The Product and Supplier Quality Engineer is responsible for ensuring that purchased components, internally manufactured products, and finished wheel and tire assemblies meet OTR, customer, safety, and regulatory requirements. This hands-on role leads supplier quality development, product and process quality improvement, structured problem solving, and corrective action. The engineer works directly with suppliers, OTR manufacturing teams, engineering, sourcing, and customers to prevent defects, resolve complex quality issues, reduce the cost of poor quality, and support successful product launches.
Essential Functions:
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.
- Ensures purchased components, internally manufactured products, and finished wheel and tire assemblies meet approved drawings, specifications, quality standards, safety requirements, and customer expectations.
- Works hands-on with wheel and tire products, manufacturing processes, test equipment, and inspection tools to identify nonconformities, diagnose failure modes, and verify corrective actions.
- Develops and maintains a supplier scorecard system that evaluates quality, delivery, responsiveness, corrective-action effectiveness, and other key performance indicators. Use scorecard results to identify risks, prioritize improvements, communicate expectations, and support supplier development.
- Leads structured problem solving for supplier, product, manufacturing, warranty, and customer concerns using 8D, 5-Why, fishbone analysis, fault-tree analysis, and other appropriate methods.
- Establishes immediate containment, determines root cause, and implements permanent corrective and preventive actions supported by objective evidence and effectiveness verification.
- Leads supplier quality activities, including supplier qualification, technical and process audits, corrective-action requests, performance reviews, process improvement, and supplier development.
- Evaluates supplier manufacturing processes and controls, including tooling, forming, welding, machining, coating, tire manufacturing, assembly, inspection, testing, traceability, and change management.
- Leads quality planning for new and changed products through APQP and PPAP, ensuring that process flows, DFMEAs, PFMEAs, control plans, MSA studies, capability studies, validation plans, and submission packages are complete and effective.
- Supports new product introductions and engineering changes by coordinating supplier readiness, inspection requirements, product validation, production trials, safe-launch controls, and release activities.
- Develops, maintains, and improves quality documentation, including inspection standards, control plans, work instructions, acceptance criteria, audit records, nonconformance reports, and corrective-action records.
- Monitors and communicates supplier and product quality performance using measures such as PPM, capability, scrap, rework, warranty, customer complaints, audit findings, and corrective-action effectiveness.
- Provides timely, practical support at OTR facilities, supplier locations, and customer sites when quality issues threaten safety, delivery, production continuity, or customer satisfaction.
- Partners with Engineering, Operations, Sourcing, Sales, and suppliers to improve product quality, manufacturability, process capability, reliability, consistency, cost, and supply-chain resilience.
- Supports internal, supplier, customer, and quality-management-system audits, including corrective actions and continuous improvement in accordance with applicable ISO 9001 and customer-specific requirements.
- Performs other duties and quality assignments based on business needs and employee capabilities.
Competencies:
- Relentless Focus on Quality
- Technical and Engineering Aptitude
- Hands-On Problem Solving
- Ownership and Bias for Action
- Analytical Thinking and Attention to Detail
- Supplier and Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Clear Technical Communication
- Integrity and Accountability
Required Skills / Abilities:
- Excellent troubleshooting and root-cause problem-solving ability, with a record of taking issues from initial containment through verified permanent corrective action.
- Strong mechanical aptitude and willingness to work directly with products, inspection tools, test equipment, manufacturing processes, and supplier teams.
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, specifications, tolerances, material requirements, test standards, and technical data.
- Working knowledge of wheel and tire fundamentals, vehicle fitment, load and inflation relationships, common failure modes, materials, and manufacturing processes, or the demonstrated ability to learn these areas quickly.
- Experience in supplier quality, product quality, manufacturing quality, quality engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.
- Proficiency in structured problem solving, statistical analysis, process capability, measurement-system analysis, inspection planning, and data-driven decision making.
- Strong project-management, organizational, and follow-through skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and drive actions to closure.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence suppliers and align cross-functional stakeholders.
- Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and promptly escalate product-safety, quality, delivery, or business risks.
Supervisory Responsibility:
This position has no direct supervisory responsibilities. The employee will frequently lead cross-functional problem-solving teams and coordinate supplier personnel, quality resources, manufacturing support, and corrective-action activities to achieve defined objectives.
Work Environment:
This position works across offices, engineering, laboratory, warehouse, manufacturing, supplier, and customer environments. The employee will regularly enter production areas and may be exposed to moving equipment, forklift traffic, noise, fumes, dust, chemicals, temperature variation, and other industrial conditions. Appropriate personal protective equipment and adherence to all safety requirements are mandatory.
Physical Demands:
- Ability to alternate between office work and hands-on activity in manufacturing, laboratory, warehouse, supplier, and field environments, including standing, walking, bending, and inspecting products and processes.
- Must be able to lift and carry up to 35 pounds at times and use appropriate assistance or lifting equipment for heavier wheels, tires, and assembly components.
Position Type and Expected Hours of Work:
This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are Monday through Friday, 8:00AM to 5:00PM. In order to meet our customer demands and internal objectives, at times this role will be required to work outside of the normal schedule, including weekends.
Travel:
Regular travel is expected and may include day trips, overnight stays, and occasional international travel to suppliers, customers, test facilities, and OTR locations. The employee must be willing to travel on short notice when hands-on support is required to resolve significant technical, quality, or production issues.
Required Education and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a closely related technical discipline is preferred. A comparable combination of technical education and highly relevant quality or manufacturing experience may be considered.
- Minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in supplier quality, product quality, manufacturing quality, quality engineering, or a related technical role.
- Demonstrated experience resolving complex supplier, product, or manufacturing quality problems through direct observation, data analysis, testing, and corrective action.
- Experience working with suppliers on process capability, corrective actions, audits, APQP, PPAP, and production-launch activities.
- Working knowledge of quality tools and systems, including PFMEA, control plans, MSA, SPC, capability analysis, 8D, ISO 9001, and applicable IATF 16949 principles.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and data-analysis tools, with the ability to organize, analyze, and clearly present quality and technical information.
Preferred Education and Experience:
- Direct quality or engineering experience with off-highway, agricultural, construction, mining, forestry, lawn and garden, powersports, or material-handling wheels and tires.
- Knowledge of wheel manufacturing processes such as forming, rolling, welding, machining, heat treatment, coating, and assembly, and/or tire construction and manufacturing processes.
- Experience with supplier auditing, dimensional inspection, test planning, failure analysis, metallurgy, fatigue, or related engineering and quality methods.
- Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, supplier-auditor, project-management, ASQ, or quality-core-tool training or certification.
Other Duties
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice. Other job duties and responsibilities may also be assigned by the incumbent’s manager at any time based upon Company need.
OTR Engineered Solutions is an equal opportunity employer and will not tolerate discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, genetic information or any other legally protected classification or status.
Pay: $105,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- AD&D insurance
- Dental insurance
- Employee assistance program
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Relocation assistance
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
Education:
Experience:
- Quality Engineering: 5 years (Required)
- Supplier management: 5 years (Required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Rome, GA 30161
