Title: Quality Engineer, Quality Support
About I-CAR:
The Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) is a growing, not-for-profit organization, headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, serving the automotive collision repair industry globally. The organization was established by representatives of the collision repair, automotive, and insurance industries in 1979 and has doubled its revenue over the last six years.
Today, the I-CAR brand is stronger than it has been in 40 years of operation and has gained a worldwide reputation. There is momentum and excitement among its committed workforce, instructors and volunteers to continue to help the organization grow and expand its breadth of reach and scale. I-CAR leadership believes that the future of the organization will be importantly influenced by its continuing innovation and relevance of its products, technical programs and services.
Job Summary:
The Quality Engineer reports to the Senior Manager, Quality and is responsible for developing, implementing, and performing audits, processes, and systems that make up the I-CAR Quality Management System (QMS). The Quality Engineer will work cross-functionally to understand other departments’ processes & methods for purposes of creating audit schemes, ensuring processes are documented & followed, and creating & resolving corrective actions. Resolving corrective actions will include a significant amount of helping other departments perform root cause analysis, ensuring corrective actions target those root causes, and following up with departments to ensure they implement those corrective actions.
The Quality Engineer is responsible for performing internal audits of I-CAR departments and occasionally external audits of I-CAR partners. Travel will be minimal as most audits will either be on internal I-CAR processes or desk audits of external partners. This will also include reporting on and interpreting individual & aggregated results directly to people and departments audited.
The Quality Engineer will function as an administrator for the software system used to perform audits and be a power user for other software used in I-CAR’s Quality Management System. It is critical that the Quality Engineer understands how the QMS works, how it interacts with other systems, and be able to interpret and explain to other people data from the QMS as part of examining the cost of quality. This includes creating automated reports to help other people/departments understand complex data. Understanding how relational databases work and being able to use them to generate reports and analyze trends is critical.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
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Develop and maintain strong positive relationships with departments and individuals even while delivering negative audit results
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Create new audits – including drafting audit questions – in conjunction with the groups to be audited
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Administer the Salesforce-based system used to perform audits. Requires strong conceptual understanding database systems (does not require experience specifically with Salesforce but that is helpful)
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Develop and track metrics for “Cost of Quality” and interpret the data to drive continuous improvements into the Quality Management System
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Regularly following up on the state of open corrective actions
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Draft documents such as policies, SOPs, and flow charts to support quality initiatives
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Conduct quality audits and issue corrective actions for non-conformances on internal I-CAR departments and occasionally external I-CAR partners
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For corrective actions: Initiate corrective actions for non-conformances (primarily those found during audits), ensure relevant groups complete assigned tasks at appropriate pace, and evaluate acceptability of solutions to resolve underlying root causes
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Communicate effectively with management, I-CAR staff, and I-CAR stakeholders.
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Ensure Quality dashboards are giving accurate information which is helpful to appropriate stakeholders
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Create, update, and follow Quality related SOPs & documentation
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Review and assist in the development and support of licensing agreements (only quality relevant sections)
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Perform all other duties as assigned by management.
Computer Equipment and Software Requirements:
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Excellent Microsoft Office Suite skills especially Excel including usage of complex formulas
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Solid theoretical or practical understanding of relational databases
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General computer software and navigation
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Internet navigation required
Additional Preferred Qualifications:
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Experience with Salesforce or equivalent CRM system, especially using or creating reports
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Advanced Microsoft Excel skills including using Power Query
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Experience in performing audits and working with other QMS features
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Power User or admin experience with SharePoint sites
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Experience with resolving non-conformances through 8D methodology
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Experience leading cross-functional teams for small-to-medium sized projects
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Experience gaining & maintaining external accreditations (especially IACET, SOC 2, or ISO 9001)
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Experience training people on new software systems
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Experience with statistics or Six Sigma
Education and Experience:
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Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering (preferred) or Bachelor’s Degree in related field or equivalent work experience
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Experienced with quality auditing processes and quality management systems
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3 – 5 years of relevant experience internal or external audit experience or other quality or technical role
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Possess robust skills in verification, documentation and communication of audit results and the ability to complete audit reports
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Must possess interpersonal skills to avoid and/or resolve conflict
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Experience with I-CAR training programs is preferred
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Experience with automotive industry and/or collision repair techniques a benefit but NOT required
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Experience with ISO 9001 or similar quality management system standards is a benefit.
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Preferred experience utilizing critical QMS systems and tools (ISO 9001 auditing, root cause analysis, corrective action, complaint management)
EEO Statement:
I-CAR is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity / expression, national origin, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state or local law, where applicable. Those with criminal histories will be considered in a manner consistent with applicable state and local laws.