Product Quality Engineer
KION Group (Dematic) · Grand Rapids, MI
- Level
- Engineer
- Team
- Quality
- Base pay
- $85k–$124k
- Travel
- 30%
- Degree
- Required (or equivalent experience)
- Industry
- Industrial
- Posted
- Yesterday
The role in 30 seconds
An engineer-level quality role at KION Group (Dematic) (industrial) in Grand Rapids, MI. Define, align, and monitor Product Quality requirements and measurable acceptance criteria, ensuring reliability, maintainability, serviceability, and validation expectations are established before testing begins.
- They ask for
- degree required (or equivalent experience)
- Tools it names
- Root cause, FMEA, PPAP, APQP, Control plans, CAPA
- Base pay
- $85k–$124k
- Day to day
- about 30% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 26, 2026
Quality Engineer roles in Michigan: typical posted base $85k–$149k. This one lists $85k–$124k.
Median of the low and high ends of 21 live postings that list pay, out of 61 quality engineer openings in Michigan, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Michigan plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 60 other live quality postings in Michigan.
- Base pay
- About 13% below similar roles
- Experience asked
- Not stated
Typical $86k–$154k, from 20 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 4+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 72%
- ✓ FMEA 54%
- ✓ PPAP 51%
- SPC 44%
- ✓ Control plans 44%
- ✓ New product launch 43%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for CAPA, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Quality team at KION Group (Dematic)
Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. Use the team search on this page to find them.
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
- 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Which standards drive the work here: ISO 13485, IATF 16949, AS9100?
- How much of the job is customer complaints versus prevention?
- The posting says about 30% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
Apply with someone vouching for you
If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: KION Group (Dematic) in Grand Rapids
2 other open roles at this site.
- Assembly Technician · Manufacturing · Technician
- Sr. Controls Engineer · Controls · Senior
Full description from KION Group (Dematic)As posted on their careers site.ShowHide
What You Will Do In This Role
- ◆Serve as the Product Quality representative and Quality sub-project lead for assigned global product-development programs, coordinating quality activities, deliverables, achievements, and reporting across the required functions.
- ◆Define, align, and monitor Product Quality
requirements
and measurable acceptance criteria, ensuring reliability, maintainability, serviceability, and validation expectations are established before testing begins.
- ✓Lead or facilitate product-risk activities, including DFMEA/PFMEA and technical risk assessments, and ensure significant risks, Critical-to-Quality characteristics, and mitigation actions are detailed, owned, and tracked.
- ✓Perform independent pre-milestone and launch-readiness assessments. Verify that required evidence supports Tollgate, Alpha/Beta, special-release, and commercialization decisions. Do not assume accountability for Engineering, Product Management, or Program Management.
- ✓Coordinate launch and manufacturing-readiness expectations with R&D, Manufacturing Quality, Supplier Quality, and Validation, including appropriate Control Plans, PPAP/initial-sample activities, and product ramp-up controls.
- ✓Support structured root-cause analysis and drive targeted CAPA/8D actions for significant or systemic product and Beta issues, including verification of containment, corrective action, and efficiency.
- ✓Prevent recurrence by transferring lessons learned from development, manufacturing, suppliers, project execution, and field performance into new R&D programs and continuously improving Product Quality methods and achievement expectations.
- ✓Provide clear, data-based visibility of product readiness, unresolved risks, action ownership, and critical issue needs to collaborators and leadership across regions.
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
The Product Quality Engineer ensures quality is built into global product-development projects from concept through launch and sustained production. Working across Product Management, R&D, Manufacturing, Validation, Program Management, Project Execution, and Quality teams, this role identifies risks early, defines quality expectations, ensures effective validation, and provides an independent view of product readiness.
Focused primarily on AMCS new developments, this role drives a proactive approach to quality centered on prevention, early risk detection, and lessons learned.
At Dematic and KION, our talent is key to creating the magic of supply chain solutions. As part of a global community of communities, you’ll help orchestrate intelligent logistics that power the future of commerce. Here, you can push your career forward in an environment built on collaboration, growth, and real-world impact. Push it Forward — apply today.
What We Offer
- •Career Development
- •Competitive Compensation and Benefits
- •Pay Transparency
- •Global Opportunities
Learn More Here: https://www.dematic.com/en-us/about/careers/what-we-offer
This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
Tasks and
What We Are Looking For
- •Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Quality Engineering, or a related technical field.
- •Minimum five years of professional Quality experience in a product-, project-, or engineering-based business; experience with automated material handling or mechatronic products is preferred.
- •Practical experience with product-development quality and several of the following: APQP, DFMEA/PFMEA, PPAP, Control Plans, RCA, 8D, CAPA, validation, lessons learned, and launch-readiness reviews.
- •Ability to interpret engineering requirements, drawings, specifications, risk analyses, test plans, and validation evidence, and translate gaps into clear actions and needs for addressing blocking issues.
- •Strong analytical capability and evidence-supported decision making, with the ability to distinguish product nonconformances from improvement opportunities.
- •Strong interpersonal, facilitation, negotiation, presentation, and technical/business English abilities, including the capability to communicate effectively across functions and organizational levels.
- •Established skill in directing and aligning work in an international matrix organization while preserving transparent accountability across Product Management, Engineering, Program Management, and Quality.
- •Willingness to travel regionally up to 30%