Senior Quality Engineer

A Career at HARMAN
As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.

About the Role

Development Quality brings the voice of the customer to the project throughout the lifecycle with a special focus on the development process, to meet the expected deliveries, field, service, and initial quality targets.

• Overall responsible person for the management of Quality Assurance as a process owner in a project, reporting to Quality Assurance Management (independent from the project).

• First point of contact for stakeholders (e.g. PM, SW PM, System Architects, Functional/Product Owner, Controlling, Sales, Customer) regarding QA Management.

• Representation of QA Management in-process reviews (e.g. Maturity Gate Task List - MGTL reviews, Process Compliance Checks - PCC, ASPICE, IATF16949, peer/walkthrough, etc.)

What You Will Do

• Definition of QA Strategy / Plan within the project, aligned to project-specific process requirements and to customer-specific requirements.

• Define and justify tailored Quality Assurance (QA) activities based on Harman QA internal standard process and project dynamics.

• Define and schedule QA activities aligned with the QA Schedule / Project Master Schedule.

• Update QA activities within the QA Schedule with the newest timelines, ensuring customer commitments and timelines are met.

• Establish and align Process Compliance (PCC's) planning with relevant stakeholders.

• Baseline and approve the project pre-aligned Configurable Items of the Quality Assurance (QA Plan, QA schedule, QA status report, etc.).

• Manage the Peer/Walk through for the established QA strategy and for the engineering & supporting processes.

• Collaboration with other regional quality teams and global teams to ensure alignment and process adherence across the organization.

• Contribute towards organizational process definition/updates.

Organization:

• Attend and support the QA team meetings.

• Attend regular reviews of Release Readiness Review (RRR & IRRR) and provide data-driven evaluation to share decisions.

• Attend regular reviews within internal project weekly meetings T1/T2 (Team 1/Team2) and support opportunities for improvement.

• Attend Risk Reviews to ensure that the risk process is correctly followed, and all risk actions are tracked to closure.

• Attend LL (Lesson Learned) reviews with T1 and support process adherence.

• Participate in SW FMEA review meetings and check that all identified actions are closed.

• Ensure the follow-up and closure of identified QA Walkthrough findings and release the Quality Strategy/Plan.

Tooling and Training:

• Establish and release QA escalation mechanism and tracker.

• Roll out the QA Escalation Tracker.

• Train the team on the released QA Strategy / Plan.

Process Execution:

• Support the project tailoring of the Project Manual and Charter (PM&C).

• Support the release of the Tailored MGTL (Maturity Gate Task List).

• Definition and roll out of QA Plan/Strategy within the project.

• Perform QA activities as defined and planned within the QA plan to ensure that system development processes are followed.

• Ensure consistent identification and integration of referenced QA related documents (GCSR, ISOs, Norms, Standards, etc..) within QA strategy / Plan.

• Ensure Peer Review for in-scope Development process plans/strategies.

• Evaluate the MGTL Work Products (WP) towards planned release gates for various domains (Project Maturity, SW Maturity, Manufacturing & Compliance).

• Ensure SW quality data collection and reporting regularly (e.g. PSR scorecard, QA report, customer quality reporting, etc.)

• QA information exchange with the customer and other project stakeholders

• Ensure clarification of QA activities, if needed.

• Review quality and compliance of the established and released engineering / supporting Work Products (WP's) by means of PCCs, MGTL, Spot Checks/Sampling Checks (if applicable) and any other audits / assessments that are required by the customer.

• Conduct pre-assessments / coaching with the appropriate process owners to ensure the artifacts are on track, pursuing the ASPICE and IATF assessment preparation (i.e. Mock assessments) 

• Support SW PPAP (VDA2) preparation, if requested.

• Support proper execution of audits and assessments.

• Address audit Findings/Weaknesses and assure proper action plans.

Authority:

• Decide on process tailoring following the PM and PMO guidance (including the MGTL, QA plan / Strategy, PSR, and PM&C, etc.).

• Prevent a release of software that does not meet requirements through Release Readiness Review (RRR & IRRR) and risk assessment.

