Director of Quality Assurance

Position Summary

The Director, Quality Assurance provides regional leadership for PALECEK's quality assurance organization and supplier quality programs across Asia. This position establishes consistent quality systems, strengthens factory performance, leads inspection and corrective-action programs, and ensures products meet PALECEK standards, approved specifications, regulatory requirements, and customer expectations.

Based in either Semarang Indonesia, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, or Angeles City, Philippines, the Director reports to the Vice President of International Supply Chain with a functional, dotted-line relationship to the US-based Senior Director of Quality Assurance and Compliance.

The role works closely with country directors and Account Management and Hospitality, Supplier Performance, Product Engineering, and Product Development, Resourcing, and Projects divisions.

Regional Quality Leadership & Strategy

• Develop and execute PALECEK's quality assurance strategy across Asian sourcing countries and suppliers.
• Translate company objectives into regional priorities, measurable standards, procedures, and accountability systems.
• Promote a prevention-focused culture emphasizing early risk identification and continuous improvement.
• Serve as PALECEK's senior quality representative in Asia, advising regional teams, factories, and executive leadership.
• Allocate quality resources based on business priorities, supplier risk, production volume, product complexity, and performance trends.

Quality Systems & Standards

• Develop and maintain standardized quality policies, procedures, inspection protocols, documentation, and acceptance criteria.
• Ensure expectations are consistently applied across countries, product categories, factories, and inspection teams.
• Maintain controls for approved drawings, specifications, finish standards, samples, packaging requirements, and quality records.
• Evaluate system effectiveness and revise procedures based on claims, inspection results, product changes, and emerging risks.
• Align regional execution with company-wide quality and compliance objectives in partnership with the US-based Senior Director.

Supplier Quality & Factory Development

• Evaluate supplier systems, process and material controls, workforce capabilities, equipment, testing, and corrective-action discipline.
• Develop improvement plans and coach factory leadership on quality management, process control, defect prevention, and accountability.
• Establish expectations during supplier onboarding and new product introduction before production commitments are made.
• Recommend probation, increased inspection, production holds, escalation, or disengagement when supplier performance creates unacceptable risk.

Inspection & Production Quality Management

• Assist in pre-production, in-process, pre-shipment, and final inspections across the region.
• Ensure inspection plans reflect product risk, factory capability, order history, customer requirements, and approved standards.
• Maintain inspection methods, sampling plans, defect classifications, acceptance criteria, reporting requirements, and escalation protocols.
• Review critical failures and determine containment, rework, reinspection, shipment hold, or release actions.
• Ensure inspectors and factories have current specifications, samples, drawings, finish standards, and testing requirements.
• Monitor inspector effectiveness, consistency, productivity, reporting quality, and professional conduct.

Corrective Action & Continuous Improvement

• Lead root cause analysis and corrective and preventive action for recurring defects, inspection failures, claims, returns, and product performance issues.
• Ensure corrective actions address systemic causes and are verified for effectiveness.
• Facilitate cross-functional problem-solving with factories, engineering, product development, compliance, logistics, and account management.
• Use quality data and trends to prioritize improvements that reduce defects, rework, delays, claims, and total cost of quality.
• Incorporate lessons learned into specifications, training, inspection criteria, and future product development.

New Product Development & Technical Partnership

• Partner with PD and engineering to identify product and manufacturing risks.
• Review sample assessments, pilot production, pre-production meetings, and first-production evaluations for new or substantially revised products.
• Ensure critical-to-quality requirements, approved standards, and inspection checkpoints are defined before bulk production.
• Support product testing and validation with engineering and compliance teams.

Performance, Reporting & Risk Management

• Establish regional quality metrics and advance data for supplier scorecards, dashboards, and executive reporting.
• Analyze inspection pass rates, defects, claims, rework, chargebacks, corrective-action closure, and supplier performance by factory and product category.
• Report performance, emerging risks, and recovery plans to the Vice President of International Supply Chain, with functional reporting to the US-based Senior Director.
• Immediately escalate serious product safety, compliance, quality, or shipment risks and coordinate containment.
• Support business reviews and supplier performance meetings with fact-based recommendations and measurable follow-up actions.

Team Leadership & Organizational Development

• Lead regional inspectors supporting Asia suppliers.
• Establish clear roles, expectations, training standards, workload priorities, and development plans.
• Build capability through training in inspection methods, defect recognition, root cause analysis, reporting, and supplier communication.
• Promote consistency, objectivity, integrity, and accountability throughout the regional quality organization.
• Develop succession plans and scalable resources to support growth and sourcing diversification.

Cross-Functional & Executive Partnership

• Serve as the primary quality liaison among Asian operations, the Vice President of International Supply Chain, and PALECEK's US teams.
• Maintain a strong partnership with the US-based Senior Director of Quality Assurance and Compliance.
• Work with country directors and functional leaders to balance quality, delivery, cost, and customer requirements without compromising standards.
• Communicate proactively on critical issues, ownership, decisions, due dates.
• Recommend strategies to improve supplier performance, product reliability, customer satisfaction, and operational excellence.

Travel & Market Intelligence

• Travel throughout Asia as needed to visit factories, suppliers, and PALECEK offices.
• Stay current on furniture manufacturing, quality technologies, testing, regulations, and regional sourcing risks.
• Represent PALECEK professionally within the supplier and manufacturing community.

Qualifications

• At least 10 years of progressive quality assurance, supplier quality, manufacturing, engineering, or related experience in furniture or home furnishings.
• At least five years of leadership experience managing quality heads, supervisors, and inspectors across multiple factories, locations, or countries.
• Significant experience with US-based retailers, importers, brands, or international sourcing organizations.
• Deep knowledge of furniture construction, materials, finishes, hardware, upholstery, weaving, packaging, and common failure modes.
• Demonstrated success developing quality systems, inspection programs, supplier scorecards, corrective-action processes, and factory improvement plans.
• Strong knowledge of sampling plans, defect classification, root cause analysis, corrective and preventive action, process control, and supplier auditing.
• Ability to interpret technical drawings, specifications, bills of materials, test reports, and product standards.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, decision-making, conflict-resolution, and English communication skills.
• Proven ability to lead through influence across cultures, functions, countries, and time zones.
• Experience in luxury furniture, home décor, hospitality furnishings, outdoor furniture, or artisan-crafted products.
• Degree in engineering, manufacturing, quality management, industrial technology, or a related field.
• Experience with product safety and performance testing, social and regulatory compliance, and third-party laboratories.
• Familiarity with ERP, PLM, quality management systems, inspection applications, and business intelligence tools.

Interested candidates are invited to submit their resume, cover letter, and professional references to: [Confidential Information]. Only candidates whose qualifications closely match the requirements of the position will be contacted.