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Manager, Supplier Quality Engineering – Optical Commodities
Lumentum is seeking an experienced Supplier Quality Engineering (SQE) Manager to lead the global Supplier Quality organization responsible for Optical Commodities. This role provides strategic and operational leadership for Supplier Quality Engineering (SQE) and Incoming Quality Assurance (IQA) supporting all major business units at Lumentum.
The successful candidate will lead a geographically distributed team across multiple sites, ensuring consistent execution of supplier quality processes while partnering closely with Engineering, Global Sourcing, Operations, and Manufacturing. As the primary quality interface to strategic optical suppliers, this leader will drive supplier performance, quality improvements, risk mitigation, and strong supplier relationships to support Lumentum's business objectives.
This position requires an experienced manager with a strong background in optical engineering, supplier quality, and global team leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Organizational Leadership
- Lead and manage a global team of Supplier Quality Engineers located across multiple sites.
- Establish organizational priorities, performance objectives, and development plans while fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
- Drive consistent implementation of global supplier quality standards and best practices.
Supplier Quality & Commodity Management
- Own the Supplier Quality strategy for Optical Commodities across all Lumentum business units.
- Ensure robust supplier qualification, performance monitoring, risk management, and continuous improvement programs.
Incoming Quality Assurance (IQA)
- Provide leadership for Incoming Quality Assurance activities across manufacturing sites.
- Ensure effective incoming inspection processes that balance product quality, manufacturing efficiency, and supplier performance.
- Utilize quality data and supplier performance metrics to optimize inspection strategies and drive continuous improvement.
Supplier Relationship Management
- Serve as the primary quality representative for optical suppliers.
- Lead supplier communications, quality escalations, and executive-level engagements.
- Develop collaborative supplier partnerships focused on improving quality, reliability, delivery performance, and operational excellence.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Program Management, Supply Chain, Reliability, and Customer Quality to ensure supplier readiness and successful product execution.
- Support business growth by proactively identifying supplier risks and implementing effective mitigation strategies.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor's degree in Optical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or a related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in Supplier Quality, Quality Engineering, or Manufacturing Quality within a high-technology manufacturing environment.
- Minimum 5 years of leadership experience managing engineering or quality organizations.
- Strong technical knowledge of optical components, photonics, fiber optics, lasers, or related optical technologies.
- Experience managing geographically distributed teams.
- Proven experience leading supplier quality initiatives and supplier development programs.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills with experience working directly with strategic suppliers and executive leadership.
Preferred
- Master's degree in Engineering or related discipline.
- Experience supporting multiple product lines within a global manufacturing organization.
- Knowledge of semiconductor, photonics, precision optics, and advanced packaging manufacturing processes.
Why Join Lumentum?
This is a highly visible leadership opportunity to shape the global quality strategy for one of Lumentum's most critical commodity areas. The role provides broad exposure across all Business Units while leading a global organization responsible for Supplier Quality Engineering, Incoming Quality Assurance, and strategic supplier engagement. The successful candidate will play a key role in developing talent, strengthening supplier partnerships, and driving quality excellence across Lumentum's worldwide supply chain.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company.
We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.
Please contact us to request accommodation.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Optical Engineering, Physics, Materials Science, or related technical discipline
- 10+ years experience in Supplier Quality, Quality Engineering, or Manufacturing Quality in high-technology manufacturing
- Minimum 5 years leadership experience managing engineering or quality organizations
- Strong technical knowledge of optical components, photonics, fiber optics, or lasers
- Experience managing geographically distributed teams
- Proven experience leading supplier quality initiatives and supplier development programs
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including working with strategic suppliers and executive leadership
- Master's degree in Engineering or related discipline
- Experience supporting multiple product lines within a global manufacturing organization
- Knowledge of semiconductor, photonics, precision optics, and advanced packaging manufacturing processes
Lumentum Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Lumentum and has not been reviewed or approved by Lumentum.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is positioned as a meaningful part of total compensation, with RSUs frequently framed as a valued component of offers. An employee stock purchase plan with a discount and look-back further reinforces equity access as part of rewards.
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Retirement Support — Retirement benefits are presented as a clear strength, with a 401(k) match and immediate vesting highlighted as supportive features. Auto-enrollment and match eligibility details indicate a structured retirement program for U.S. employees.
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Healthcare Strength — Multiple medical plan options are described, including PPO and HDHP/HSA choices and Kaiser in some locations, suggesting breadth and choice in coverage. Health and well-being programming is also characterized as part of a comprehensive benefits approach.
Lumentum Insights
What We Do
Lumentum (NASDAQ: LITE) is a market-leading designer and manufacturer of innovative optical and photonic products enabling optical networking and laser applications worldwide. Lumentum optical components and subsystems are part of virtually every type of telecom, enterprise, and data center network. Lumentum lasers enable advanced manufacturing techniques and diverse applications including next-generation 3D sensing capabilities. Lumentum is headquartered in San Jose, California with R&D, manufacturing, and sales offices worldwide. For more information, visit www.lumentum.com.







