Group Quality Assurance Manager
11 hours ago
Grand Rapids
Composition Brands is an independent residential kitchen and outdoor living company with a portfolio of premium and ultra-luxury brands including Viking, AGA, Rangemaster, La Cornue, Lynx, and U-Line. With operations across North America and Europe, the company is focused on long-term brand stewardship, thoughtful design, and scalable growth. To learn more, visit ___. Role Summary: The Group Quality Manager leads the end-to-end global quality strategy across all appliance platforms, manufacturing sites, suppliers, and contract manufacturing partners. This role ensures product safety, regulatory compliance, reliability, and a consistent premium customer experience while reducing warranty costs and protecting brand reputation in high-volume, long-life products. Serving as the global leader for appliance quality strategy, this position oversees mechanical, electrical, electronic, thermal, and software-related quality throughout the full product lifecycle - from concept development through field performance - across refrigeration, cooking, ventilation, and dishwashing product categories. This role reports directly to the President and is based in the Atlanta, GA area, with approximately 30–50% travel to domestic and international manufacturing sites, suppliers, and contract manufacturing partners. Responsibilities: Quality Strategy & Governance • Define and deploy a global quality strategy for major appliances aligned with brand, safety, cost, and reliability objectives., • Establish standardized quality policies, procedures, and KPIs across all regions and platforms., • Act as executive escalation owner for product safety incidents, regulatory actions, recalls, and field campaigns., • Own and govern the group QMS aligned appliance-specific requirements., • Ensure compliance with UL, CSA, IEC, CE, NOM, DOE energy efficiency, EPA refrigerant regulations, and regional safety standards., • Lead internal, external, customer, and certification audits, as needed., • Partner with R&D to embed design-for-quality, design-for-reliability, and design-for-compliance., • Govern DFMEA, DVP&R, reliability testing, HALT/HASS, and validation plans., • Ensure robust design transfer and quality gates from concept through SOP., • Standardize quality processes across major appliance assembly lines, including:, • Critical-to-safety and critical-to-quality characteristics, • SPC and process capability for key operations, • Functional, safety, and end-of-line testing, • Drive defect prevention through error-proofing, in-line controls, and layered process audits., • Define supplier quality standards for critical major appliance components including compressors, sealed systems, gas components, heaters, motors, PCBs, wiring harnesses, insulation, coatings, and structural parts., • Oversee supplier qualification, audits, and ongoing performance., • Partner with Sourcing to mitigate supply risk and manage supplier change control., • Own customer quality metrics including warranty claims, field failures, service call rates, and repeat repairs., • Partner with Service, Field Operations, and Retail partners to analyze failure trends., • Lead structured root cause analysis and corrective actions for systemic issues., • Establish and manage Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ) across plants and suppliers., • Lead cross-functional initiatives to reduce scrap, rework, returns, and warranty expense., • Deploy Lean Six Sigma and reliability engineering methodologies. Requirements: • Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, or related), • 12+ years of quality leadership in major appliance or durable consumer goods manufacturing, • Strong knowledge of regulations and certification processes, • Proven success reducing warranty and field failure costs., • Ability to lead global, cross-functional teams., • Proven ability to influence, manage teams, and deliver change., • New product development and release readiness experience., • Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent preferred., • Experience leading recalls, field campaigns, or regulatory investigations preferred., • Experience in global manufacturing and sourcing environments preferred., • Experience in lean transformation and development of engaged workforce culture preferred., • Reliability testing experience preferred., • Experience in sheet metal fabrication, paint, welding, final assembly preferred. Composition Brands is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EOE/M/F/Vets/Disabled) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants.