Head of Quality - Thermal and Fluid Systems NA

Your Contribution 

The Head of Quality - Thermal and Fluid Systems NA leads the regional quality strategy, ensuring that all manufacturing facilities deliver products that meet or exceed customer expectations, regulatory requirements, and global corporate standards. This role drives mid‑ and long‑range quality planning, oversees escalated customer concerns, supports our maintenance of key certifications (including IATF 16949 and ISMS), and builds a culture of continuous improvement across the region. The position is a senior leadership role with significant influence on operational performance, customer relationships, and business growth.

This role is responsible to:

• Embrace the MAHLE Leadership Principles:

• Empower with accountability: Own mistakes and practice continual learning. Foster autonomy and development.
• Trust each other: Practice collaboration and communicate in an honest and authentic way. Utilize differences to make us stronger.
• Inspire for change: Create enthusiasm for MAHLE’s future by establishing an environment that supports innovation and entrepreneurship.
• Lead by example: Make and keep commitments. Receive feedback before giving feedback.

• Provide general supervision within the region Quality function of eight manufacturing facilities and two Technical Centers. Responsible for the direct supervision of Preventive Quality Engineering, Warranty, Supplier Quality and Master Black Belt/Quality Methods and Tools departments.
• Strive to create an inclusive environment in which employees are valued and respected.
• Take ownership of talent management practices within the team. This includes, but is not limited to, diversity, equity and inclusion, learning and development, performance management, and succession planning.
• Shape and sustain an effective, motivated team that delivers desired business results by providing vision and direction, building trust, selecting, coaching and developing team members, leveraging individual abilities and ensuring best practices are utilized.

• Develop and execute the North American quality strategy, aligned with global objectives and long‑range business plans.
• Foster a strong Quality Mindset across the region and executive leadership teams.  Lead regional quality governance, ensuring consistent standards, processes, and performance across all facilities.  Support a Continuous Improvement (CI) culture that drives behaviors to prevent and address customer complaints, ensuring issues do not repeat.
• Lead, mentor, and direct regional quality teams, including managers for Warranty, Preventive Quality, Supplier Quality, and Quality Methods & Tools.
• Ensure the regional Quality Management System is maintained to support customer satisfaction, problem-solving, continuous improvement, and IATF 16949 certification.
• Serve as the region’s Voice of the Customer, ensuring timely and effective resolution of customer issues. Establish long-term relationships & strengthen contact network within different customers’ organization levels.  Foster professional working relationships with customer counterparts to enable successful resolution of escalated topics. 
• Ensure escalated customer complaints are appropriately managed based on quality standards of MAHLE.  Constantly monitors customer satisfaction; analyzes the results as well as defines and ensures implementation of measurements and actions for continuous improvement.  Implement sustainable actions to improve customer quality scorecards where KPIs fall short.

• Drive Product Development Process (PDP) teams to fully implement Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) processes to ensure successful launches.  Drive accountability throughout the business.
• Support the Quality System Management function, which reports globally.

• Lead Six Sigma training and certification programs, mentoring teams to improve quality and reduce costs.
• Maintain robust warranty management processes to detect, contain, and correct field issues.
• Ensure strong Supplier Quality systems for new development and serial production.
• Contribute to regional strategic initiatives as part of the executive leadership team.
• Participate in MAHLE and BU2 global Quality teams to apply best practices and lessons learned.
• Serve as a leader of change and innovation.  Challenge status quo, effectively influence others (at all levels of the organization) to embrace change, overcome resistance and seek out outstanding ideas and implement.

Your Experience & Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s Degree required (Engineering is strongly preferred), Master’s degree desired.

• 10+ years of progressive leadership in Tier 1 automotive industry, including a minimum of 7 years of Quality and management experience is required.  Multi‑site or regional leadership is also necessary.

• Experience in a Tier 1 manufacturing plant, including working in Production/Operations is highly preferred.
• Strong knowledge of IATF 16949, APQP, PPAP, and problem‑solving methodologies is required.
• Excellent vision regarding benchmarking and year-over-year progress is fundamental to this role. 
• Demonstrated ability to successfully manage full scope of the role, including relationship development resulting in favorable outcomes for the Company.
• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills to influence and build credibility as a peer with Plants, Region, Global Functions, customers and suppliers.
• Ability to provide decisive leadership and team facilitation in the face of adversity - define tasks clearly, identify and coordinate resources, and execute a go-forward plan.
• Proven & effective facilitation, leadership, mentoring, and training skills are necessary including the areas of Lean Manufacturing and 6 Sigma.
• Strong analytical and communication skills are necessary.
• Demonstration of flexibility and adaptation to a changing environment.
• Willingness to have flexible schedule to support real time discussions with colleagues & customers in different regions is a must.

• Ability to handle projects with multiple workstreams, with proven leadership success over a wide variety of business problems.
• Proven planning abilities, including successful execution of such plans.
• Must have strong initiative and the ability to work well in a team environment.
• Proven success operating in a high ambiguity environment is required.
• Global or multi-national business experience is strongly preferred.

Our Offering 

We will provide a collaborative environment working on exciting assignments, along with ongoing personal & career development opportunities. We encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles! 

After receiving your online application, the interview process will typically be a screening call followed by Personal Interview(s)  

For more information about MAHLE and what a career with us looks like for you, click here. and to learn more about our foundation owned technology group click here. 

#DiversityMatters with our inclusive culture, we welcome applications from all social, religious & ethnic backgrounds, disabilities both mental and physical, identities (gender) and neurodivergent people. 

MAHLE is not currently hiring individuals for this position who now or in the future require sponsorship for employment-based non-immigrant and immigrant visas. However, as a global company, MAHLE offers many job opportunities outside of the USA which can be found through our employment website www.jobs.mahle.com