Director of Product Quality and Supplier Compliance in Nashville, Tennessee at 4Patriots LLC

4Patriots, LLC, is a fast-growing, nationally recognized direct-to-consumer brand focused on offering high-quality products across multiple categories including camping & outdoor, emergency preparedness and health & wellness. The company is powered by an adaptable, results-focused, data-driven team in a culture that empowers great people to do their best work. We are searching for a driven, detail-oriented Director of Product Quality & Supplier Compliance to join our team.

If you thrive in a fast-paced environment with high standards that holds you accountable and rewards accomplishments, look no further. Your family is important, so you have the flexibility to balance both home and work according to your needs. Your natural curiosity will be rewarded through continued professional development opportunities. Living our core values is non-negotiable; you treat others with respect and dignity and expect it in return. Fostering an environment of transparency and authenticity, where one can bring one’s whole self to work, and where differences are celebrated comes naturally to you. Finally, working in an environment where you are appreciated and valued is an important factor in your work life.

The Director of Product Quality & Supplier Compliance’s Mission is to build and lead an independent quality function that holds 4Patriots’ third-party suppliers accountable, verifies every product claim and specification before launch, and brings failure rates across the catalog to a defensible, tracked and improving baseline.

4Patriots Core Values:

• Get the important stuff done - We seek results focused people who strive to have deep understanding of their role and how their work connects to their team and the company at large; and who understand how to organize their priorities to drive business value in the right ways.
• Actively seek to learn, improve, and grow - We seek intellectual curiosity and a questioning mindset.
• Ask questions and use data to make decisions - We seek people who can take in evidence, organize information from multiple sources, derive meaning from it, and make critical decisions quickly.
• “We” not “I” - We value knowing how to cooperate with peers and leaders to help the team achieve its goals.
• See the glass half full - We seek people who take ownership of their role, who are solution driven, learn from results and demonstrate enthusiasm, excitement and passion for their work.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Redesign the 4Patriots quality function to meet its current and future state: determine the processes, standards, staffing and testing infrastructure the business actually needs, and in what order, based on where risk truly lives
• Lead the 4Patriots Quality Council, the cross-functional forum spanning Marketing Creative, Supply Chain Operations, Product Development, Quality, Legal, Procurement and Customer Service, presenting top issues, trends and data for open, company-wide accountability
• Own supplier quality assurance (SQA) for our third-party manufacturers, including overseas and sub-tier (cell and component) suppliers: build supplier qualification and audit programs, scorecards, sampling (AQL) and 100% test strategies where risk warrants, such as burn-in for power products, and a corrective action (CAPA) process suppliers are genuinely held to
• Own and evolve the testing and validation capability, determining what is verified in-house versus through outside labs and certification bodies (UL, ETL, FCC, CPSC, and NSF for water testing and certification), so that every product claim and specification is verified before it ships
• Build a quality gate into new product development with the authority to hold a launch when there is a known, unresolved defect, particularly for power products
• Lead compliance and claims substantiation: review the claims Marketing and Product Development propose for each SKU, risk-rate them, and route high-risk items to Legal for final sign-off
• Partner with Product Development as an equal rather than a downstream checkpoint, pushing back constructively when quality issues are being absorbed instead of resolved at the source
• Lead, manage and develop a high-performing team of Quality employees, beginning with the current Quality Analyst, adding structure and specialization as the business and product risk require
• Manage the accurate, complete and timely capture of relevant quality data across inbound receiving, returns and testing
• Oversee the measurement and reporting of key quality performance metrics (e.g., defect rates, customer return rate, supplier performance, cost of poor quality) and identify trends in terms leadership can act on
• Lead investigation, root cause analysis and escalation of quality issues to ensure timely and effective issue resolution
• Travel periodically to Atlanta, Salt Lake City and China to work directly with suppliers, warehouse partners and internal teams

