Location Salem, Massachusetts Position Type Full-time, on-site Department Operations / Quality Works Closely With Manufacturing, Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Customer Support, and Repair/Refurbishment About

ANCORE ANCORE

is a growing fitness-equipment manufacturer based in Salem, Massachusetts. We design and assemble compact mechanical products using precision components sourced from domestic and international suppliers. We are entering a significant period of growth and are investing in the people, processes, and systems needed to expand manufacturing capacity while improving supplier performance, strengthening field-quality feedback, and building scalable quality systems. Position Summary ANCORE is seeking a hands-on Manufacturing & Supplier Quality Engineer to take ownership of supplier and manufacturing quality issues and help build the quality systems needed to support significant company growth. This is not a traditional role inside an established quality department. The successful candidate must understand what a strong quality organization should look like while also being comfortable operating without all of that structure initially. When a quality issue arises, this person will be responsible for driving it toward resolution—bringing in Manufacturing, Product Engineering, Supply Chain, suppliers, or other resources when needed while maintaining ownership of the investigation, corrective action, and follow-through. Because many ANCORE suppliers are international, this role requires the ability to diagnose and resolve supplier problems remotely using strong technical evidence, clear communication, disciplined follow-through, and verification rather than relying on direct access to the supplier's manufacturing process. Key Responsibilities

• Own investigations involving supplied components, assembly quality, finished products, and field failures; work directly with products and production personnel to determine likely root causes.
• Establish containment plans for affected inventory, work in process, and finished goods.
• Create supplier nonconformance and corrective-action reports and manage corrective actions through root-cause review, implementation, and verified closure.
• Work with domestic and international suppliers to improve quality performance and prevent recurring defects.
• Develop risk-based incoming, in-process, and final inspection strategies, including inspection methods, sample sizes, acceptance criteria, and test procedures.
• Work with Product Engineering to identify critical-to-quality characteristics and translate subjective characteristics such as noise, drag, roughness, feel, vibration, or appearance into repeatable inspection criteria.
• Evaluate and qualify prospective suppliers through technical reviews, sample approvals, first-article inspections, and supplier audits.
• Develop structured processes for tracking warranty, return, repair, refurbishment, and field-quality issues; identify recurring failure modes and correlate them with supplier and production data.
• Help convert individual product knowledge into documented troubleshooting, diagnostic, and repair guidance.
• Build practical systems for nonconforming material, corrective actions, inspection, calibration, document control, supplier qualification, field-quality tracking, and quality metrics.
• Determine which controls provide the most value at ANCORE's current stage rather than automatically recreating the structure of a much larger company.
• Train technicians and production personnel on inspection methods and defect recognition, and communicate important trends, risks, and open issues to leadership. Required Qualifications
• 4+ years of experience in manufacturing quality, supplier quality, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related technical role.
• Experience independently investigating mechanical-component, supplier, or manufacturing quality issues.
• Strong ability to read engineering drawings, tolerances, GD&T, and technical specifications.
• Hands-on experience with dimensional, visual, functional, or performance inspection.
• Experience documenting nonconformances, performing root-cause analysis, and managing corrective actions.
• Strong mechanical aptitude and willingness to personally inspect parts, test products, and investigate problems on the production floor.
• Strong technical writing, data-analysis, organizational, and supplier-communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to follow complex issues across organizational boundaries through resolution.
• Comfort operating in an environment where processes and responsibilities are still evolving, with the judgment to create useful structure without unnecessary bureaucracy. Preferred Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, manufacturing, industrial, quality engineering, engineering technology, or a related field; equivalent technical experience will also be considered.
• Experience with mechanically assembled products, CNC machining, injection molding, bearings, springs, cables, or fabricated components.
• Experience working with international suppliers, particularly in China.
• Strong preference for experience with mechanically assembled products and component-level supplier quality, where dimensional, material, fit, functional, and process variation can affect a larger mechanical system.
• Experience with supplier audits, first-article inspection, SCAR, 8D, CAPA, control plans, CTQs, or sampling plans.
• Familiarity with process capability, SPC, measurement-system analysis, or

ISO 9001.

• Experience with warranty, field-failure, returned-product, or repair analysis.

What Success Looks Like The successful candidate will increasingly become the functional owner of quality at ANCORE. They will create visibility around open issues, ensure problems do not disappear between departments, improve supplier corrective-action effectiveness, strengthen inspection and preventive controls, and reduce repeated supplier and manufacturing defects. Over time, this person should help ANCORE move from reacting to quality issues toward systematically preventing them—without creating systems that are disproportionately burdensome for the size of the organization. This position does not initially require direct reports but has significant potential to grow as ANCORE's quality organization develops. Physical and Work Requirements

• Full-time, on-site work in Salem, Massachusetts.
• Regular manufacturing-floor, inspection, assembly, and testing work.
• Ability to perform hands-on inspection and testing and lift products or components up to 35 pounds.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally for supplier visits and audits as needed. Compensation and Benefits

Compensation:

$95,000-$120,000 annually

Health Insurance:

HSA-eligible health plan with 50/50 premium sharing

Retirement:

Fidelity Safe Harbor 401(k) with a 4% company contribution at a 5% employee contribution

Dental & Vision:

Employee-paid coverage available

Time Off:

Paid holidays, PTO, and additional benefits in accordance with company policy ANCORE is an equal opportunity employer.

Pay:

$95,000.00 - $120,000.00 per year

Benefits:

401(k) 401(k) matching Dental insurance Health insurance Paid time off Vision insurance

Work Location:

In person