driven Strategy & Financial Acumen
• Executive-Level Communication & Influence
• QMS Discipline & Regulatory Compliance

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Quality, or a related technical field preferred; equivalent experience in quality leadership and customer-facing roles will be considered.
• 10+ years of progressive experience in quality engineering and/or quality leadership roles, including significant customer-facing responsibility in complex, fast-paced environments.
• Demonstrated experience providing senior-level leadership, including leading managers and/or senior technical professionals across multiple teams or business segments.
• Advanced working knowledge of Core Quality Tools (APQP, FMEA, MSA, PPAP, Control Plans) with the ability to apply them strategically across varied customer and operational contexts.
• Strong expertise in root cause analysis, corrective and preventive action (CAPA), and ISO 9001 compliance; experience with IATF or similar industry standards is a plus.
• Proven background in manufacturing, supplier quality, or industrial environments, with experience navigating high-volume operations and customer-specific requirements.
• Experience leveraging ERP systems and quality data tools (e.g., Microsoft Office, Tableau or equivalent) to analyze trends, drive decisions, and communicate performance to senior stakeholders.
• Industry experience in automotive, industrial, or engineered products preferred; fastener or component manufacturing knowledge is an advantage.
• Professional certification such as CQE or Six Sigma Green/Black Belt preferred, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• Strong executive-level communication skills, with the ability to influence cross-functional leaders, customers, and senior management.

Other

• Travel: Up to 25% based on business need.