Sr. Quality Engineer

Not everyone can claim to feed the world, but it is part of our every day. Behind everything we do for our farmers, there is one AGCO team making it happen. We are proud to put our curiosity to work, building a better and more sustainable world. Join our extraordinary team today!  

The Senior Quality Engineer is a plant technical leader for manufacturing quality strategy, control-system design, launch governance, and complex problem solving. The role leads the translation of product and process risks into robust special-characteristic controls, measurement strategies, Control Plans, functional test requirements, MSA, SPC, PPAP evidence, Safe Launch plans, quality gates, and finished-product verification. Working across Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Supplier Quality, and Product Integrity, the Senior Quality Engineer influences critical decisions, coaches Quality Engineers, resolves high-risk technical issues, and delivers measurable improvement in customer, supplier, launch, and manufacturing quality performance.  

Your Impact 

1. APQP, NPI and Launch Quality Governance  

• Lead plant Quality Engineering deliverables for major or high-risk NPI and APQP programs, establishing the quality strategy, reviewing technical adequacy, challenging weak evidence, escalating unresolved risk, and advising leadership on launch readiness.  

• Lead special-characteristic management across assigned products and processes; challenge characteristic flow-down, approve control and measurement strategies, and ensure KC/CC/SC requirements are traceable to reaction plans and objective evidence.  

• Provide senior technical challenge during PFMEA development, using field, warranty, supplier, capability, and lessons-learned data to influence risk prioritization and ensure significant risks are addressed in Control Plans and verification strategies without assuming PFMEA ownership.  

• Lead internal PPAP approval for complex or high-risk launches; determine evidence of sufficiency, resolve cross-functional gaps, and withhold quality approval when risk or evidence is unacceptable.  

• Establish and govern risk-based Safe Launch strategies, enhanced controls, escalation thresholds, exit criteria, and leadership status reporting; authorize or recommend exit based on demonstrated capability and defect containment.  

• Represent plant Quality Engineering in DFMEA, DFM/DFA, production readiness, and launch maturity reviews; influence design and process decisions using technical evidence, manufacturing risk, and customer impact.  

2. Production Control Plans and Functional Verification  

• Lead control strategy development and approve Production Control Plans for complex assembly, fabrication, machining, stamping, paint, welding, and special processes; mentor others in risk-based control selection and change control.  

• Define and technically approve inspection and functional-test strategies, including method selection, coverage, sampling, acceptance criteria, reaction plans, data retention, and correlation to product risk and customer requirements.  

• Design and optimize quality-gate and finished-product-audit strategies using risk, defect escape data, process capability, and detection effectiveness; recommend control reduction or escalation based on evidence.  

• Provide technical leadership to Manufacturing Engineering during functional-test development and integration; review test architecture, failure detection, repeatability, false-pass risk, correlation, and validation evidence against approved quality requirements.  

• Establish governance that keeps Control Plans aligned with engineering changes, process changes, lessons learned, nonconformities, warranty signals, and emerging field risks; audit effectiveness across assigned areas.  

3. Measurement Systems, SPC and Process Control  

• Serve as the technical authority for measurement strategy, gauge selection, MSA design, Gauge R&R interpretation, uncertainty and bias considerations, calibration linkage, and fitness-for-use decisions on complex applications.  

• Lead plant SPC methodology and advanced application, including characteristic selection, rational subgrouping, chart selection, limit strategy, reaction plans, automated monitoring, compliance, and escalation.  

• Interpret capability and stability using Cp, Cpk, Pp, Ppk, distribution behavior, control-chart signals, and supporting statistical methods; influence Manufacturing Engineering and Operations priorities for unstable or incapable processes.  

• Lead technical audits and evidence-based reviews of control effectiveness; identify systemic weaknesses, assign risk-based priorities, and verify sustained corrective action across functions.  

• Provide senior quality approval for weld and paint qualification criteria, special-process Control Plans, and quality-control requirements; engage specialists or laboratories where deeper materials, joining, coating, or test expertise are required.  

4. Plant Quality Operations and Assurance  

• Lead governance and technical standards for finished-product audits, quality gates, functional testing, dimensional and metallurgical analysis, and weld-quality conformance; improve detection effectiveness, data integrity, and decision consistency.  

• Chair or lead complex Material Review Board decisions, ensuring technically sound disposition, customer-risk assessment, containment, traceability, deviation control, and escalation of repeat or systemic nonconformance.  

