Product Quality Manager at Zola Electric

Level: Mid-Senior level

Position

• The Product Quality Manager will lead a team that works to make sure all ZOLA products meet customer and company quality requirements. 
• He/she will be responsible for championing the ZOLA core values: Customer, People, Product, and Performance by guiding a team of Engineers and Technicians in determining the overall product quality by adopting Advanced Product Quality Processes (APQP) from product design to manufacture.
• The job also involves both technical and people management skills. Technical functions involve designing and troubleshooting processes and products that explore future technologies & test existing products.
•  The candidate will be responsible for guiding both the engineering and technical teams in proper design for testing and quality procedures.
• The Product Quality Manager will work with Design Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Operations to address and improve: quality, reliability, and manufacture-ability issues. Work will require the leadership of cross-functional teams.
• The ideal candidate will have great technical writing skills, people management skills, and some experience in lean manufacturing methodology and/or Design for Excellence (DFx). Additional relevant skills are; data collection and analysis, renewable energy knowledge, and proficiency in English plus Swahili and/or French.

Responsibilities
Hardware and Firmware Quality Assurance (QA):

• Firmware Quality Assurance (QA).
• Hardware development Quality Assurance (QA).
• Group quality policy and objectives (metrics, KPIs).

Field Quality Engineering:

• Group quality policy and objectives (metrics, KPIs).
• Field Quality issues escalation and tracking.
• Authorized Service Center (ASC) operations in TZ.
• Authorized Service Center (ASC) for Global expansions.
• Provide Support for RMA processes.

Factory Quality Assurance (QA) Support:

• Product Quality Objective with Factory BenchMark.
• Supplier/Vendor Components Quality.

Customer Service Quality Assurance (QA):

• Support the processes for the Customer Satisfaction survey.

People Management:

• Manage the team of technicians to support product testing and provide workshop repair guidelines for products.
• Provide guidance and manage contractors during projects that need to be outsourced in TZ.

Requirements

• B.Sc Degree in Electrical / Electronic Engineering or related field
• A minimum of 4 years of relevant work experience in a position with managing product quality and engineering functions and projects

Working Conditions:

• Working hours will be agreed upon and understood as per the work schedule provided by your manager. Limited Local and International Travels.

Skills and Competencies:
Technical Skills:

• Take the lead during new product testing by setting up a sustainable system to run testing and provide feedback to the Product Design Engineering team.
• Use data analysis tools to track product failure rates and drive resolution through leveraging the cross-functional team for in-market products.
• Lead the team in providing training for in-market product repair and maintenance processes for debugging and repair of products.
• Track and manage Quality Improvement projects to ensure consistently high product quality.
• Lead the development of test plans in association with the Product Design Engineering team to validate design intent and product performance.

Management:

• Train and manage a team of technicians to support product testing and provide workshop repair guidelines for products.
• Provide guidance and manage contractors during projects that need to be outsourced.
• Lead weekly meetings with different department heads and SMEs to discuss product quality issues and utilize quality analysis tools to provide recommendations and drive consensus on product issue resolution.
• Lead meetings with the Product Management team to discuss proposed changes to an existing product line and determine proper qualification testing requirements to ensure successful product deployment.
• Be the point of contact for the Business Commercial team to provide necessary technical support for potential supplier partners during product demonstrations and proof of concept testing.