Supplier Quality Engineer

Location: Darlington Area (Almost Fully Remote - occasional onsite visits required)

Contract Length: Initial contract until 31/12/2026 (with potential for extension)

Pay Rate: £25-30.00 per hour (PAYE)

Travel: Requires potential travel to supplier sites within the UK and mainland Europe.

We are seeking a skilled and proactive Supplier Quality Engineer to join our Virtual Product Introduction (VPI) Supplier Quality team. In this role, you will use your technical expertise and quality engineering skillset to develop suppliers and ensure products meet rigorous standards. You will act as a key bridge between external suppliers and internal engineering, purchasing, and manufacturing teams to drive zero-defect components and continuous improvement.

While this role is predominantly remote, you should be located within the larger Darlington area to support rare onsite requirements and plant build quality issues when necessary.

• Supplier & Process Validation: Collaborate with external suppliers to ensure manufacturing processes conform to engineering prints, standards, and specific customer requirements.

• APQP & PPAP Management: Apply industry-standard Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) and PPAP processes. Issue APQPs to suppliers, conduct monthly formal reviews, and track project metrics.

• Issue Resolution & Root Cause Analysis: Investigate build quality issues, lead the emerging quality process, implement immediate containment/sorting actions, and drive long-term corrective actions with suppliers.

• Audits & Risk Mitigation: Conduct supplier audits to assess readiness, mitigate risk, and support supplier quality improvement plans.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Build strong relationships with purchasing, manufacturing, and engineering teams to support supplier selection and improve overall business outcomes.

• Proven experience as a Supplier Quality Engineer, ideally within a manufacturing, automotive, or heavy engineering environment.

• Strong working knowledge of APQP, PPAP, and common quality tools (e.g., Lean, Six Sigma, Root Cause Analysis).

• Demonstrated ability to lead investigations, manage corrective actions, and resolve complex quality issues.

• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, with experience managing external supplier performance.

• Flexibility to travel to supplier sites across the UK and mainland Europe as required.

• Must be based within commuting distance of the Darlington site for occasional onsite support.

• A highly flexible, mostly remote working structure.

• An opportunity to work on high-visibility global projects.

• Competitive hourly rate with the potential for long-term extension.
  
  Apply today!

Randstad CPE values diversity and promotes equality. No terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate against any of the protected characteristics that fall under the Equality Act 2010. We encourage and welcome applications from all sections of society and are more than happy to discuss reasonable adjustments and/or additional arrangements as required to support your application.

Candidates must be eligible to live and work in the UK.

For the purposes of the Conduct Regulations 2003, when advertising permanent vacancies we are acting as an Employment Agency, and when advertising temporary/contract vacancies we are acting as an Employment Business.

skills

Supplier quality development