The Senior Supplier Quality Engineer will play a key role in ensuring world-class performance of the Zoox prototype and production Seating and Vehicle Interiors supply base, and drive continuous improvement. The ideal candidate will be entrepreneurial, driven, energetic, detailed, and team-oriented, with deep hands-on knowledge of seat systems and interior trim manufacturing.
Candidates with experience across seating and interior commodities — seat structures and mechanisms, foam-in-place and molded foam, cut-and-sew and trim covers, door trim, headliners, and carpet — and a strong working understanding of manufacturing processes such as injection molding, foam molding, cut-and-sew, lamination and wrapping, welding and stamping of seat frames, and electromechanical sub-assembly will be highly preferred.
In this role, you will:
Partner with Vehicle Interiors Engineering, Design, and Strategic Sourcing to select suppliers based on manufacturing capability, capacity, and quality maturity.
Collaborate with suppliers on design reviews to ensure seats and interior trim parts are manufacturable, and explore new production techniques and materials where needed.
Lead the supplier industrialization process from design through production ramp-up, including soft tooling to hard tooling transitions.
Support suppliers with tooling, foam molds, sew fixtures, gauges, and process qualifications; witness and approve tooling and process buy-offs on site.
Drive the APQP process and support PPAP through start of production, including dimensional, material, appearance, and performance validation.
Own craftsmanship and appearance quality for occupant-facing surfaces — grain, gloss, color and material matching, gap and flush, seam quality, stitch integrity, and trim fit — and establish master and boundary sample processes with suppliers.
Ensure supplier compliance with seating safety and interior material requirements, including occupant safety performance, flammability, and durability testing.
Assess supplier readiness for vehicle builds and help manage production risk ahead of each build phase.
Train suppliers on Zoox quality systems and review prototype and production part quality documentation.
Lead root cause and corrective action efforts (8D) for supplier quality issues, and support Manufacturing, Quality, and Vehicle Engineering with analysis and disposition of suspect supplier material.
Monitor and report supplier quality metrics to drive ongoing improvement across the seating and interiors supply base.
Use lean and quality tools to improve yield, first-time-through quality, and cycle time throughout the supply base.
Improve Zoox supplier quality processes such as supplier assessments, supplier management, part approval, and corrective actions.
Be ready for up to 40% domestic and international travel, sometimes on short notice.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Materials, or a related engineering field.
8+ years of experience in quality, supplier quality, or manufacturing — ideally in automotive.
Direct experience with seating and/or interior trim commodities and their supply base.
Hands-on experience launching new products (NPI) and creating or improving quality systems.
Experience with manufacturing processes such as injection molding, foam-in-place and molded foam, cut-and-sew, lamination and wrapping, stamping and welding, and electromechanical assembly.
Skilled in structured problem-solving methods such as Six Sigma, 8D, Pareto analysis, DOE, fishbone, and Is/Is-Not.
Familiar with core quality tools: process flow diagrams, PFMEA, control plans, SPC, MSA, and process capability studies.
Bonus Qualifications
Experience with seat safety and regulatory requirements, and with seat and trim durability and abuse testing.
Experience with soft trim materials — leather, textiles, TPO/PVC skins, foams and adhesives — and with material and appearance approval processes.
Experience with seat comfort and craftsmanship evaluation, including CMF (color, material, finish) alignment with Design.
Familiarity with seat electronics and mechanisms such as occupant detection sensors, heaters, motors, recliners, and tracks.
Experience with tooling and fixture validation.
Certifications such as CQE, ASQ Quality Auditor, or Six Sigma Green/Black Belt.
