Senior Supplier Quality Engineer in Bedford, Bedfordshire

Senior Supplier Quality Engineer

£50,000-£55,000 Permanent

Working Pattern: 37.5 hours per week | 4 day working week Monday to Thursday

Bedford - Hybrid

About the role

The Senior Supplier Quality Engineer is responsible for planning, coordinating, and reporting on all supplier quality activities to ensure materials, components, and services meet contractual, regulatory, and company requirements.
The role covers raw materials, packaging materials, GMP service providers, contract manufacturers, laboratories, and sub-tier suppliers. The successful candidate will ensure supplier performance, compliance, and continuous improvement across the supply chain.

Key Responsibilities

Supplier Quality Management

• Lead and manage supplier quality activities to ensure compliance with purchase orders, contracts, and applicable standards.
• Maintain oversight of supplier approvals and ensure certifications remain current.
• Review, challenge, and approve new supplier capability requests and accreditations.

Nonconformance & Corrective Action

• Control and manage supplier nonconforming materials.
• Conduct root cause analysis and ensure effective corrective and preventive actions are implemented.
• Monitor and verify the effectiveness of corrective measures against defined reliability and compliance standards.

Quality Systems & Compliance

• Develop, apply, and maintain quality evaluation and control systems for materials and product processing.
• Prepare, maintain, and review procurement quality assurance procedures.
• Ensure documentation complies with customer and/or government requirements.

Auditing & Supplier Oversight

• Perform source inspections and validation activities.
• Conduct audits of third-party manufacturers, special processes, and sub-tier suppliers.
• Participate in vendor selection and due diligence processes.
• Maintain effective feedback loops with suppliers and internal stakeholders.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with engineering, manufacturing, and quality teams to ensure requirements are clearly defined and communicated to suppliers.
• Translate technical and quality requirements into measurable supplier standards.

Required skills, qualifications and experience

Previous experience in a supplier quality engineering role or similar industry environment preferred.

• Lead Auditor ISO9001:2015
• Experience with SAP or similar ERP systems.
• Working knowledge of AS9100 and quality management systems.
• Background in Supplier Quality Engineering, Quality Assurance or Manufacturing Quality.
• Suitable for a Quality Engineer or Quality Inspector seeking progression into supplier quality engineering.
• Experience working in a regulated or high-pressure environment.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word).
• SAP experience managing quality notifications desirable but not essential.
• Lean and/or Six Sigma certification advantageous.