Vacancy: Quality Assurance Engineer – R&D Support

At Dynamic Ear Company (DEC), we envision a world without noise induced hearing loss. To achieve this, we develop innovative hearing protection solutions that allow people to control what they hear. To strengthen our team, we are looking for a “Quality Assurance Engineer – R&D Support” to help us achieving this goal.

Company:

DEC is part of the Sonova A.G. group. Sonova, headquartered in Stäfa, Switzerland, is the leading provider of innovative hearing care solutions. DEC is a young and fast-growing organization focusing on innovation and technology, in-house development, and production with a reputation for high quality. Working at DEC requires flexibility and eagerness to learn and contribute to the team. We embrace open communication and integrity, leading to job satisfaction and team success.

DEC is committed to bring innovative in-ear products to the market and has therefore a strong focus on technology development, product design and manufacturing. We jointly decide on new projects. Formed in 2007 and located in Delft (the Netherlands), Dynamic Ear Company (DEC) develops and manufactures professional hearing protection, acoustic filters, service tools and related products for musicians, industry, defence, and all other areas where sound levels may cause hearing damage.

Job Description:

Reporting to the R&D Lead Hearing Protection you will be in a full-time position within the R&D department. The Quality Assurance Engineer (QAE) is the bridge between R&D and Quality.

As such, you will define quality requirements for newly developed products and monitor quality challenges for existing products. You are responsible for testing and maintaining the performance of our products, specifically in the pre-launch and pre-update phases of development. You need to be creative in designing various test cases based on individualized products. Finally, we expect you to be in constant search for inputs or patterns that could potentially cause a product or testing machine to malfunction.

Responsibilities include:

Drive innovation, together with Quality, R&D and Manufacturing Engineering team members:

• Critical thinking: Analyse production data, review polices, suggests and/or takes initiatives concerning improvement programs for Quality and Production.
• Knowledge sharing: Knowledge ambassador for R&D, defining production tooling and setting and describing the quality standard for input and output.
• Collaborating with development teams: Advice, develop and implement production tooling, preparation, and processes + optimization and upscaling of the production process (together with Manufacturing Engineering and R&D).
• Identifying defects: Define incoming and outgoing check requirements and defects.
• Product release and documentation support: Release of new products and manufacturing equipment including Quality documentation, work instructions and SOP’s. Follow good manufacturing and documentation practices.
• Developing and executing test plans: Define testing methods and advice on norms & standards, along with verification and validation of new and existing products.
• Risk identification and mitigation: Risk Management, identify potential risks in the quality management system and work on strategies to mitigate these risks. Conduct risk assessments to anticipate and address quality-related challenges.
• Maintenance plan: Keeping maintenance schedules updated. CAPA owner for major non-conformances. Working with the change control process for updates of running production processes.
• Quality: Provide support to the company on quality practices and processes. Provide support to quality-maintained machine, devices, and testing equipment’s. Use technical knowledge to support and maintain measurement equipment.
• Production: Act as the first line of action in support to production processes and machinery.
• Take initiative and responsibility for training new processes and procedure.

Skills and Experience required:

• You have a bachelor’s degree, HBO/WO in a Technical, Computer science and/or Engineering discipline with a strong emphasis on Quality Engineering.
• You have at least 3 to 5 years of relevant work experience in an industrial environment (preferably fast-paced production and assembly of miniature components).
• Ability to multi-tasking, prioritize and manage multiple tasks and projects at same time.
• For you, quality is not expensive, it is priceless.
• Strong communication and organizational skills, ability to work effectively within multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong customer focus and possess excellent investigation and analytical skills.
• Hands-on experience in testing, assembling, and troubleshooting is very essential.
• Excellent technical and hands-on skills.
• Analytical thinker with interpersonal skills.
• Experience working with Quality Management Systems (QMS).
• Ability to apply scientific reasoning towards quality & industrialization.
• Verbal and written fluency in English as well as Dutch.
• Available to travel occasionally throughout Europe.
• Is proactive and positive about documentation.

Bonus points if you have:

• Experience and/or affinity towards Hearing Protection.
• Understanding of quality standards such as ISO 13485, ISO9001, etc.
• Experience with working with Quality Assurance (QA) and agile methodologies. 
• Knowledge of Design of Experiments (DoE).
• Experience working in a Quality regulated industry.

“You are acting as a focal point between Quality and R&D!”

Personality:

• Ability to carry out personal tasks effectively and to manage multiple tasks professionally.
• Hardworking, organized, self-motivated and passionate about getting things done.
• Capable of working as a standout colleague and have an independent work approach with minimal direction or supervision.
• Motivated to collaborate, to share information and to strive for maximum team result.
• Adaptability and resilience in a dynamic and rapidly evolving work environment.

About the team:

• The R&D and Manufacturing Engineering team has team members who have their own area of expertise, work together daily, and enjoy social events. These expertise covers areas in Mechanical, Industrial Design, Mechatronics, Biomedical and Process Engineering fields. These various domains in the team support new innovations, product launches, improve production processes and support other departments (for e.g., Quality, Production etc.).
• All development and production of own brand, white label, OEM products and technology is carried out in-house and sold worldwide.
• DEC is committed to bring innovative in-ear products to the market and has therefore a strong R&D department focussing on technology development, product design and manufacturing.            

What's in it for you:

We are one of the pioneers in the Hearing Protection sector. As a part of R&D and Manufacturing Engineering team, you will have chance to influence the design, architecture, and refinement of the manufacturing and design of hearing protection products. You will also have a key role in driving the development of the tools to expose the process information application to real manufacturing world, taking advantage of the latest technologies available within Sonova AG and beyond. On top of that you will have:

• Creative autonomy – join a small team with an important level of exposure.
• A creative failure fast / learn fast environment to explore innovative solutions and ways of working.
• Vibrant and diverse co-workers with various backgrounds and experiences.
• Hybrid policy (1day WFH/week under a full-time 40-hour contract).
• A competitive salary with a pension scheme.
• 30 days of annual leave with pleasant working environment.
• Travel compensation (DEC is located at DelfTechpark which is in the close vicinity of Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) and is easily reachable by car and public transport). 
• Regular informal team socials.

Interested in joining us?

Your application documents must include your recent Résumé/CV and a motivation letter to tell us what excites you about this role including a brief description of a recent product and/or technology you have worked on. Please send any other supporting certificates and/or documents along with the application documents to hr@dynamic-ear.com by May 15th, 2024. For further information please contact Nishant Lawand, R&D Lead Hearing Protection, +31 15 2054086.

"A valid Dutch work and residence permit is required for this position. Please do not apply without holding these valid documents, as your application will not be considered. For this role, applicants need to be living within a commuting distance from Delft."