Quality Engineer – Lead for Assembly & Supplier Excellence

ESS Employment Ltd; Stroud; On-site; GBP 41,000 - 50,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Disability Confident employer scheme

Job summary

ESS Employment Ltd seeks a Quality Engineer to deliver day-to-day quality across assembly and supply chain, leading a small team and driving rapid issue resolution with robust process controls.

You will work with Operations, Engineering, R&D, and Supply Chain, ensuring new/existing products meet quality standards and supporting NPI and PPAP processes. Travel within the UK is required.

Qualifications

• Hands-on daily quality support to the assembly facility and supplier validation.
• Lead and develop two Quality professionals to deliver priorities and continuous improvement.
• Maintain IMS and ISO 9001 compliance across the business.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on daily quality support to the assembly facility, ensuring issues are identified, contained, escalated, and resolved efficiently.
• Act as the primary quality contact for production, driving rapid problem-solving and root cause analysis using structured methodologies such as 8D, RCA, and DMAIC.
• Lead and develop two Quality professionals, ensuring effective prioritisation, clear accountability, and alignment to business and production objectives.
• Develop, implement, and maintain robust process controls, including PFMEA, Control Plans, SPC, and MSA.
• Perform product inspection and measurement activities to verify conformance to drawings and specifications, supporting both production and supplier validation.
• Lead and support the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) for new products and engineering changes, including developing and maintaining the PPAP system and ensuring supplier compliance.
• Support new product introductions (NPI) to ensure quality standards are achieved at launch and sustained through production, maintaining robustness of product builds.
• Qualify, approve, and develop suppliers through audits, capability assessments, and risk evaluations, including manufacturing, technological, and HSE considerations.
• Conduct regular supplier audits and performance reviews, using KPIs to ensure alignment with expectations for quality and delivery.
• Manage supplier non-conformances (NCRs), ensuring effective containment, root cause investigation, and implementation of permanent corrective actions.
• Work closely with suppliers to reduce variation, scrap, and rework, driving continuous improvement initiatives.
• Support on performance improvement programmes, monitoring key metrics such as PPM and Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ).
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Operations, Engineering, R&D, and Supply Chain to ensure effective resolution of quality issues and continuous improvement of processes and products.
• Support customer-specific requirements, providing technical guidance to suppliers and internal teams as needed.
• Support and contribute to the Internal Audit programme, ensuring compliance with the Integrated Management System (IMS) and maintaining ISO 9001 certification.
• Assist in external audits and ongoing compliance activities, ensuring business readiness and adherence to quality standards.
• Provide clear reporting and communication of quality performance, risks, and improvement activities to the QHSE Manager, Product Quality Manager, and wider business.

Skills

PFMEA

Control Plans

SPC

MSA

8D

RCA

DMAIC

Tools

PPAP

Supplier audits

Job description

ESS Employment Ltd seeks a Quality Engineer to deliver day-to-day quality across assembly and supply chain, leading a small team and driving rapid issue resolution with robust process controls.

You will work with Operations, Engineering, R&D, and Supply Chain, ensuring new/existing products meet quality standards and supporting NPI and PPAP processes. Travel within the UK is required.