What are the responsibilities and job description for the Supplier Quality Manager position at GTI Fabrication?
Location: Phoenix or Goodyear, AZ (On-Site)
Department: Supply Chain
Reports To: Director of Supply Chain
Employment Type: Full-Time | Exempt
About GTI Fabrication
GTI Fabrication is a leader in industrial modular fabrication, serving the energy, defense, and heavy-industrial markets. With advanced engineering and manufacturing operations in Arizona and New York, GTI designs and builds containerized energy systems, structural steel enclosures, and modular power platforms that support mission-critical applications worldwide.
As GTI scales production, supplier partnerships are critical to ensuring our standards for quality, reliability, and compliance remain uncompromising. We are seeking a Supplier Quality Manager to build and lead a proactive, metrics-driven supplier quality program that aligns with our engineering and operational goals.
Position Overview
The Supplier Quality Manager (SQM) is responsible for developing and managing all supplier quality assurance and development programs across GTI’s supply chain. This role ensures that suppliers meet technical, quality, and delivery standards through robust qualification, auditing, and continuous-improvement processes.
The ideal candidate is both technical and strategic — capable of conducting on-site supplier audits, driving root-cause analysis for non-conforming materials, and building scalable systems that support GTI’s growth and ISO-aligned quality initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
Department: Supply Chain
Reports To: Director of Supply Chain
Employment Type: Full-Time | Exempt
About GTI Fabrication
GTI Fabrication is a leader in industrial modular fabrication, serving the energy, defense, and heavy-industrial markets. With advanced engineering and manufacturing operations in Arizona and New York, GTI designs and builds containerized energy systems, structural steel enclosures, and modular power platforms that support mission-critical applications worldwide.
As GTI scales production, supplier partnerships are critical to ensuring our standards for quality, reliability, and compliance remain uncompromising. We are seeking a Supplier Quality Manager to build and lead a proactive, metrics-driven supplier quality program that aligns with our engineering and operational goals.
Position Overview
The Supplier Quality Manager (SQM) is responsible for developing and managing all supplier quality assurance and development programs across GTI’s supply chain. This role ensures that suppliers meet technical, quality, and delivery standards through robust qualification, auditing, and continuous-improvement processes.
The ideal candidate is both technical and strategic — capable of conducting on-site supplier audits, driving root-cause analysis for non-conforming materials, and building scalable systems that support GTI’s growth and ISO-aligned quality initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead GTI’s Supplier Quality Management program, ensuring consistent quality and reliability of materials, components, and subassemblies.
- Develop and implement supplier qualification, evaluation, and auditing processes to ensure conformance with specifications and regulatory standards.
- Partner with Engineering and Supply Chain to define critical supplier quality requirements, inspection plans, and performance metrics.
- Drive supplier performance improvement initiatives based on measurable KPIs — defect rate, on-time delivery, cost of poor quality (COPQ), and corrective-action cycle time.
- Lead root-cause and corrective action (RCCA) activities with suppliers to address nonconformances and recurring issues.
- Collaborate with Engineering on new supplier onboarding, ensuring first-article inspections (FAIs) and PPAPs are completed to GTI standards.
- Manage the Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR) process and ensure timely closure of quality issues.
- Support Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and NPI activities to ensure supplier readiness for new product launches.
- Maintain supplier scorecards and dashboards that visualize trends, performance, and improvement actions.
- Work cross-functionally with Operations, Procurement, and Quality to reduce variability, improve yield, and strengthen supplier relationships.
- Provide leadership and training to internal stakeholders on supplier quality expectations and best practices.
- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, or related technical field.
- 7 years of experience in supplier quality, quality engineering, or manufacturing quality leadership within an industrial or fabrication environment.
- Strong working knowledge of ISO 9001, APQP, PPAP, FMEA, Control Plans, and auditing practices.
- Proven success managing metal fabrication, machining, or electrical component suppliers.
- Hands-on experience performing supplier audits, capability assessments, and first-article inspections.
- Proficiency with root-cause analysis tools (8D, 5 Why, Fishbone) and statistical process control (SPC).
- Familiarity with weld inspection, dimensional inspection, and mechanical assembly processes.
- Excellent communication and negotiation skills; able to partner effectively with both suppliers and internal teams.
- Competence with ERP and quality-management systems (NetSuite preferred) and advanced Excel or Power BI analytics.
- Certification in CQE, CQA, or Six Sigma Green/Black Belt.
- Experience in modular fabrication, energy systems, or defense manufacturing.
- Knowledge of supplier quality risk assessment and advanced supplier development frameworks.
- Exposure to geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) and weld standards (AWS D1.1).
- Experience with digital supplier quality tools or automated inspection data systems.
- Full-time, on-site position based in Phoenix or Goodyear, AZ.
- Regular travel to supplier facilities (10–25%) for audits and technical reviews.
- Work performed in both office and manufacturing environments.