Quality & Customer Service Manager
ColdEdge Technologies
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania
Job Type: Full-time, primarily on-site
Salary Range: $90,000–$110,000 per year, depending on experience
Travel: Approximately 10%–15%
About ColdEdge Technologies
ColdEdge Technologies designs and manufactures advanced cryogenic cooling systems and related equipment for scientific research, quantum technology, spectroscopy and other technically demanding applications.
Our products are complex, highly customized systems used by universities, national laboratories and technology companies. As ColdEdge continues to grow, we are developing more formal Quality and Customer Service processes to improve product reliability, strengthen customer support and reduce the cost of product failures, rework and warranty service.
Position Summary
ColdEdge Technologies is seeking a hands-on Quality & Customer Service Manager to improve product quality, organize customer-service activities and establish practical systems for managing product failures, corrective actions, warranty issues and returned equipment.
This is not a large-department management position. The successful candidate will initially perform much of the work directly while coordinating support from Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing, Sales and technical-service personnel.
The position is intended for an experienced quality engineer, customer-quality specialist, service manager or technical-support leader who is ready to take ownership of a broader function and help build it over time.
The Quality & Customer Service Manager will report directly to the President and CEO or another designated senior executive.
Primary Responsibilities
Customer Service and Technical Support
- Establish an organized process for receiving, recording and prioritizing customer-service requests.
- Maintain a complete list of open customer complaints, warranty issues, service cases and returned equipment.
- Coordinate troubleshooting, repairs, replacement parts, field-service visits and customer follow-up.
- Communicate directly with customers regarding technical problems, service status and recovery plans.
- Ensure that customer issues are assigned, tracked and closed in a timely manner.
- Develop service-ticket, warranty and returned-material authorization procedures.
- Create service checklists, troubleshooting guides and customer-support documentation.
- Track service labor, replacement parts, travel expenses and warranty costs.
- Identify recurring customer problems and communicate them to Engineering and Manufacturing.
- Travel to customer locations when necessary to investigate failures or support corrective actions.
Product Quality
- Help establish practical quality-control processes for a low-volume, high-complexity equipment manufacturer.
- Develop incoming, in-process and final-inspection requirements.
- Assist in creating documented final acceptance tests for completed systems.
- Review acceptance-test results before products are released for shipment.
- Create and maintain nonconformance records.
- Coordinate disposition of defective or questionable parts and assemblies.
- Lead or support root-cause investigations.
- Coordinate corrective actions with Engineering, Manufacturing and suppliers.
- Verify that corrective actions have been completed and are effective.
- Track defects, rework, scrap, warranty costs and repeat failures.
- Help establish calibration, inspection and quality-record controls.
- Assist with work instructions, checklists and controlled quality documentation.
Corrective Action and Continuous Improvement
- Facilitate regular quality and customer-service review meetings.
- Use methods such as 5 Whys, fishbone analysis and 8D to investigate failures.
- Identify common causes of product defects, rework and customer complaints.
- Work with Engineering to improve product design, component selection, test coverage and serviceability.
- Work with Manufacturing to improve assembly methods, workmanship and first-pass yield.
- Recommend practical improvements based on customer feedback and production data.
- Follow corrective actions through completion rather than allowing issues to remain open indefinitely.
Supplier Quality
- Record and investigate defects involving purchased parts and components.
- Communicate supplier-quality concerns to Purchasing and Engineering.
- Request and follow up on supplier corrective actions.
- Help establish inspection requirements for critical purchased components.
- Track recurring supplier problems.
- Support qualification and evaluation of critical suppliers.
Service and Quality Systems
- Develop a simple quality and service scorecard for management.
- Maintain product serial-number, configuration, warranty and service-history records.
- Help select and implement service-ticketing or quality-management tools when appropriate.
- Develop procedures that are practical for a small technical manufacturing company.
- Support the gradual development of an ISO 9001-aligned quality system.
- Recommend future staffing needs for Quality and Customer Service as workload increases.
Initial Priorities
During the first six months, the Quality & Customer Service Manager will be expected to:
- Create a complete list of open customer-service and warranty issues.
- Identify the most urgent customer and product-quality problems.
- Establish a basic service-ticket and RMA process.
- Implement documented final acceptance testing for shipped systems.
- Introduce nonconformance and corrective-action records.
- Begin tracking warranty, rework, service and failure-related costs.
- Establish a weekly quality and service review.
- Identify recurring product and supplier failures.
- Develop recovery plans for significant customer problems.
- Recommend the next support position needed in the department.
Required Qualifications
- At least five years of experience in quality, customer service, field service, reliability, manufacturing engineering or technical support.
- Experience investigating product failures or customer complaints.
- Experience with complex electromechanical equipment, scientific instruments, capital equipment or other technically demanding products.
- Knowledge of root-cause analysis and corrective-action methods.
- Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material and technical documents.
- Strong organizational and follow-through skills.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to communicate professionally with customers during difficult technical or service situations.
- Ability to work effectively with Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing and Sales.
- Willingness to work directly on problems rather than only assigning work to others.
- Ability to travel occasionally to customer or supplier locations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, manufacturing, quality, operations or a related technical field.
- Experience in scientific instruments, cryogenics, vacuum equipment, semiconductor equipment, refrigeration, medical equipment, aerospace, laboratory automation or custom industrial machinery.
- Experience with low-volume, high-complexity or engineered-to-order products.
- Experience in a smaller or growing manufacturing company.
- Familiarity with ISO 9001.
- Experience with 8D, CAPA, Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma.
- Experience with supplier quality, field service or warranty management.
- ASQ certification or similar quality-related training.
- Familiarity with ERP, CRM, service-ticketing or quality-management software.
Equivalent technical and industry experience may be considered in place of specific educational requirements.
The successful candidate will be comfortable working in a smaller company where processes are still being developed and managers are expected to perform much of the work themselves.
This person should be equally comfortable investigating a failed component, reviewing a completed system, organizing service records, leading a corrective-action meeting and speaking directly with an important customer.
The role offers the opportunity to build ColdEdge’s Quality and Customer Service function and grow into a higher-level management position as the company and department develop.
Compensation and Benefits
- Base salary of $90,000–$110,000, depending on qualifications and experience.
- Performance-based bonus opportunity.
- Health and other company benefits.
- Paid time off and company holidays.
- Professional-development support.
- Opportunity for increased responsibility and advancement as the function grows.
Pay: $90,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