• Approval of tailoring of the Harman BMS standards (i.e. Engineering & Supporting processes) based on customer quality requirements.

• Raise project risks when major/critical gaps are foreseen via quality reviews/checks.

• Raise projects issues or escalations when major/critical problems are identified via quality reviews/checks.

Accountability:

• Driving the QA process implementation within the Project.

• Providing QA status report and summary information to PM and Team 1, as needed.

• Support and/or drive internal and external escalations until resolution of the identified problem.

Skills:

• Experience with Project Management and familiar with QMS.

• Experience with technical areas (HW, SW, ME, System, etc.).

• Capability to evaluate complex systems.

• Experience in project and quality assurance.

• Knowledge of risk management methodologies.

• Decision making and problem-solving skills.

• Experienced with Software Development Lifecycle and methodologies (e.g. Process models Automotive SPICE).

• Thorough Knowledge and understanding of the Quality Management System (e.g. IATF 16949, ISO 9001, CMMI, etc).

• Thorough Knowledge and understanding of the Quality Core Tools (PPAP, SPC, MSA, CP, APQP, FMEA).

• Strong Communication and moderation skills.

• Strong negotiation skills and a drive for first-time quality.

What is nice to have:

• ASPICE certification as provisionary assessor. 

• IATF16949/ISO:9001 internal party auditor.

• VDA 6.3 certified.

• VDA 2 and VDA RGA/MLA trained.

• ISTQB Foundation.

• Agile and Scrum methodologies.

• Atlassian Tool User Experience (Confluence, JIRA)

• IBM ALM CCM User Experience

What you need:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering related field (e.g. Computer Science, Electronics, Mechatronics or any related science field);

• 5+ years of experience in Automotive Quality and Program Management in similar programs.

• Understanding of Software development lifecycle and Methodologies.

• Knowledge of process models (e.g. Automotive SPICE®)

• Knowledge of Plant Quality and AIAG VDA Quality Core Tools.

• Audit experience (either as an auditor or as auditee)

• Positive attitude and results driven.

• Able to deliver under pressure.

• Excellent skills in MS Office, MS Project.

• Technical and commercial English fluently

Eligibility Requirements:

• Willingness to travel up to 10%.
• Hybrid working

Abbreviations:

• QA - Quality Assurance
• SW - Software
• BMS - Business Management System
• QMS - Quality Management System
• PM - Program Manager
• PMO - Program Management Officer
• PCC - Process Compliance Check (i.e. Internal Assessments)
• PM&C - Project Manual and Charter
• PSR - Project Status Report
• WP - Work Products / Work Packages
• FMEA - Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
• CP - Control Plan
• SPC - Statistical Process Control
• PPAP - Production Part Approval Process
• MSA - Measurement System Analysis
• APQP - Advanced Product and Quality Planning
• IATF - International Automotive Task Force
• AIAG - Automotive Industry Action Group (U.S. Automotive Organization)
• VDA - Verband der Automobilindustrie (German Association of the Automotive Industry)
• RGA/MLA - Reifegrads/Maturity Level Assurance
• RRR- Release Readiness Review
• iRRR- Incremental Release Readiness Review
• ASPICE - Automotive Software Process Improvement Capability determination
• T1 - Team 1. Team composed of Process Leads/Owners for the project.
• T1 - Team 2. Team composed of specific Process Lead and their team, assigned for the project.

What we offer 

#HarmanEmployees

• Work in international teams with the world’s largest automotive manufacturers.
• Use HARMAN Flex – choose the right working model fitting their job (WfH, Hybrid or Office)
• Access career development opportunities and get both on the job training on high-end automotive projects, as well as extensive technical trainings.
• Access HARMAN Webshop with large employee discounts for audio products (JBL, HARMAN Kardon, AKG)
• Are encouraged to a healthy work/life balance with a progressive holiday plan based on total work experience, 2 sick days, 3 days off compensation for weekend legal holidays and flextime.
• And of course, enjoy meal tickets, a premium medical subscription, fitness discounts and other corporate perks.

HARMAN is proud to be an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.