DIRECTOR ENGINEERING QUALITY PROCESSES

Director of Engineering Quality & Processes

Full-Time | Decatur, Illinois 

MUST-HAVES

If you don't meet every item below, this isn't the right role for you.

• 10+ years as a hands-on mechanical design engineer in custom machinery, industrial automation, or capital equipment. You'll review and redirect other engineers' designs, so you must have done the work at a high level.
• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (or closely related engineering discipline).
• 5+ years leading quality or engineering process standards across design and manufacturing.
• Hands-on experience including design review, release and change control, functional testing, and factory acceptance testing.
• Field installation and commissioning experience on large mechanical and automated systems.
• Working knowledge of 3D CAD (SolidWorks preferred), PDM, and ERP.
• Based on-site in Decatur, IL, with travel to our St. Louis office at least twice a month and to customer sites at times for installations. Relocation assistance is not available.

Location

Decatur, IL (on-site)

Reports To

Director of Operations

Base Salary

$120,000

Target Total (OTE)

$135,000 with bonus

The Role

We are looking for a senior mechanical design engineer with quality leadership experience to set our design and build standards. Make zero field failures the standard. You will own quality from design release through customer acceptance, with real authority to hold a release or shipment that doesn't meet standard. You will critique and redirect engineering work on design, technical, and scope grounds, and set the standards, gates, and tools that get designs to the shop clean and machines built right the first time.

What You'll Do

Make zero field failures the standard

• Own the quality system across engineering, manufacturing, and the field, with clear standards, gates, and accountability.
• Hold an engineering release or shipment that does not meet standard, and escalate disputes to the Director of Operations with a recommendation.
• Lead root cause and corrective action on every field issue, and trace warranty cost back to its source.
• Run post-project reviews on significant programs so lessons learned become standards.

Get designs to the shop clean

• Define and own design release standards, review checklists, and release criteria within our stage-gate process.
• Review and challenge engineers' work on technical merit, scope, manufacturability, assembly, serviceability, and safety, and redirect it when needed.
• Trace design-related rework and change orders to their root cause and close the loop with the engineering teams.

Set and enforce machine build standards

• Define build standards and inspection gates at fabrication, machining, paint, assembly, and final test.
• Own the last five percent: function and usability testing, labeling and signage, correct hardware and torque, and a presentation-grade finish.
• Build a machine-builder mentality across both sites, with engineers spending real time on the plant floor.

Own pretest and factory acceptance testing

• Set full functional pretest standards for every machine before it ships, including controls, automation, and safety systems.
• Define FAT procedures and documentation, and lead customer acceptance tests alongside program management.
• Make sure what we test in Decatur is what the customer sees on their floor.

Partner on field installation

• Serve as a liaison and technical resource to the team that manages installation procedures, checklists, safety standards, and punch lists, adding an additional layer of expertise.
• Participate in installations and customer acceptance at key points, providing guidance on site when needed.
• Be involved in installation readiness with program management and the plant, offering input so the right people, tools, and parts are in place.
• Feed lessons learned from the field back into design and build standards.

Improve engineering process and automation

• Champion design reuse, standard components, templates, and configurable platforms.
• Introduce design automation, checking tools, and AI that speed up designs and catch errors before release.
• Keep engineering standards, procedures, and work instructions current, simple, and used.

Build and develop the quality team

• Lead, coach, and develop the Machine Build Standards, Field Installation & Quality Control Lead, and build bench strength for the next layer.
• Train engineers, technicians, and installers on standards, and make quality everyone's job, not one department's.

Nice to Have

Six Sigma or ASQ certification • design automation or configurator experience • AGV, hydraulics, or heavy-load equipment background • multi-site quality leadership

About Align

For 60 years, Align Production Systems has designed and manufactured custom capital equipment and heavy-load material handling systems, including AGVs, air caster systems, transporters, turntables, and integrated automation, for Fortune 1000 manufacturers and government programs in aerospace, space, heavy equipment, agriculture, and transportation. We are debt-free and growing, with a plan to more than double the business by 2031.