Position Summary

The Supplier Quality Manager owns the quality performance of FCE's external supply base. The role sets the standards suppliers must meet before their parts enter production, verifies that they continue to meet those standards once they do, and drives corrective action when they do not. Working across purchasing, engineering, manufacturing, and the suppliers themselves, the manager is accountable for reducing supplier-caused defects, shortening the time it takes to close quality escapes, and qualifying new sources without introducing risk into the production schedule.

Reporting to the Director of Quality and Reliability, this position leads supplier quality engineers and technicians, represents FCE in supplier quality reviews, and serves as the escalation point for supply-base issues that threaten delivery, cost, or customer commitments.

Key Responsibilities

Supplier Qualification and Onboarding

• Lead the technical assessment and approval of new suppliers, including capability reviews, on-site audits, and risk scoring, and issue the approval decision that allows a source to be added to the approved supplier list.
• Define quality requirements in supplier agreements and quality manuals, covering inspection expectations, documentation, change notification, and record retention.
• Govern the part approval process, reviewing submissions for dimensional results, material certifications, process capability studies, and control plans before granting production approval.
• Assess and approve supplier requests for process, tooling, material, or location changes before implementation.

Supplier Performance Management

• Own the supplier quality scorecard, tracking defect rates, on-time corrective action closure, first-pass yield, and audit findings, and publish results to purchasing and operations leadership on a defined cadence.
• Conduct business and quality reviews with strategic suppliers, setting improvement targets and holding suppliers accountable to committed timelines.
• Identify chronically underperforming suppliers, build the case for development or resourcing, and support purchasing through the transition.

Nonconformance and Corrective Action

• Direct the containment, disposition, and root cause investigation of supplier nonconformances, including incoming inspection rejections, line stoppages, and field escapes.
• Review supplier corrective action responses for genuine root cause analysis and verifiable, permanent countermeasures, rejecting responses that stop at symptom-level fixes.
• Verify the effectiveness of implemented corrective actions and close issues only after evidence confirms the defect mode has been eliminated.
• Manage supplier chargebacks and cost recovery for quality-related sorting, rework, scrap, and premium freight.

Advanced Quality Planning and Launch

• Represent supplier quality on new product development teams, ensuring purchased components are designed, sourced, and validated to meet requirements before launch.
• Review supplier process flow diagrams, failure mode analyses, and control plans, and confirm that critical characteristics are properly identified and controlled.
• Lead run-at-rate and capacity verification activities to confirm suppliers can sustain quality at required production volumes.

Audits, Compliance, and Systems

• Plan and execute the annual supplier audit schedule, using risk to prioritize which suppliers are audited and how deeply.
• Ensure supplier quality processes satisfy applicable quality management system and customer-specific requirements, and support internal, customer, and registrar audits.
• Maintain accurate supplier quality records and drive the use of quality data systems so that performance reporting is timely and defensible.

Leadership and Collaboration

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of supplier quality engineers and technicians, setting priorities and building technical depth across the group.
• Partner with purchasing on sourcing decisions, with engineering on specification and print clarity, and with operations on the incoming quality issues that affect the production floor.
• Manage the supplier quality budget, including travel, third-party inspection, and sorting expenses.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, manufacturing, materials science, or a closely related technical field.
• Seven or more years of quality engineering or supplier quality experience in a manufacturing environment, including at least two years leading people or projects.
• Demonstrated command of core quality methods: root cause analysis, statistical process control, measurement systems analysis, process capability, and failure mode and effects analysis.
• Working knowledge of a recognized quality management system standard and of the part approval and control plan disciplines used in regulated or customer-audited industries.
• Ability to read engineering drawings and apply geometric dimensioning and tolerancing to inspection and acceptance decisions.
• Willingness to travel to domestic and international supplier sites, and to lead difficult conversations with suppliers and internal stakeholders.

Preferred

• Certification as a quality engineer, quality manager, or lead auditor.
• Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent formal problem-solving credential.
• Experience developing suppliers in machining, castings, forgings, electronics, or coatings.
• Experience managing a global supply base, including low-cost-country sourcing.
• Familiarity with enterprise quality management software and supplier portals.

Working Conditions and Travel

This position is based at the Torrington facility and combines office work with time on the manufacturing floor and in supplier plants, where personal protective equipment is required. Travel to supplier sites is expected on a regular basis and varies with launch activity and open quality issues.

We offer a competitive compensation package as well as comprehensive benefits including medical, dental, vision, company-paid life/disability insurance, 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan, and generous paid leave.

For more information about FuelCell Energy and our available openings, please visit our website: https://www.fuelcellenergy.com/careers

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