• Lead response to significant, recurring, or technically complex customer complaints; coordinate rapid containment, rigorous root cause, executive-ready risk communication, corrective action, effectiveness validation, and enterprise lessons learned.  

• Provide plant leadership for incoming supplier quality performance; identify systemic supplier risks, influence Supplier Quality priorities, and support escalation, technical problem solving, and recurring-defect elimination.  

• Influence Operations priorities for RFT and DPU improvement through loss analysis, technical coaching, project leadership, and control-system redesign. Advise on scrap and OEE improvement while preserving Operations accountability for daily performance.  

5. QMS, Problem Solving and Continuous Improvement  

• Lead Quality Engineering readiness for internal, customer, and certification audits; identify systemic gaps, strengthen plant QMS controls, and provide technical interpretation of applicable quality requirements.  

• Lead high-impact and cross-functional problem solving using 8D, A3, DMAIC, Fault Tree Analysis, designed experiments, hypothesis testing, regression, capability analysis, and other appropriate statistical methods; coach teams away from symptom-based conclusions.  

• Independently challenge root cause and corrective-action evidence; verify sustained effectiveness and institutionalize learning through updates to Control Plans, test criteria, MSA, SPC, work standards, training, and future-launch requirements.  

• Integrate manufacturing, supplier, audit, complaint, warranty, telemetry, and test data to identify systemic risk, quantify customer and business impact, and build fact-based improvement priorities for plant leadership.  

• Develop Quality Engineers and cross-functional practitioners through technical coaching, review of work products, structured feedback, training, and facilitation of complex decisions in Control Plans, MSA, SPC, special characteristics, and disciplined quality execution.  

• Selects and applies appropriate analytical methods rather than relying on tool completion; explains assumptions, uncertainty, limitations, and residual risk in clear business language.  

• Serves as a plant escalation point for advanced MSA, SPC, capability, sampling, test validation, special processes, complex root cause, and control system design.  

Technical acumen  

• Leads a portfolio of significant improvements and ensures gains are verified, sustained, standardized, and transferred into future products, processes, and control strategies.  

• Prioritizes work using customer severity, warranty exposure, defect escape risk, launch risk, cost of poor quality, and operational impact; connects technical recommendations to measurable outcomes.  

Business and customer impact  

• Provides day-to-day technical coaching and peer review for Quality Engineers; raises consistency and maturity without assuming formal people-management responsibility unless assigned.  

• Leads through influence across Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Supplier Quality, and plant leadership escalate respectfully when risk acceptance is unclear or evidence is inadequate.  

• Sets technical direction for assigned quality systems and high-risk programs; aligns stakeholders around risk, evidence, customer impact, and business priorities. 

Your Experience and Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Quality, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Industrial, Electrical Engineering, or related technical discipline.  

• 7+ years of progressive experience in manufacturing quality, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, supplier quality, reliability, or a related technical field, including leadership of complex cross-functional issues or launches.  

• Demonstrated advanced application of APQP, PFMEA review, Control Plans, PPAP, special characteristics, MSA, Gauge R&R, SPC, process capability, and structured problem solving in complex manufacturing environments.  

• Demonstrated experience developing and approving inspection, measurement, and functional-test strategies, including acceptance criteria, reaction plans, validation evidence, and quality records.  

• Proven ability to influence without direct authority, lead technically complex cross-functional decisions, coach engineers, challenge weak evidence constructively, and communicate risk and recommendations to plant and functional leadership. 

Your Benefits 

• Health care and wellness plans    

• Dental and vision plans 

• 401(k) Savings Plan with company match 

• Employee Stock Purchase Plan offering eligible employees the ability to purchase AGCO stock at a discounted price  

• Paid holidays and paid time off 

• Health savings and flexible spending accounts   

• Reimbursement for continuing education    

• Life insurance and other supplemental insurance plans 

Your Workplace  

This role follows AGCO’s on‑site work model, with employees primarily working from an AGCO location (Beloit, KS) for a 5 days per week to support collaboration and teamwork. 

We value inclusion and recognize the innovation a diverse workforce delivers to our farmers. Through our recruitment efforts, we are committed to building a team that includes a variety of experiences, backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. 

Join our extraordinary team today and apply now! 

AGCO is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing. 

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