Quality Engineer

Job Description:

Brooks Instrument (www.brooksinstrument.com), an industry leader in flow and pressure instrumentation for critical applications, is seeking candidates for a Quality Engineerposition that will be based at the company headquarters in Hatfield, Pennsylvania (suburban Philadelphia). The company has manufacturing locations in Pennsylvania, Hungary, Malaysia and Korea, and also maintains sales and service offices throughout the world. Our high-tech products are used in laboratory and process applications in end markets such as: oil & gas, petrochemical, medical devices, waste water, life sciences, and analytical instruments. 

Brooks is a division of ITW (Illinois Tool Works), a fortune 200 company. ITW is one of the world’s leading diversified manufacturers of specialized industrial equipment, consumables, and related service businesses. The company has operations in 56 countries and employs over 50,000 employees. These talented employees, many of whom have specialized engineering or scientific expertise, contribute to ITW’s global leadership in innovation. The company is proud of its broad portfolio of nearly 10,000 active patents, and is focused on fully leveraging its highly differentiated business model to deliver solid growth with consistent best-in-class margins and return on capital.

Basic Function

Responsible for ensuring that Brooks’ design and manufacturing processes are performed correctly using the appropriate tools, materials, and processes.  Responsible for quality control activities including planning, development, application, and maintenance of quality standards for manufacturing finished product. This individual must be self-directed, highly motivated, and organized with strong analytical thinking and problem solving skills. They must also possess the ability to work on multiple activities simultaneously in a cross functional team environment with a focus on customer satisfaction.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Performs quality engineering functions, quality audits and sets quality standards for both in-process and finished products and materials.

  • Participate in the maintenance of ISO 9001 documentation, perform internal quality system audits to identify and correct deficiencies or non-conformances, and provide Quality Certificate support as needed.

  • Develop sampling plans, design forms for recording, evaluating, and reporting quality data, and write instructions on the use of such forms.

  • Participate in the review of customer documentation to identify and ensure fulfillment of customer requirements (i.e. copy exact).

  • Participate in the review of design, manufacturing, and test documentation to ensure that applicable system and contract quality requirements are met.

  • Initiate plans, procedures, and/or actions to prevent/eliminate product and systemic quality problems.

  • Prepare slides for regular Quality review meetings. Participate in regular quality improvement meetings.

  • Develop and administer department quality information, including the auditing of quality plans to permit identification and correction of deficiencies.

  • Verify and approve all department operation instructions and provide the necessary support for a complete understanding of the operation instructions and their application.

  • Participate in customer visits, surveys, and audits.

  • Coordinate and evaluate annual product validations.

• Coordinate the timely resolution of customer quality issues and response to customers.

  • Analyze customer complaints and field failures.  Coordinate corrective action (8D), follow-up, and reporting. Support customer update meetings.

  • Track and follow-up corrective and preventive action (CAPA), customer complaint (CC), failure analysis (FA) and similar cases in Trackwise.

  • Perform project-specific tasks as required (e.g., customer required first article inspection, qualification test failure analysis, etc.) to ensure compliance to individual project requirements.

• Drive and/or support resolution of internal/external quality issues by interfacing with cross functional team members; production, engineering, other teams as needed.

  • Assist in the resolution of supplier quality problems as needed.

  • Initiate engineering deviation requests and product change notices.

• Data collection, analysis, and reports to understand/improve operational & quality performance, and to reduce the cost of poor quality. 

  • Develop/monitor first pass yield reports, scrap reports, and process audit reports.

  • Employ statistical process controls and techniques to reduce scrap/rework and to drive continuous improvement.

  • Ensure quality cost concepts are understood and executed.

  • Perform analysis of data, using SPC techniques, charts, pareto, histograms, etc.

  • Prepare and present analysis results/charts in Power-point/presentation format.

  • Write queries and prepare reports from Trackwise data.

  • Maintain and collect data for tracking various Operational and Quality Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

  • Disposition discrepant material in a manner that ensures product quality and adherence to system requirements.

  • Determine that manufacturing processes and equipment have enough capability to meet customer quality requirements by analyzing capability studies, control charts, and other statistical data.

• Participate in and/or drive continuous improvement initiatives.

  • Reports on complex quality analyses, product or process non-conformance issues, and recommends and/or implements necessary corrective actions and procedure changes.

  • Support company continuous improvement initiatives, particularly as related to product quality.

• Quality representative in the cross functional team responsible for new product development. 

• In line with Brooks’ zero accident safety policy, maintain and enhance department safety policies and procedures.

• Other duties as assigned.

Education & Experience                                                                                              

• BS Degree in an engineering discipline required, with quality, industrial, or mechanical engineering preferred.

• 3+ years of quality engineering experience in a manufacturing facility required; preferably experience in an ISO 9001/ third party certified manufacturing facility.

• Knowledge of MS Office including Excel, Word, Outlook required.   

• Project management experience and ASQ certification as a Quality Engineer desired. 

• Experience in process writing, flow-charting required.

• Knowledgeable in understanding and application of statistics principles. Use statistical analysis to determine process performance and drive improvement activities.

• Experience is performing data/statistical analysis using Excel, Minitab or similar statistical programs.

• Strong MS Excel skills required. Minitab experience a plus.

• Experience in manufacturing or test environment preferred.

• Experience in Microsoft Office - Word, Excel, Power Point, Access.

• Attention to detail and ability to work in a dynamic and changing environment.

• Training in interpersonal relationships, team building, group dynamics, and task coordination desired. 

• Must be able to communicate clearly both verbally and in writing. 

• Must be diplomatic and sensitive in all communications with external contacts (Customers, Suppliers, Registrars, Assessors/Auditors, etc.) when coordinating quality improvement and corrective action activities.

Benefits

Our employees enjoy competitive, merit-based salary plus excellent benefits including:

• Health and dental insurance

• Company Paid Life Insurance

• Short and Long Term Disability

• 401K plan with generous company match

• Vacation, personal days and holidays

• Continuing education reimbursement program

• Flexible spending accounts 

The opportunity to join a well established (80 years in business) yet dynamically changing organization that works together as a team to meet the challenges of satisfying customers’ needs and managing rapid growth to better compete in a global marketplace

ITW is an equal opportunity employer. We value our colleagues’ unique perspectives, experiences and ideas and create workplaces where everyone can develop their careers and perform to their full potential. 

As an equal employment opportunity employer, ITW is committed to equal employment opportunity and fair treatment for employees, beginning with the hiring process and continuing through all aspects of the employment relationship. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.