Serve as a Strategic Expert Driving Supplier Quality Initiatives in Newly Created, Visible, High-Impact Role

If you have a strategic mindset, a proactive attitude, and automotive experience in quality & engineering, manufacturing, or supplier development, the Supplier Quality Manager offers you some compelling opportunities. You will:

• Make your mark in a new role where you’ll be empowered to help develop the processes and procedures that may eventually be used across the rest of the company.
• Enjoy wide exposure and visibility as you drive for positive results in an important area of the business and make a big impact.
• Influence strategy in a role where you’ll plan for continuous improvement.
• Get the chance to ensure quality for products people use every day, and help our team to ensure our part of the vehicle is something we can be proud of.
• Enjoy a communicative and upbeat culture. We maintain an open-door policy and wide communication at all levels, including Town Hall meetings and Company Round Tables with the CEO.
• Earn competitive compensation and bonus opportunity along with comprehensive benefits.

We touch millions of lives globally every day. CTS is a leading designer and manufacturer of sensors, actuators, and electronic components for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). We have over 20 locations in 12 countries and more than 3,500 employees. Our innovative sensing, connectivity, and motion solutions offer a diverse range of products across many industries. We are at the forefront of innovating life-changing technology, focusing on quality to keep people safe, healthy, and happy.

To meet the basic qualification for this role, you will have legal authorization to work permanently in the United States for any employer without requiring a visa transfer or visa sponsorship. In addition, to be a good fit for the Supplier Quality Manager opportunity, you will have:

• A four-year degree in Business, Engineering or other similar technical degree preferred; will consider an associate’s degree with equivalent experience
• Multiple years of experience in the automotive industry in Quality and Engineering, Manufacturing, or Supplier Development experience
• Experience with IATF16949 is required; auditor certification would be a plus
• Experience with 8-D and other problem-solving techniques, and Core AIAG quality tools
• Proficiency in Microsoft applications and statistical software (Minitab preferred)
• Experience influencing suppliers from outside of the organization to improve quality

Preferred but not required:

• A master’s degree or MBA would be a plus
• Training in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, tools and techniques is desired
• Bilingual English/Spanish

This is a global company, so you will need the flexibility to take calls outside of normal business hours to meet with teams in different time zones. You’ll be asked to travel about 25% of your time on average, mostly to visit North American suppliers, but occasionally to visit one of our international sites.

In this newly created role, you will report to Director of Global Quality and will be responsible for driving the supplier quality program for our Sensors and Mechatronics business unit across our global supply base. The Supplier Development Manager has spent some time on supplier quality, but we are now looking for someone to take over those tasks, to thoroughly develop and run a supplier quality management process, and to increase our insights and further improve results. You will not have any direct reports, but the Supplier Quality Engineers at each manufacturing site will support your efforts via a dotted line. You will spend most of your time on strategy, and the SQEs will complete a lot of the on-site hands-on work, such as supplier audits.

Your overall goal will be to achieve required quality from all external suppliers for all sensors & mechatronics manufacturing sites and supply base. To achieve this, your initial focus will be on developing processes, such as implementing supplier scorecards, executing supplier quality management strategy, leading the resolution of supplier quality events, and driving accountability for response time and effectiveness. You will also need to develop strong relationships and rapport with suppliers, work together to help them determine root cause of issues and come to a solution, and proactively reach out to develop improvement plans.

Some of your specific tasks will be to:

• Develop programs and lead global teams of quality professionals to monitor supplier performance based upon multiple metrics such as Supplier DPPM, Supplier Cost Recovery, Supplier Delivery, and Supplier Warranty issues.
• Lead the effort to plan, schedule and perform detailed assessments/audits of suppliers throughout the life of the product. The assessments are designed to determine the operational effectiveness of the suppliers’ quality systems and practices. Deficiencies uncovered during assessments are documented and form the basis for Supplier Continuous Improvement Plans.
• Work across CTS BUs as required, developing or re-evaluating common methodologies and leveraging synergies for items such as supplier scorecard, supplier awards, supplier performance monitoring, supplier portal strategy, and other areas with shared opportunity.
• Continuously evaluate CTS Sensors and Mechatronics systems for effectiveness, efficiency, and value. As required, modify or implement new systems that will better carry out the goals of Supplier Quality. These initiatives will impact the Automotive SBU or CTS Corporation. Specific objectives to be outlined and monitored through yearly goals.
• Work with Purchasing, Quality and the Supplier to assure the Supplier Continuous Improvement plans (SCIP) are being worked. Supplier Quality will monitor the corrective action for timely response and evaluate the response as needed. In cases of large or chronic quality issues, this position will act as the problem resolution champion by establishing conference calls, making on site visits/audits and participates in problem solving activities. Progress on issues affecting resolution is reported to management.
• Regarding supplier issues that escape to a CTS customer, represent CTS as liaison between customer and supplier to drive problem solving resolution and corrective action in a timely manner to meet customer expectations.

Note: this description is intended to give you a general overview of the position and is not an exhaustive listing of duties and responsibilities.

Impact and Visibility
Someone with the right focus could make a big impact quickly by prioritizing and driving improvements in the supply base. This is the largest business unit and we get a lot of attention from the C-suite, so your successes here will certainly be noticed.

Professional Development
This role is an excellent opportunity to grow your skills and knowledge as you lead the supplier quality function. Once you find success in one business unit, it could lead to the development of a company-wide supplier quality function, which you’ll be in a great position to help develop. Or if you prefer, you could also grow your career in other related functions across our organization.

Culture of Quality
Our quality culture is already strong, but our goal is to continue improving quality across our organization every day. With a leadership team that come mostly from larger automotive companies, we are driving a ‘quality first’ mentality throughout the company.

Great Environment
You will join a team that includes dedicated, smart, talented and mutually supportive professionals. The team is fairly lean and the pace is fast, but we believe in strong communication and are all dedicated to meeting our goals and objectives.

Growth Oriented
Company-wide, there is a tremendous effort being spent to drive growth. That means adding key resources and providing room for strong performers to make a name for themselves. Growth = opportunity to take on even greater responsibilities and advance.

Excellent compensation
In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a slate of benefits including medical, dental, vision and other insurances; a 401(k) plan; flexible spending accounts; and more.

To excel in this role you’ll need to be a proactive, self-sufficient go-getter. We are looking for someone who wants the autonomy to create and run this function, with the desire to drive forward rather than needing to be pushed. Your manager is supportive when you need it, but will step back and let you do your job, so you’ll need to have the energy and proactive nature to keep things moving without a lot of oversight.

A large part of the role will involve influencing people who don’t report to you, from quality engineers at the plants to a variety of suppliers. Your goal will be to build the relationships and rapport that will allow you to leverage their help so that everyone can get to a positive result. This will take excellent communication skills, as well as the ability to adapt your leadership style based on whom you’re working with (situational leadership).

If this sounds like the right mix of challenge and opportunity, then send your resume today!