Job Description:
Senior Quality Engineer*
Collaborate with Innovative 3Mers Around the World
Choosing where to start and grow your career has a major impact on your professional and personal life, so it’s equally important you know that the company that you choose to work at, and its leaders, will support and guide you. With a wide variety of people, global locations, technologies and products, 3M is a place where you can collaborate with other curious, creative 3Mers.
This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career.
The Impact You’ll Make in this Role
The Senior Quality Engineer will own EBO (Expanded Beam Optics) product quality governance & manufacturing quality performance, ensuring quality requirements, control plans, risk registers, defect definitions, metrics, and lessons learned remain current and aligned across manufacturing locations, and customer regions. This role will lead quality issue resolution, drive continuous improvement for the manufacturing site, and support global customer issues.
As a Senior Quality Engineer, you will have the opportunity to tap into your curiosity and collaborate with some of the most innovative people around the world. Here, you will make an impact by:
- Lead/support manufacturing quality improvement, root cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Maintain the EBO (Expanded Beam Optics) product quality baseline, including critical-to-quality characteristics, known risks, acceptance criteria, and quality requirements.
- Govern global product-level control plans, inspection expectations, and defect classification standards.
- Maintain the EBO product quality risk register across customer, manufacturing, metrology, application, and design risks.
- Lead periodic product quality reviews using data from customers, manufacturing locations, and failure analysis.
- Review product, process, tooling, test method, material, and site changes for quality impact.
- Support global quality triage when Menomonie production is involved.
- Ensure lessons learned from customer issues, internal defects, site qualification, and failure analysis are incorporated into controls and improvement plans.
- Standardize quality dashboards, defect library, and product quality reporting.
- Partner with engineering, manufacturing, customer quality, site quality, and metrology teams.
Your Skills and Expertise
To set you up for success in this role from day one, 3M requires (at a minimum) the following qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, quality, and/or manufacturing (completed and verified prior to start)
- Three (3) years of experience in product and manufacturing quality, including advanced quality planning, process controls, customer issue resolution, manufacturing defect investigation, and product design risk management in a private, public, government, or military environment.
- Three (3) years of experience leading or supporting quality improvement and risk management activities, including PFMEA, control plans, change impact assessments, root cause analysis, corrective actions, SPC, and process capability in a private, public, government, or military environment.
Additional qualifications that could help you succeed even further in this role include:
- Experience with optical products, connectors, electronics, precision assembly, or high-reliability manufacturing.
- Experience with product transfers or cross-site process alignment.
- Experience supporting global products manufactured across multiple sites.
- Experience with product lifecycle quality, design change review, process change review, or product transfer.
- Strong cross-functional leadership
- Proficient in Mandarin
Work location:
- This role follows an on-site working model, requiring the employee to work at least four days a week at the 3M Center in Maplewood, MN.
Travel: May include up to 30% domestic and/or international
Relocation: May be authorized
Must be legally authorized to work in country of employment without sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H1B status).
Responsibilities of this position may include direct and/or indirect physical or logical access to information, systems, technologies subjected to the regulations/compliance with U.S. Export Control Laws.
U.S. Export Control laws and U.S. Government Department of Defense contracts and sub-contracts impose certain restrictions on companies and their ability to share export-controlled and other technology and services with certain "non-U.S. persons" (persons who are not U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents of the U.S., refugees, "Temporary Residents" (granted Amnesty or Special Agricultural Worker provisions), or persons granted asylum.
To comply with these laws, 3M must help assess candidates' U.S. person status.
The questions asked in this application are intended to assess this and will be used for evaluation purposes only. Failure to provide the necessary information in this regard will result in our inability to consider you further for this particular position.
Supporting Your Well-being
3M offers many programs to help you live your best life – both physically and financially. To ensure competitive pay and benefits, 3M regularly benchmarks with other companies that are comparable in size and scope.
Chat with Max
For assistance with searching through our current job openings or for more information about all things 3M, visit Max, our virtual recruiting assistant on 3M.com/careers.
Applicable to US Applicants Only:The expected compensation range for this position is $124,127 - $151,710, which includes base pay plus variable incentive pay, if eligible. This range represents a good faith estimate for this position. The specific compensation offered to a candidate may vary based on factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s relevant knowledge, training, skills, work location, and/or experience. In addition, this position may be eligible for a range of benefits (e.g., Medical, Dental & Vision, Health Savings Accounts, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts, Disability Benefits, Life Insurance, Voluntary Benefits, Paid Absences and Retirement Benefits, etc.). Additional information is available at: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/.Good Faith Posting Date Range 09/07/2026 To 10/07/2026 Or until filledAll US-based 3M full time employees will need to sign an employee agreement as a condition of employment with 3M. This agreement lays out key terms on using 3M Confidential Information and Trade Secrets. It also has provisions discussing conflicts of interest and how inventions are assigned. Employees that are Job Grade 7 or equivalent and above may also have obligations to not compete against 3M or solicit its employees or customers, both during their employment, and for a period after they leave 3M.Learn more about 3M’s creative solutions to the world’s problems at www.3M.com or on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @3M.Responsibilities of this position include that corporate policies, procedures and security standards are complied with while performing assigned duties.Safety is a core value at 3M. All employees are expected to contribute to a strong Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) culture by following safety policies, identifying hazards, and engaging in continuous improvement.Pay & Benefits Overview: https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/careers-us/working-at-3m/benefits/3M does not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.Please note: your application may not be considered if you do not provide your education and work history, either by: 1) uploading a resume, or 2) entering the information into the application fields directly.
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Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in engineering, quality, and/or manufacturing
- Three years of experience in product and manufacturing quality, including advanced quality planning, process controls, customer issue resolution, manufacturing defect investigation, and product design risk management
- Three years of experience leading or supporting quality improvement and risk management activities, including PFMEA, control plans, change impact assessments, root cause analysis, corrective actions, SPC, and process capability
- Experience with optical products, connectors, electronics, precision assembly, or high-reliability manufacturing
- Experience with product transfers or cross-site process alignment
- Experience supporting global products manufactured across multiple sites
- Experience with product lifecycle quality, design change review, process change review, or product transfer
- Strong cross-functional leadership
- Proficiency in Mandarin
- Legally authorized to work in the country of employment without employment visa sponsorship
What We Do
3M operates as a diversified technology company, manufacturing more than 55,000 products, including adhesives, laminates, and many more. 3M touches virtually every part of your life. Our people and technology make the impossible, possible. Every day we apply our science to enhance people’s lives. This is 3M Science. Applied to Life.™
