A Quality Engineer Who Prevents Problems Before They Reach Customers
TL;DR (because attention spans are real):
We are looking for a Quality Engineer to make sure our consumer hardware is reliable, durable and ready for customers before it reaches mass production. This role is primarily focused on new product development, product quality and validation. Reporting to our Product Manager, you will work closely with our Product, Design and manufacturing partners throughout development to identify risks early, define validation requirements, review prototypes, investigate failures and help us make better quality decisions through EVT, DVT, PVT and production ramp. You will also support root-cause analysis when important quality issues appear after launch, so what we learn gets built into future products.
Time zone: Full-timewithin Asia
Hybrid Role: Regular travel to manufacturing partners in China, Vietnam and Cambodia during important development and production phases
Language: Professional working proficiency in both English and Mandarin Chinese is required
Trial Period: Final candidates will complete a paid trial assignment.
WHO WE ACTUALLY NEED (and who we don't)
This is not for someone who:
- Wants a side hustle or is juggling freelance work
- Has mainly worked in inspection or routine production quality control
- Has primarily managed suppliers rather than product development and validation
- Has only worked with documentation without hands-on product or manufacturing exposure
- Needs step-by-step instructions to investigate technical problems
- Focuses on reporting failures instead of understanding why they happened
This is for someone who:
- Has 5+ years of experience in Quality Engineering, Design Quality, NPI Quality, Reliability Engineering, Product Engineering or a closely related hardware role
- Has worked on consumer electronics or similar high-volume physical products from development through mass production
- Understands the EVT, DVT and PVT development process
- Has hands-on experience with product validation and reliability testing
- Can identify product risks early and help teams prevent them before production
- Has practical experience with DFMEA/FMEA, root-cause analysis, statistical quality methods and structured problem solving
- Can develop or critically review validation plans, test methods and acceptance criteria
- Can investigate failures across mechanical and electronic assemblies
- Understands common consumer-electronics manufacturing processes such as PCBA, assembly, plastics/injection molding and related component manufacturing
- Has worked directly with factories, contract manufacturers or ODM/OEM partners in Asia
- Can clearly explain technical risks and recommendations to both engineers and non-engineers
- Is comfortable challenging assumptions when the data says a product is not ready
- Is highly detail-oriented and works independently
Experience with Bluetooth/audio products, batteries and charging systems, wearable products, textiles/soft goods or sleep-related products is a major advantage.
WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING
Product quality during development
- Work with Product and Design to identify quality and reliability risks early in development.
- Participate in design reviews and DFMEA activities to identify potential failure modes before they reach production.
- Translate product requirements into measurable quality and validation criteria.
- Review prototypes and engineering builds for potential reliability, durability and manufacturing risks.
- Provide quality input throughout Prototype, EVT, DVT and PVT builds.
- Help determine whether products are ready to move to the next development stage based on test results, unresolved risks and available data.
Validation and reliability
- Develop, coordinate and improve product validation plans and test methods.
- Define appropriate reliability testing for areas such as durability, stress, charging, battery performance, connectivity, washability and mechanical performance where relevant to the product.
- Work with internal teams, factories and third-party laboratories to execute validation testing.
- Analyze failed tests and drive structured root-cause investigations.
- Use data and statistical methods to understand failure patterns and validate improvements.
- Recommend additional testing or design changes where existing evidence is not sufficient.
Manufacturing readiness
- Work with factories and manufacturing partners to make sure product requirements can be translated into clear, repeatable production and inspection standards.
- Review QC standards, inspection methods, PFMEAs, control plans or other production-quality documents where relevant to the product.
- Identify gaps between design intent and manufacturing capability before mass production.
- Support first production builds and production ramp when quality engineering input is required.
- Partner with the team responsible for supplier and production quality when manufacturing-related issues need corrective action.
Post-launch learning
- Support investigation of significant customer or field quality issues.
- Help determine whether failures originate from product design, component performance, manufacturing processes or another cause.
- Translate post-launch learnings into improved requirements, tests and quality controls for future products.
WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
- Products enter mass production with fewer unresolved quality risks.
- Important failure modes are discovered during development instead of by customers.
- Validation plans are clear, measurable and based on real product risks.
- Recurring quality issues are solved at the root cause rather than patched repeatedly.
- Product, Design and manufacturing teams have clear quality requirements and evidence for making development decisions.
- Customer feedback and post-launch failures continuously improve how future products are designed and validated.
