{"id":3729364,"url":"https://alion.io/job/the-individual-touch-field-customer-quality-engineer","title":"Field Customer Quality Engineer","company":{"id":4502734,"name":"The Individual Touch","domain":null,"url":"https://alion.io/company/the-individual-touch","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":null,"employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Johannesburg, South Africa"],"countries":["ZA"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":30000,"max":null,"currency":"ZAR","period":"month","gross":true,"usd_annual":21684},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CAPA","optional":false},{"name":"FMEA","optional":false},{"name":"GD&T","optional":false},{"name":"Statistical Process Control","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T11:01:04Z","employer_posted_date":null,"last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T11:01:04Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":15,"trust":{"level":"not_scored","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":15},"description":"Introduction\nThe Field Customer Quality Engineer acts as the primary technical bridge between our rubber manufacturing facility and our customers. This role is responsible for managing customer quality complaints, leading root-cause investigations, and driving corrective actions (NCRs/8D) at the plant level to ensure zero-defect delivery. The ideal candidate will have deep technical knowledge of rubber compounding, moulding, and extrusion processes, combined with exceptional customer-facing communication skills.\n\nDuties & Responsibilities\nCustomer Liaison & Complaint Management\n\nPrimary Contact: Serve as the first point of contact for customer quality issues, product returns, and technical escalations.\n\nOn-Site Investigations: Travel to customer facilities to investigate product failures, assess application environments, and collect defect data.\n\nContainment Actions: Coordinate immediate containment activities at customer sites and sorting operations at the plant to prevent further defective material leakage.\n\nProblem Solving & Root Cause Analysis\n\nNCR & 8D Management: Lead cross-functional plant teams to investigate customer complaints, issues, and Non-Conformance Reports (NCRs) using standard methodologies (8D, 5-Why, Ishikawa).\n\nDefect Analysis: Analyze returned rubber parts for failure modes such as bonding failures, flash defects, compression set issues, compound degradation, or dimensional variations.\n\nCorrective Actions: Implement robust corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) within the production plant to eliminate the root causes of customer issues.\n\nQuality Documentation & Reporting\n\nCustomer Portals: Update and maintain customer quality portals with 8D reports, sorting updates, and action plans.\n\nPPAP & APQP: Support Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and coordinate the submission of Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) documentation for new or modified rubber parts.\n\nQuality Metrics: Track and report on key customer quality metrics, including Customer PPM (Parts Per Million), Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ), and response time performance.\n\nContinuous Improvement & Auditing\n\nProcess Alignment: Review customer quality manuals and specifications to ensure internal manufacturing controls (Control Plans, FMEAs) are fully aligned.\n\nInternal Feedback: Feed customer field performance data back into the production, engineering, and compounding teams to drive continuous improvement.\n\nDesired Experience & Qualification\nEducation & Experience\n\nDiploma or related qualification: Quality and Engineering (Mechanical, Materials, Chemical, or Industrial) or a related technical discipline.\n\nIndustry Experience: 3 to 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing quality engineering role, specifically within a rubber molding, extrusion, or compounding plant.\n\nSector Knowledge: Experience with automotive (IATF 16949), industrial, quality standards is highly preferred.\n\nTechnical Skills\n\nRubber: Strong understanding of rubber polymers, curing characteristics, bonding processes (rubber-to-metal/plastic), and rubber testing methods.\n\nQuality Tools: Proficiency in Core Tools (APQP, PPAP, FMEA, SPC, MSA) and problem-solving frameworks (8D, Six Sigma).\n\nBlueprints: Ability to read engineering drawings, GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing), and interpret customer specifications.\n\nSoft Skills & Travel\n\nCommunication: Excellent negotiation, conflict resolution, and technical presentation skills.\n\nTravel: Willingness to travel frequently to customer sites on short notice.\n\nPackage & Remuneration\nR30K\n\nInterested?\nThe Individual Touch\n\n Elisha Anderson\n\n Empire St, Casseldale, Springs 8\n\n 2191 Johannesburg","description_format":"text","description_chars":3666,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-04T06:57:20Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":59,"band":"ok","label":"Likely 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