The role
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.