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 Team Leader Global and Key Account Quality provides disciplinary and day-to-day operational leadership to the assigned Global and Key Account Quality team. The role is accountable for the team’s capability, capacity and operational effectiveness and its contribution to customer quality performance, customer satisfaction and the consistent fulfilment of customer-specific quality requirements.
The Team Leader translates global account quality objectives, priorities and standards as well as Product Quality and site requirements into effective team execution. The role enables Global and Key Account Quality Managers to maintain end-to-end ownership for their assigned customers, ensures adequate resources and timely provision of customer-specific information, and drives preventive quality management, customer quality improvement and team development.

MAIN ROLE AND ACTIVITIES

Team Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop the assigned team, fostering ownership, accountability, customer focus, independent decision-making, collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Define individual objectives and conduct performance reviews based on global account priorities, Product Quality and site objectives, account-specific requirements, development needs and relevant stakeholder feedback.
• Maintain transparency of role-specific competencies, address performance and capability gaps, and implement targeted development and cross-training measures.
• Ensure effective onboarding, account-specific knowledge transfer, backup coverage, structured handovers and business continuity, while anticipating capacity and staffing needs and driving recruitment, talent and succession planning in alignment with the Head of Product Quality and the Head of Global/Key Accounts

Operational Global and Key Account Quality Management

• Ensure customer-related quality activities are appropriately assigned, prioritized, resourced and monitored, considering global account priorities, customer impact and quality risk.
• Coordinate the assignment of Global and Key Account Quality Managers with the Head of Product Quality and the Head of Global/Key Accounts, and allocate supporting PQEs and Quality Specialists within the team.
• Ensure effective complaint and escalation management through clear ownership, adequate resources, progress monitoring and timely escalation; support critical accounts and cases where required.
• Ensure adequate support for customer scorecards, audits, quality reviews, customer-specific requirements and improvement activities, using risk-based reviews to monitor performance, risks and overdue actions.
• Ensure complete, accurate and timely provision of customer-specific information in customer portals, including coordination, translation and approval of the customer-specific presentation of content provided by Product Quality, Engineering and other relevant functions.
• Recommend appropriate containment or stop actions in case of significant customer or quality risk, require necessary information and actions within the team’s scope, and escalate in accordance with applicable processes.

Customer Quality Performance and Governance

• Consolidate and monitor customer quality performance, perception, complaints, audits, customer-specific deliverables and team capacity; identify significant trends, risks and overdue actions. 
• Analyze significant or recurring deviations, ensure improvement actions with clear ownership and deadlines, verify their effectiveness and escalate issues beyond the team’s influence. 
• Ensure consistent application of global and customer-specific quality requirements and promote standardized approaches across accounts where compatible with customer requirements. 
  Transfer relevant lessons learned into other accounts and the responsible Product Quality, Engineering, Operations and management processes, and escalate systemic or cross-functional issues to the appropriate manager.

Stakeholder Management and Collaboration

• Enable Global and Key Account Quality Managers to act as the primary quality contacts and end-to-end owners for their assigned customers, supported by customer-assigned PQEs and Quality Specialists.
• Ensure effective collaboration and alignment with Product Management, Sales, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, Product Quality and other relevant functions.
• Resolve or escalate priority, resource, ownership and quality-related conflicts and ensure timely cross-functional support for customer requirements and commitments.
• Support critical customer discussions, escalations, audits and reviews where appropriate, in alignment with the Head of Global and Key Accounts and the responsible Global or Key Account Quality Manager.

KEY EXPERIENCES

• Minimum 5 years of experience in Customer Quality, Product Quality, Quality Engineering or a comparable quality function, including substantial customer-facing experience in an industrial manufacturing environment.
• Proven people-leadership experience and operational performance and resource management within a multidisciplinary technical or quality team.
• Experience with customer complaints and escalations, customer-specific requirements, audits, quality reviews, scorecards, improvement programs and direct communication with demanding customers.
• Experience coordinating stakeholders, resolving conflicts and driving escalations across international matrix organizations without direct authority; experience with complex technical products is required, while semiconductor, high-tech or high-vacuum experience is an advantage.

COMPETENCIES

• Degree or equivalent professional experience in a relevant technical or quality field.
• Strong practical knowledge of Customer and Product Quality principles, processes and methods, including structured problem solving, corrective action management, FMEA, Control Plans and statistical quality methods.
• Good understanding of customer-specific quality requirements, audits, scorecards and information-management processes, as well as product development, NPI, change management, qualification and ramp-up.
• Strong people-leadership, coaching and performance-management capabilities, with the ability to prioritize resources, delegate effectively and make risk-based decisions.
• Strong communication, stakeholder and conflict-management skills, including the ability to influence across matrix structures and interact effectively with senior internal stakeholders and customer representatives.
• Analytical, structured and solution-oriented mindset, with the ability to identify trends, manage escalations and drive customer-focused continuous improvement across functions.
• Languages - Fluent in English, written and spoken.  Additional languages are advantageous; German is particularly beneficial for roles based in Switzerland.

VAT is an equal opportunity employer. We see ourselves as a responsible and far-sighted employer that offers not only jobs, but also career and personal development opportunities through various training programs. We recognize the value of employee diversity and provide equal employment opportunity for all qualified application that contributes to innovation, improves customer orientation and employee satisfaction. One-step in this direction is to ensure that people are recognized and fairly compensated for their contributions to the company. In 2021, VAT received the Fair-ON-Pay+ certificate as an acknowledgement for our commitment in ensuring equal pay for equal work between men and women.