Director, NA Quality

  • Full-time

Company Description

Founded in 1984, MAT Holdings, Inc. is a privately held $1.9 billion multi-national company with manufacturing operations, distribution centers and sourcing offices worldwide in the automotive, fencing, hardware, and power equipment sectors. Headquartered in Long Grove, Illinois we have over 40 factories on three continents, including 2.1 million square feet of U.S. distribution and manufacturing space.  We provide our customers with a full range of services including U.S. and overseas engineering, quality assurance, logistic and distribution support, strategic warehousing, bi-lingual sourcing, product development, and marketing. MAT is a family of companies and products providing employment opportunities with more than 14,000 employees in 12 countries. 

 

Ride Control, LLC, a division of MAT Holdings, Inc., designs, manufactures and distributes suspension products for automotive, commercial vehicle, and specialty vehicle OEMs and aftermarkets. The company originated the world’s first automotive shock absorber and continues today to be a leader in the design, engineering, development, and production of shock absorbers in North America.  Ride Control currently employs more than 1,300 salaried and hourly employees at several locations in the US and Mexico. The company has manufacturing facilities in Chickasha, Oklahoma and Queretaro Mexico.  Revenues for the company are approximately $180MM: For more information please visit www.gabriel.com, and www.matholdingsinc.com.

Job Description

Quality is a top priority at our company.  In this high profile position, the Director of Quality is charged with developing and maintaining a quality and continuous improvement culture across the company, as well as a robust Quality Management System to ensure that all products manufactured meet or exceed customer specifications and achieve superior quality and reliability levels.  

 

Principle Responsibilities

  • Daily leadership of the organizations quality function by building a high performance team.
  • Maintain a system of quality control procedures that assures compliance to our customers’ quality requirements including TS16942 and ISO 14001 documents. Be the key face for the organization with regulatory bodies
  • Administer the internal quality auditing program.
  • Develop a proactive, structured, documented, and measurable response system to customer quality inquires and issues, as well as to internal stakeholder inquires.
  • Reduce customer complaints using a sense of urgency to attack and resolve product quality/reliability issues, specifically with a bias for individual accountability and action, as well as robust root cause analysis and implementation of corrective actions.
  • Design and deploy a Continuous Improvement culture across the organization
  • Plan, coordinate and direct all the company’s quality standards, processes and operations, directly and indirectly through subordinate professionals, to develop, qualify, implement, and control production processes for automotive struts and shocks.
  • Direct the inspection and control activities over materials, facilities and products.
  • Establish and maintain customer Quality response process and standards such as 8D, A3, 5 Step.
  • Maintain favorable relationships with customers through visitation programs, prompt attention to complaints, and assuring the shipment of quality parts.
  • Utilize lean statistical problem-solving disciplines to train employees on effective problem solving.
  • Manage the companies warranty process and tracking.
  • Develop internal & external Quality reporting metrics focused on early recognition and corrective actions to issues, and driving continuous improvement.

Qualifications

Desired Soft Competencies:

  • Enthusiastic, energetic, personable and flexible.
  • Inherently customer focused.
  • A bias for action.
  • Drives for results and skilled at overcoming obstacles.
  • Tenacious and with a high tolerance for stress.
  • Genuinely likes people and naturally builds relationships.
  • Excellent at time management for self and others.
  • Derives personal satisfaction from coaching and developing others.
  • Inquisitive, analytical, detail orientated, and able to comfortably multitask while juggling a combination of strategic/longer term programs with tactical/immediate quality operations.
  • Broad exposure to all business functions, but with a clear ability to connect product quality and reliability improvements to the financial impact on the business.
  • Experience and a desire to continue to work in a fast paced environment, and be able to manage a variety of complex projects.
  • Excellent communication skills. An ability to persuasively present information both orally and in writing and an ability to make presentations to executive team members as well as to key contacts at major customers.
  • Ability to apply advanced mathematical concepts, as well as knowledge of applicable statistical tools and models.

Hard Competencies:

  • IATF 16949 2016
  • MS-office
  • Continuous Improvement Tools
  • APQP
  • SAP

Education/Experience

 

  • Bachelor´s degree in engineering,technical field or manufacturing required
  • 10+ years experience in Quality leadership working for a Tier 1 supplier
  • Bilingual in Spanish or Mandarin preferred
  • Successful use of root-cause determination techniques such as 5Whys, 8 Disciplines, Fishbone diagrams, and/or PDCA methodologies.
  • Willingness to travel up to 30% internationally

 

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.