Quality Compliance and Improvement Manager

About the role

What makes us strong? Our employees in 50 countries worldwide – all working with passion to enable high-tech applications with our strong metals: tungsten and molybdenum.

At our Plansee site in Franklin, USA, we specialize in transforming semi-finished molybdenum and tungsten products into complex components—leveraging decades of precision manufacturing and engineering excellence.

Join a highly motivated team in Franklin, USA, where local expertise meets the global knowledge and values of the Plansee Group.

Position type: Exempt

Compliance

• Review customer contracts, purchase orders, drawings, specifications, and related documents to identify and interpret quality requirements.
• Ensure customer, regulatory, and AS9100 requirements are properly documented and flowed down to manufacturing, engineering, procurement, and quality processes.
• Identify compliance risks, specification gaps, and potentially unachievable requirements, and coordinate resolution prior to order acceptance.
• Maintain customer-specific quality requirements, change notifications, and compliance records.
• Support audits, First Article Inspection (FAI) requirements, and regulatory compliance activities.
• Conduct specification change reviews and initiate required Engineering Change Requests (ECRs).
• Verify customer requirements are properly flowed down to production orders, inspection plans, manufacturing routings, and supplier purchase orders prior to release.
• Provide Support to the estimating team to capture quality cost, including cost associated with the inspection, documentation, and verification of product.
• Confirm organizational and supplier capability to meet contractual inspection, testing, certification, traceability, and documentation requirements.
• Maintain contract review records and support customer communications to resolve unclear or conflicting quality requirements.

Improvement

• Develop and execute continuous improvement roadmaps aligned with business objectives.
• Collect and analyze production and quality data to identify trends and improvement opportunities.
• Lead improvement efforts and cross functional teams, focused on recurring issues impacting MRB, Yield, On-Time Delivery (OTD), customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency.
• Facilitate Kaizen events, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and structured problem-solving workshops.
• Establish, monitor, and communicate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and performance dashboards.
• Track project performance and report measurable savings, efficiency gains, and benefits realization.

Qualifications / Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Quality, Operations Management, Business, or related field preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in Quality, Compliance, Continuous Improvement, Manufacturing, or Operational Excellence roles.
• Working knowledge of AS9100, ISO-based quality systems, and regulatory compliance requirements.
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing, Kaizen, Value Stream Mapping, Six Sigma, and root cause analysis methodologies.
• Strong analytical, project management, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate and collaborate across all levels of the organization.
• Proficiency with ERP, PLM, quality management systems, and data analysis tools.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional improvement initiatives and deliver measurable business results.
• Possess fundamental skills: time/organization management, project management, communication (written/verbal), detail-oriented and ability to read and understand technical publications and instructions.
• Proficiency in MS Office 2010 environment (Word, Excel, Project, Outlook), and SAP R/3.
• Meet the requirements under ITAR: U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident (Green Card Holder).

Additional information

The base compensation for this position is between 90-120k annually, commensurate with skill and experience level. This role will also be bonus eligible.