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in quality assurance or quality engineering, including direct people-leadership experience
• Direct, hands-on experience managing quality for third-party or contract manufacturers, ideally with overseas (Asia-based) suppliers
• A track record of building or substantially rebuilding a quality function, not solely running one that already exists
• Background in hard goods or consumer products, ideally direct-to-consumer, e-commerce or retail (not exclusively industrial, B2B or software QA)
• Working comfort with power products, electronics or similarly technical and regulated categories (batteries, chargers, small appliances, tools), or a strong track record of getting up to speed quickly in a new technical category
• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in engineering, science, technology, business or a related discipline; equivalent practical experience is welcome in place of a degree
• Experience using and analyzing data to assess progress against performance metrics and drive decision making
• A genuine collaborator: someone who holds a firm line on standards while still being someone other departments want in the room
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally, including to Asia, on a periodic basis

Preferred Qualifications:

• Six Sigma or Lean certification
• ASQ certification (CQE, CQM or similar)
• Experience with UL, ETL, FCC or CPSC compliance for consumer electronics
• Familiarity with lithium-ion battery safety, testing and shipping regulations
• Experience across Amazon and big-box retail in addition to direct-to-consumer
• Experience with product claims substantiation, or reviewing marketing and technical claims for regulatory risk

Performance Indicators:

• Supplier qualification, scorecard and audit program stood up
• Incoming and pre-shipment inspection standards (AQL) in place
• CAPA processes live with our highest-risk suppliers
• Quality gate operating inside new product development, with launch-hold authority exercised where needed
• Claims substantiation matured into standard practice for every SKU in development
• Quality dashboard live: defect rates, return root causes, supplier performance and cost of poor quality
• Power and electronics failure rates on a tracked, improving baseline
• Reduction in customer return rate and in adverse event rates over time
• Full enterprise adoption of 4Patriots quality standards, processes and philosophy
• Quick speed of issue resolution

Technical & Professional Competencies:

• Ability to vision, develop and execute on a strategic plan for the Quality function in a collaborative manner
• Supplier quality assurance: supplier qualification, auditing, scorecarding, AQL sampling and inspection, and corrective action (CAPA)
• Structured root-cause methodologies (8D), PPAP, and engineering change control
• Understanding of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) and of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations, and their impact on distributors
• Working knowledge of other relevant regulations associated with food products and power consumer goods, including lithium-ion battery testing and shipping requirements
• Working knowledge of third-party testing and certification regimes (UL, ETL, FCC, CPSC, NSF)
• Product claims substantiation and the ability to risk-rate technical and marketing claims
• Business Process Design (BPD) & process implementation
• Understanding of the impact and cost of poor quality
• Understanding of organizational change management principles
• Strong problem-solving acumen

4Patriots offers:

• Hybrid workplace with 3 in office days per week
• Great pay and bonus program
• A variety of health and life insurance options
• 401K with company match
• Generous PTO policy
• Paid maternity / parental leave
• Employee referral bonus program
• Volunteer time off
• Professional development funds…and many more!

Skills and Abilities:

Must be able to work independently as well as collaborate within a dynamic multi-department environment to achieve common goals; organize and manage multiple priorities simultaneously; take ownership and be self-motivated and resourceful to find problem solutions; be data and results driven; and learn quickly in a fast paced, open plan environment. Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills, strong analytical and problem-solving skills, be detail oriented and adaptable.

Physical and Mental Demands:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential job responsibilities.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is often required to stand; walk; sit for extended periods of time; use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; talk or hear; occasionally required to climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, bend, crouch or crawl; taste or smell.
• The employee must occasionally lift, push, pull and/or move up to 20 pounds.
• Repetitive motion of hands required for extended use of computer. Required specific vision abilities include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment and Travel Requirements:

• Works in a well-lit, ventilated and climate-controlled office environment with routine office equipment; some equipment has moving mechanical parts.
• Noise level in the work environment is typical for an office environment.
• Periodic overnight travel (up to 25%) by land and/or air, domestically and internationally, including to Atlanta, GA; Salt Lake City, UT; and China.
• Our current work environment is hybrid, working from both a work and home office.