Director of Supplier Quality at Panelmatic in Houston, TX

About Us:

Panelmatic, Inc. was founded in 1957 in Youngstown, OH to serve manufacturing industries with the design and build of custom electrical, instrument, and pneumatic control panels. Our business has sufficiently grown over the years to support expansion for our clients. We have produced control packages for many of America's top corporations in the chemical, environmental, food, pulp and paper, rubber, petroleum, pharmaceutical, glass, metals, and utilities industries. We also deliver equipment for use worldwide. Our rigorous methodology assures compliance with domestic and international standards. We can meet the needs of our diverse clientele from start to finish through sales, design, fabrication, testing, and delivery.

Since 1957, we have been known for our high-quality, custom-built control packages, our comprehensive service, and our technological and manufacturing expertise. This expertise assures you of our ability to handle the largest and most complex packages quickly and efficiently.

Job Summary:

The Director of Supplier Quality leads Panelmatic's enterprise Supplier Quality Management (SQM) function and is accountable for supplier quality qualification, performance, corrective action, development, and risk reduction. The role leads the Supplier Quality Engineering (SQE) organization and partners with Procurement/Supply Chain, Engineering, Manufacturing Quality (incl QMS/Compliance), NPDI, Operations, Customer Care, and Finance. Supplier Quality owns independent quality approval and performance governance; Procurement retains sourcing, pricing, contracting, purchase-order, and commercial supplier-management responsibilities.

Job Duties:

• Define and maintain supplier quality standards, quality clauses, specifications, acceptance criteria, and critical-to-quality requirements.
• Standardize supplier quality agreements and documentation expectations across Panelmatic sites and product families.
• Lead risk-based supplier quality qualification using capability assessments, quality-system reviews, process audits, and ASL quality approval criteria.
• Define PPAP, FAI, process validation, special-process qualification, and other quality evidence required based on supplier and product risk.
• Influence supplier selection based on objective evidence of performance
• Represent Supplier Quality in NPDI and phase/gate reviews; lead supplier feasibility, FMEA, control-plan, capability, and readiness activities.
• Establish component and system level reliability requirements
• Establish supplier change-notification and requalification requirements for changes that may affect product quality, reliability, or compliance.
• Define supplier quality requirements flowing from customer, engineering, regulatory, inspection, testing, documentation, and traceability needs; partner with Procurement/Supply Chain for supplier-facing requirements.
• Set risk-based receiving-inspection strategy and escalation requirements; Site QC executes receiving inspection unless otherwise assigned.
• Ensure required material identification, traceability, certificates, and special-process records are maintained.
• Build and execute a risk-based supplier audit and surveillance program covering quality systems, process controls, special processes, capability, traceability, and compliance.
• Use audit and performance results to drive supplier improvement, containment, controlled shipping, source inspection, enhanced inspection, or requalification as needed. Additionally, establish and maintain receiving inspection capability.
• Manage supplier scorecards using PPM/defect rate, receiving results, escapes/DOA, warranty impact, production disruption, critical events, responsiveness, and corrective-action performance.
• Own the SCAR/8D process from containment through root cause, permanent corrective action, effectiveness verification, and recurrence prevention.
• Lead escalation of chronic supplier issues and use Pareto/trend data to prioritize actions and reduce defects, escapes, disruption, and quality cost.
• Lead supplier development plans for new, high-risk, or underperforming suppliers using audits, capability improvement, control plans, MSA, mistake-proofing, Lean/Six Sigma, and structured problem solving.
• Quantify supplier-attributable Cost of Poor Quality and provide validated data to Procurement/Supply Chain and Finance for recovery or supplier business decisions; Supplier Quality does not own commercial negotiations.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Supplier Quality organization, including SQEs and assigned supplier-quality resources.
• Establish common SQE competencies, training, performance standards, and risk-based staffing; use approximately one SQE per $50M of direct-material spend as an initial planning guideline, adjusted for complexity and workload.
• Partner with Manufacturing Quality, Engineering, Customer Care, Operations, and QMS/Compliance on supplier-related quality risks, defects, field issues, audits, and corrective actions.
• Represent Supplier Quality in leadership reviews, major supplier escalations, customer/certification audits, and critical issue reviews.
• Lead, coach, and develop the Supplier Quality organization, including SQEs and assigned supplier-quality resources.
• Establish common SQE competencies, training, performance standards, and risk-based staffing; use approximately one SQE per $50M of direct-material spend as an initial planning guideline, adjusted for complexity and workload.
• Partner with Manufacturing Quality, Engineering, Customer Care, Operations, and QMS/Compliance on supplier-related quality risks, defects, field issues, audits, and corrective actions.
• Represent Supplier Quality in leadership reviews, major supplier escalations, customer/certification audits, and critical issue reviews.
• Quality clauses/specifications, supplier quality risk classification, qualification audits, capability assessment, PPAP/FAI, special-process validation, and quality approval status within ASL governance.
• Supplier feasibility, phase/gate quality deliverables, FMEA participation, critical characteristic flow-down, supplier change notification, requalification, and incoming validation strategy.
• Supplier PPM/defects, escapes/DOA, warranty or field impact, SCAR/8D, containment, quality escalation, controlled shipping, and effectiveness verification.
• Supplier development plans, process capability improvement, audits/surveillance, documented supplier CoPQ, and quality-based recommendations for requalification or disqualification.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 10+ years of progressive quality experience in manufacturing, including significant supplier quality leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience building or leading supplier qualification, auditing, corrective action, performance management, and supplier development programs.
• Strong working knowledge of ISO 9001 and supplier-quality tools such as PPAP, FAI, APQP/quality planning, FMEA, control plans, MSA, process capability, and 8D/SCAR.
• Experience auditing suppliers and evaluating manufacturing capability, process controls, special processes, inspection/test systems, and corrective-action effectiveness.
• Proficiency interpreting engineering drawings, customer specifications, technical requirements, and quality documentation and translating them into clear supplier quality requirements.
• Experience using ERP, eQMS, supplier scorecards, quality data systems, and analytical tools to manage supplier performance.
• Strong communication, leadership, change-management, technical influencing, and cross-functional collaboration skills, including the ability to challenge suppliers and internal stakeholders constructively.
• Ability to make risk-based decisions, lead through influence, and manage high-severity supplier issues in a fast-paced engineered-to-order manufacturing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Engineering, Engineering Management, Quality, Operations, or a related technical field.
• Lean Six Sigma Black Belt or Master Black Belt; ASQ CQE, CQA, CQM/OE, CSQP, or similar quality/supplier-quality certification.
• Experience with engineered electrical/electromechanical products such as industrial control panels, switchgear, power distribution equipment, relay/control panels, engineered enclosures, fabricated metals, electrical components, or related supply chains.
• Experience leading supplier quality across multiple manufacturing sites and a geographically diverse supplier base, including supplier integration after acquisition or rapid growth.
• Experience with UL/NEMA/NEC, customer-specific, regulatory, or other applicable electrical/manufacturing compliance requirements.

• Medical, dental, vision, HSA, term life, AD&D, STD, LTD
• 100% medical premium paid for by Panelmatic for the employee-only level medical coverage
• 80% paid for by Panelmatic and 20% paid for by the employee on all other level medical coverage (i.e. employee plus child, employee plus spouse, family)
• 401(k) contributions matched 100% up to 4%
• Scholarships, educational reimbursement, paid volunteerism, and paid personal and professional development provided
• PTO and paid holidays provided
• Career advancement opportunities
• Competitive wages