Incoming Quality Engineer

Position Overview
The Incoming Quality Engineer will play a key role in ensuring that externally sourced components and materials consistently meet established quality, reliability, and performance standards. This position will focus heavily on supplier quality, incoming inspection, material qualification, corrective action, and continuous improvement within a precision manufacturing environment.

The engineer will partner closely with Quality, Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Procurement, and Reliability teams to identify and resolve supplier-related quality issues, improve supplier processes, and protect production from non-conforming materials.
Core Responsibilities Supplier Quality & Qualification

• Evaluate and support qualification of suppliers providing precision optical, electronic, and other critical components.
• Participate in supplier audits, capability assessments, and vendor selection activities.
• Evaluate supplier manufacturing processes, inspection methods, process controls, and reliability capabilities.
• Support supplier approval, performance monitoring, and periodic requalification.
• Identify opportunities to improve supplier process capability, consistency, and overall quality performance.

Incoming Quality & Inspection

• Establish and maintain incoming inspection requirements, specifications, sampling plans, and acceptance criteria.
• Review incoming inspection results and supplier quality data to identify trends and potential risks.
• Apply Statistical Process Control (SPC) and other quality tools to monitor material and component performance.
• Work with Engineering to establish critical quality characteristics and acceptance requirements for incoming components.
• Evaluate parameters such as optical power, fiber alignment, dimensional tolerances, focal characteristics, and electrical performance.
• Prevent non-conforming materials from entering the manufacturing process.

Supplier Corrective Action & Problem Resolution

• Lead investigations into supplier-related defects and quality concerns.
• Issue and manage Supplier Corrective Action Requests (SCARs).
• Drive structured root-cause investigations using methodologies such as 8D, FMEA, and other problem-solving techniques.
• Participate in Material Review Board (MRB) activities and support disposition of non-conforming materials.
• Verify corrective actions and confirm sustained effectiveness before affected materials are released or shipments resume.
• Maintain appropriate documentation related to non-conforming products and supplier corrective actions.

Supplier Process Improvement

• Partner with suppliers to improve manufacturing processes, product quality, and process stability.
• Review supplier capability data, including Cp/Cpk and yield metrics.
• Identify opportunities to reduce variation, defects, contamination, and other sources of quality risk.
• Support supplier process optimization and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Provide technical feedback to suppliers regarding quality expectations and performance requirements.

Reliability & Component Qualification

• Support qualification and validation activities for components used in precision optical and electronic products.
• Review supplier materials against established reliability requirements.
• Support environmental and reliability testing, including:
  • High-temperature storage
  • Temperature cycling
  • Mechanical shock and vibration
  • Laser lifetime testing
• Analyze test results and support failure investigations when reliability requirements are not met.

Quality Metrics & Supplier Performance

• Monitor supplier performance using key quality indicators such as:
  • Defective Parts Per Million (DPPM)
  • Supplier yield
  • Corrective action response time
  • Field failure rates
  • RMA rates
  • Reliability trends
• Prepare supplier quality reports and communicate performance trends to Quality, Supply Chain, Procurement, and management.
• Provide data and technical input to support supplier evaluation and sourcing decisions.

Non-Conforming Material Control

• Identify and contain suspect or defective incoming material.
• Place affected lots on hold when necessary to prevent production impact.
• Coordinate with suppliers to investigate and resolve material quality issues.
• Analyze inspection and test results to determine material conformance.
• Support supplier audits and verify implementation of corrective actions.

Customer & Field Quality Support

• Assist with investigations involving customer complaints, returned materials, and RMA activity.
• Support internal failure analysis and corrective action investigations.
• Analyze field performance and reliability data to identify recurring quality issues.
• Investigate issues that may involve optical performance, signal integrity, connectivity, or product reliability.
• Support New Product Introduction (NPI) activities and component qualification as needed.

Cross-Functional Collaboration
This position will work closely with:

• Quality: Quality systems, inspection requirements, non-conformance management, and corrective actions.
• Engineering: Component qualification, new product introduction, critical specifications, and failure analysis.
• Manufacturing / Process Engineering: Production yield, process stability, and material-related manufacturing issues.
• Reliability: Component validation, environmental testing, and reliability analysis.
• Supply Chain / Procurement: Supplier performance, sourcing decisions, and supplier development.

Technical & Equipment Knowledge
Experience with inspection, metrology, and testing equipment used in precision manufacturing is highly valuable.

Metrology & Inspection

• Optical microscopes
• Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM)
• Profilometers
• Optical comparators
• Fiber end-face inspection systems

Optical & Electrical Testing

• Optical Spectrum Analyzers (OSA)
• Bit Error Rate Testers (BERT)
• High-speed oscilloscopes
• Digital Multimeters (DMM)

Environmental & Reliability Testing

• Environmental test chambers
• Temperature and environmental cycling equipment
• Mechanical reliability testing equipment

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Optoelectronics, Physics, or a related technical discipline preferred.
• Experience in supplier quality, incoming quality, manufacturing quality, or a related engineering function.
• Experience within optical transceiver, photonics, semiconductor, electronics, or precision component manufacturing is highly preferred.
• Working knowledge of supplier quality management and corrective action processes.
• Experience with root-cause analysis methodologies such as 8D and FMEA.
• Knowledge of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and process capability analysis.
• Understanding of incoming inspection, metrology, and quality control principles.
• Ability to interpret inspection, test, and reliability data.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively across Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain organizations.

Preferred Technical Background
Candidates with experience working with optical components, photonics, semiconductor devices, precision mechanical components, or high-reliability electronic assemblies will be particularly well suited for this position.

The ideal candidate combines strong supplier quality fundamentals with the technical ability to understand complex optical/electronic components, manufacturing processes, inspection methods, and reliability requirements.