BE GREAT TOGETHER WITH US
Innovation, Efficiency and Ambition: this is what VAT has stood for over 50 years.
With this passion, VAT has grown to become the leading international developer, manufacturer and supplier of high-performance high-end vacuum valves and vacuum sealing technology, employing over 2000 people worldwide. The headquarters are located in Haag (Switzerland), the production centers in Switzerland, Malaysia, Romania and Taiwan.
The Product Engineer (Customer Quality) serves as the technical and quality interface between customers and internal teams, ensuring robust product performance, fast and structured issue resolution, and full compliance with customer and regulatory requirements. This role combines strong engineering fundamentals with customer quality ownership to drive product reliability, continuous improvement, and customer confidence.
The key responsibilities include but not limited to:
Customer Quality & Technical Ownership
- Act as the primary technical experts working closely with GQM, KQM, FSE, and internal stakeholders.
- Lead customer complaint investigations, including root cause analysis using structured methodologies (e.g. 5 Whys, Fishbone, 8D), and ensure effective corrective and preventive actions (CAPA).
- Ensure high-quality failure analysis (FA) reports supported by strong technical justification; challenge and close invalid or non-reproducible cases with data-driven rationale.
- Drive fast response, structured escalation, and effective containment actions to improve response time and customer confidence.
- Clearly translate customer complaints into technical, reliability, and risk-based problem statements.
- Prepare, review, and submit customer quality documentation, including FAI, First Lot Approval, control plans, and inspection reports.
- Ensure out-of-control situations are managed effectively through well-defined OCAPs, including timely containment and recovery actions.
- Maintain high standards for 8D reports and monitor closure turnaround time to meet customer expectations.
- Support regular customer quality reviews and maintain strong working relationships with key customer contacts.
- Drive internal quality improvement initiatives based on customer feedback, field failure data, and risk analysis.
Engineering & Product Quality Assurance
- Maintain strong product knowledge covering design intent, materials, machining, assembly, and related manufacturing processes.
- Act as technical authority during escalations, challenging design or process decisions based on field data, reliability risk, and customer impact.
- Support failure analysis and laboratory activities; convert findings into concrete design, process, or control improvements.
- Serve as the link between field failures and design robustness, ensuring lessons learned are embedded into future products and updates.
New Product Introduction & Change Management
- Participate in NPI and engineering change control processes to ensure customer quality, CTQ, and Copy Exact compliance.
- Ensure customized or newly developed products fully meet customer specifications, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.
- Provide engineering inputs for design reviews, DFMEA/DFMA, and quality guidelines from a customer and field reliability perspective.
Minimum Qualification
- Bachelor's degree in mechanical, Mechatronics, Manufacturing Engineering, or related field.
- 510+ years experience in customer quality, product engineering, or industrialization within high-mix, precision manufacturing (semiconductor equipment preferred).
- Strong ability to read and interpret drawings, GD&T, simulations, specifications, and tolerance concepts.
- Hands-on experience with 8D, 5 Whys, Ishikawa, DFMEA/PFMEA, DFMA, SPC, MSA, DOE.
- Strong analytical, system-level, and reliability-focused thinking.
- Ability to challenge technical decisions fact-based and constructively.
- Strong communication skills in English, including customer-facing and executive-level discussions.
- Flexible to customer sites for quality reviews, escalations, and technical discussions.
Preferred Qualification
- Strong knowledge of vacuum industry technology and semiconductor equipment is a major asset.
- Experience with Copy Exact, FAI, control plans, inspection reports, ECN/ECR.
- Solid understanding of machining, assembly processes, and manufacturability risks.
- Familiarity with PLM/ECM systems (Agile, Teamcenter, Windchill), ERP (SAP), and CAD tools for review (e.g. SolidWorks, Siemen NX, Creo and etc).
- Statistical and analysis tools such as Minitab or JMP.
- Six Sigma Green/Black Belt, ASQ CQE/CMQOE, or ISO/IATF auditor certifications are advantageous.
- High resilience, structured thinking, and calm execution under customer escalation scenarios.
- Proficiency in Chinese/Mandarin language is an added advantage.
