How to hire a customer quality engineer

How to hire a customer quality engineer, step by step

Here's a step-by-step customer quality engineer hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a customer quality engineer job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new customer quality engineer
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a customer quality engineer do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a customer quality engineer, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A customer quality engineer's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, customer quality engineers from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of customer quality engineer salaries for various roles:

   Type of Customer Quality Engineer	Description	Hourly rate
   Customer Quality Engineer	Industrial engineers find ways to eliminate wastefulness in production processes. They devise efficient systems that integrate workers, machines, materials, information, and energy to make a product or provide a service.	$30-50
   Process Engineer Internship	A process engineering intern performs various tasks for an organization. These include collaborating with the technical team on cost savings, process efficiency improvements, and technology advancement, attending meetings with leadership teams, and participating in customer trials... Show more	$14-24
   Manufacturing Engineering Internship	A manufacturing engineering intern is responsible for assisting the manufacturing engineers on the plant's daily operations, analyzing the manufacturing process and procedures, and recommending strategic solutions to maximize productivity and minimize costs. Manufacturing engineering interns shadow the production staff, inspect the tools and equipment of the manufacturing, analyze the quality control documentation, and perform related administrative tasks to familiarize themselves with the plant structure... Show more	$19-32

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Corrective Action
   • Product Quality
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Continuous Improvement
   • Sigma
   • PPAP
   • FMEA
   • Failure Analysis
   • Quality Standards
   • Customer Complaints
   • Supplier Quality
   • APQP
   • Quality System
   • Customer Quality

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Serve as lead auditor achieving AS9100 certification for the product center in Mexico.
   • Create, implement, and manage completion of APQP plans for new product launches and product changes.
   • Lead cross-functional APQP teams to ensure parts, processes, and documentation meet customer requirements and require deadlines.
   • Develop and coordinate strategic relationships with international OEM and ODM partners to achieve business goals.
   • Develop a continuous process improvement and SPC class that are implemented site wide to engineers and management.
   • Lead structure team problem solving efforts to resolve internal/external issues using 8-D methodology, CAPA, FMEA & DMAIC.

   More customer quality engineer duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your customer quality engineer job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A customer quality engineer salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for a customer quality engineer in Vermont may be lower than in California, and an entry-level customer quality engineer usually earns less than a senior-level customer quality engineer. Additionally, a customer quality engineer with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average customer quality engineer salary

   $82,508yearly

   $39.67 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level customer quality engineer salary

   $64,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 5, 2025

   Average customer quality engineer salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$125,349	$60
   2	Washington	$96,150	$46
   3	Texas	$91,868	$44
   4	Massachusetts	$90,150	$43
   5	Connecticut	$88,936	$43
   6	Michigan	$85,011	$41
   7	Arizona	$84,284	$41
   8	Minnesota	$83,775	$40
   9	Illinois	$80,026	$38
   10	Delaware	$79,768	$38
   11	North Carolina	$79,609	$38
   12	Colorado	$79,160	$38
   13	South Carolina	$76,167	$37
   14	Ohio	$72,093	$35
   15	Indiana	$71,404	$34
   16	Tennessee	$67,977	$33
   17	Florida	$63,742	$31

   Average customer quality engineer salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Apple	$142,912	$68.71	127
   2	NVIDIA	$131,676	$63.31	25
   3	Applied Materials	$119,593	$57.50	35
   4	Koch Industries	$118,893	$57.16	8
   5	Texas Instruments	$114,532	$55.06	9
   6	Western Digital	$113,719	$54.67	40
   7	TechnipFMC	$113,096	$54.37
   8	Ampere	$113,009	$54.33
   9	Renesas Electronics	$110,035	$52.90
   10	STMicroelectronics	$108,854	$52.33
   11	Micron Technology	$108,146	$51.99	32
   12	Monolithic Power Systems	$107,347	$51.61	1
   13	Infineon Technologies	$102,128	$49.10	5
   14	Skyworks Solutions	$99,894	$48.03	9
   15	Amphenol	$98,792	$47.50	22
   16	Intel	$98,517	$47.36	1
   17	Power Integrations	$97,535	$46.89	2
   18	Maxwell Technologies	$97,500	$46.88
   19	Ford Motor	$97,368	$46.81	111
   20	Stryker	$97,099	$46.68	38

4. Writing a customer quality engineer job description

   A good customer quality engineer job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a customer quality engineer job description:

   Customer quality engineer job description example

   At Wolfspeed, we do amazing things in a human way.
   
   We know that the achievements of our organization are due to the passion, hard work and creativity of our employees. We celebrate different perspectives to foster excellence across our organization, and our goal is to make diversity a foundation of what we do. We are proudly building an environment where you can bring your authentic self to work.
   
   * Enjoy doing things that people say can't be done? Innovation is at the center of everything we do.
   * Hate red tape? We remove roadblocks instead of creating them.
   * Working parent? We provide childcare assistance and paid parental leave.
   * Student? We offer continuing education assistance.
   * Looking for community? There are many ways to get involved, from Employee Resource Groups to local outreach.
   
   Here's the Gist:
   
   We are seeking an experienced and highly motivated individual to take on the challenging role of Customer Quality Engineer in our Power Business. This person will be responsible for driving customer satisfaction through alignment of customer, industry and Wolfspeed quality requirements.
   
   The Day-to-Day:
   
   * Manage and drive timely closure of customers' issues, collaborating with Regional CQEs, business, factories and other support teams.
   * Interface with customers on technical evaluation of issues.
   * Work with customers and internal teams seamlessly from NPI (new product introduction) to high volume mass production.
   * Alignment with sales and business on the strategic direction needed to support customer quality objectives.
   * Drive quality improvements to meet all customer expectations regarding PPM of product shipped, quality of corrective action reports, and cycle time of customer requests.
   
   This Job is Right for You if You Have (Minimum Requirements):
   
   * BS in Electrical, Chemical or Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or related degree.
   * Minimum 5 years' experience.
   * Knowledge in quality systems, semiconductor wafer fabrication, assembly and test operations or automotive applications.
   * Good understanding of the global automotive business, customer requirements and end user behavior.
   * The ability to operate in a fast pace, highly dynamic environment, at a detailed execution level, as well as on a tactical / strategic level.
   * Excellent communication and project management skills in working with external customers as well as other internal groups, managers, etc.
   * Demonstrated capability of interacting with senior leaders through the organization.
   * Ability to work in large, complex, global environment.
   
   This role may require additional duties and/or assignments as designated by management.
   
   To put it legally - Wolfspeed is an equal opportunity employer.
   
   We recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote regardless of race, sex, religion, color, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation and other protected status as required by law.
   
   We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find customer quality engineers for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any customer quality engineers they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level customer quality engineers with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your customer quality engineer job on Zippia to find and recruit customer quality engineer candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit customer quality engineers, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents. You can move on to the technical interview if a candidate is good enough for the next step.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new customer quality engineer

   Once you've found the customer quality engineer candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new customer quality engineer. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a customer quality engineer?