What Is a Quality Engineer and How to Become One

What Is a Quality Engineer?

A quality engineer ensures that the products manufactured by a company are meeting company and government quality control standards. As a quality engineer, your responsibilities include assessing and developing quality assurance protocols, examining products for compliance, and training teams to follow your policies. You also record data regarding production to track quality and produce the documentation need to communicate concerns throughout the company. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) regulates the profession and offers a path to become a certified quality engineer (CQE).

How to Become a Quality Engineer?

To become a quality engineer, you need some formal education. While many employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree in quality assurance engineering or a related field, some quality engineer jobs only require an associate degree or vocational certificate. In these education programs, you study the basics of quality assurance, including documentation, regulation, and testing, but the skills that you gain through on-the-job experience are crucial to your success in this position. After several years of experience, you can complete the requirements set out by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) to become a certified quality engineer (CQE). You can maintain your qualifications by recertifying as a certified quality engineer every three years.

How to Be a Good Quality Engineer

To be a good quality engineer, you should be familiar with both your company’s policies and expectations, as well as those set out by the industry. While it is necessary to have production knowledge and analysis skills, a successful engineer has leadership and interpersonal skills as well. You should work hard to motivate the different teams and departments to be on board with quality assurance protocols. Strive for accuracy and consistency within your organization. Lastly, be a team player—help your fellow associates and managers whenever possible and work to be a positive influence on the team.

Is Quality Engineering a Good Career?

The engineering field is growing steadily, and it is projected to continue to do so across the board in the coming years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the industrial engineering field is expected to grow by 10% between 2016 and 2026. This projection is a slightly higher rate of growth than the average for all careers over this same decade, meaning quality engineer is a career with great long-term potential. However, your potential in the field is dependent on maintaining your certified quality engineer (CQE) credentials through the American Society for Quality (ASQ).

Quality Engineer Job Description Sample

With this Quality Engineer job description sample, you can get a good idea of what employers are looking for when hiring for this position. Remember, every employer is different and each will have unique qualifications when they hire for a Quality Engineer role.

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Quality Engineer to join our QA team. In this position, you will review current manufacturing procedures and examine products to ensure they meet project specifications. After you document your observations, you will collaborate with team members to improve existing processes within our system and build new quality controls, tests, and verifications. Our ideal candidate can work independently and with a team and knows how to create or improve systems that meet our quality assurance goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Review designs, changes, and plans of specifications and processes
• Oversee tests and monitor activities such as software configuration verification
• Track and review corrective and preventive actions
• Collaborate with team to identify and implement process improvements
• Oversee code verifications and participate in peer reviews
• Perform verifications and tests according to process
• Ensure project and processes meet all requirements and reliability standards
• Modify and maintain software quality operating systems

Requirements and Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, industrial engineering, or a related field; master’s degree preferred
• Certification as CQE (Certified Quality Engineer) from the American Society for Quality preferred
• 5+ years of experience in a quality engineer, quality assurance, or related role
• Excellent communication skills
• Attention to detail