Principal Advanced Quality Engineer - Textiles

Job title: Principal Advanced Quality Engineer - Textiles

About the Role The Principal AQE – Textiles uses advanced engineering expertise in textiles to contribute to the development and qualification of innovative products and to mentor other engineers across functions. As a critical member of the New Product Development (NPD) team, this role requires strong cross-functional communication, analytical skills, and the ability to help launch textile material solutions that meet user needs.

What You'll Do

• Act as a Textiles Subject Matter Expert (SME) helping NPD teams determine optimal materials and designs to improve product performance and meet user expectations; interface with FEI to adapt textile materials to production; participate in user need research to identify critical-to-quality requirements; collaborate to define product specifications across performance, quality, reliability, and testing; lead risk assessments for NPD projects during development.
• Lead supplier processes and QMS audits focused on textile-specific risks; establish process capability expectations for textile production at finished goods factories and material facilities; ensure timely failure reporting and drive root cause analysis with corrective/preventive actions (FRACA).
• Develop and implement new test methods, lead testing capability across multiple labs, interpret global textile performance standards, relate internal lab results to regulatory labs; develop test plans, perform DOE, and quantify product performance; analyze data with Weibull and reliability techniques; present concise conclusions.
• Mentor junior AQEs on CtQ requirements, testing methodologies, and design of experiments; act as a topic expert within AQE teams and provide training and guidance to related roles as needed.

What We're Looking For

• 70% of work time on product development with 30% on systemic and AQE organizational improvement/development; Bachelor's degree in Engineering or equivalent; 10+ years of experience in textiles or soft goods quality.
• Experience with bringing new products to market, including design, manufacturing, quality, testing, or reliability activities; training in quality engineering fundamentals; experience leading a primary function within a project team.
• Proficiency in Design of Experiments, life data analysis, and other statistical tools; demonstrated mentoring and strong written/verbal communication and problem-solving skills; ability to travel 20% domestically and internationally.

Nice to Have

• ASQ Reliability Engineering Certification or the ability to achieve certification; Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) or Six Sigma experience.

Compensation & Benefits

• Milwaukee Tool is an equal opportunity employer; details on salary and benefits are provided by the company during the application process.