Quality Engineers work to ensure that the quality of a product lacks defects or problems. This could include devising tests, working closely with suppliers or other staff and creating documentation. While Quality Engineers typically work within manufacturing or production, a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is slightly different and works within software and technology to test websites or apps for bugs. As a Quality Engineer, you might take a linear path from Quality Engineer to Senior Quality Engineer. Or, you could pursue other higher level roles such as, Senior R&D Quality Engineer, Principal Supplier Quality Engineer, Quality Systems Engineer, or Senior Manufacturing Quality Engineer.
Because Quality Engineering is a highly technical field, it is important to have at least a Bachelor’s degree in either industrial, production, mechanical engineering, or lab/science. However, if you don’t have a degree now, it’s possible to start as a technician or production operator, and then go back to school and eventually become a Quality Engineer. Ideally, you will need strong analytical, critical thinking, team working, and communication skills.
Quality engineers are professionals responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of manufactured products for a company. They monitor regulations and standards, run various tests, define test criteria, and provide documentation of their findings. Quality engineers will work with several cross-departmental colleagues such as people on the design and manufacturing teams to ensure products are meeting all expectations. When something is wrong in the manufacturing process, it’s the quality engineer's job to troubleshoot the issue and solve it.
To land a role as a quality engineer, you will need a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as engineering. Hiring managers will look for someone with testing and manufacturing knowledge. Good candidates for this role typically have previous experience as a manual tester, mechanical supervisor, or manufacturing engineer. Moreover, companies will look for someone with relevant skills such as proficiency in lean manufacturing, process optimization, and Six Sigma project management.
Six Sigma Green Belt is a set of project management techniques quality engineers can use to optimize processes and ensure fewer errors are made. You can get a certification to show you understand the principles of Six Sigma and can use them in this role.
A big piece of the quality engineer's job is to make sure manufacturing projects are being completed efficiently and within the budget. For this reason, you should highlight any experience you have optimizing manufacturing processes that resulted in saving money or time for the company.
A Quality Engineer is responsible for making sure that all of the engineering or manufacturing processes are moving smoothly and that high standards are maintained. As a Quality Engineer, you should be a technical and data driven person, and able to express your professional accomplishments using clear metrics. You should also use your resume bullet points to convey your technical and managerial skills.
Using clear metrics allows hiring managers to see what you are capable of achieving. This resume says, “Implemented Demand Flow and re-engineered production by eradicating redundant processes, resulting in $100K in company savings.” Use examples to show your ability to help the company save money and be efficient. Make it clear how the company will benefit by hiring you.
Remember to start a bullet point with a verb that will make a statement. You might use something like, “Implemented,” “Mitigated,” or “Conducted” to convey your hard analytical skills that are essential as a Quality Engineer. Make sure to follow these strong verbs with clear results using numbers or specific outcomes that you attained.
Quality Assurance Engineers are different from Quality Engineers because they are focused on computer software. They generally have degrees in Computer Science or Computer Engineering and focus on making sure that the code is up to standard, passes tests and is free from bugs. This is a career path where being highly educated with a Master’s or other certifications will often give you an advantage. You can also emphasize your vast technical skills in your bullet points and skills section.
As a Quality Assurance Engineer, you are expected to have hard skills that are rooted in software development and programming. For example, this resume says, “Created over 100 individual test programs in C++.” Using examples like this are one way to provide proof of your experience using different programs and software. You can replicate this in your skills section and your bullet points.
Engineering is a field where specialized education is highly regarded and expected. However, not everyone will have a Master’s degree, and if you do, this is something you will want to emphasize and draw attention to in your resume. You could also include a minor if you received one or any certifications that you have earned in your field.
A senior quality engineer oversees many aspects of the QA testing and verification process in an organization. Quality testing ensures that every product a company produces is effective and in good working order before it reaches the customer. As a senior quality engineer, you support this process by creating and identifying quality testing measures, tracking and presenting testing results, and overseeing a group of junior engineers.
To become a senior quality engineer, you will need progressive experience in a related field and demonstrated leadership abilities. Hiring managers will look for a candidate with a bachelor's degree in a related field, such as mechanical engineering. They will also look for someone with several years of experience in relevant roles such as prior positions as a safety engineer, quality control supervisor, or quality engineer. As this is a senior role, ideal candidates will demonstrate superb communication and management skills.
Senior Quality Engineers are higher level Quality Engineers. In addition to testing products and finding defects, they often have managerial responsibilities with managing teams, guiding, and training other employees. If you already have management or training experience, make sure to make this evident on your resume. Also, prioritize your experiences where you have held similar skills or roles — this will show that you are prepared.
Make sure that you are adapting each version of your resume to fit the specific job that you’re applying for. If you had previous jobs with different titles, try to match them as much as possible to your next position. In this resume, each previous job has some variation of the words, “Quality Engineer” in the title.
As you begin to take on senior level positions, employers will also be looking for leadership initiatives, in addition to your technical expertise. This resume uses the examples, “Managed 66 suppliers,” “Mentored 6 quality technicians,” and “Promoted within 18 months.” Make sure you are able to blend your metrics and achievements, with specific leadership examples.
Supplier Quality Engineers work with logistics, supply chain management, and manufacturing. They ensure that all products meet company, industry, and government standards and lack any defects. To advance in this field, it’s important to show your strong technical and analytical skills through previous roles, using numbers and specific examples to quantify your proven results.
You must have strong technical qualifications to succeed in specialized and technical fields like Quality Engineering. Look at job descriptions and see what programs and software employers will expect you to know. If it’s listed in the description, make sure to include it in your skills section or throughout your bullet points.
When you have 10+ years of experience, you’ll want to emphasize examples of leading teams, advancing, and training others. Also, make sure to highlight with metrics how you improved your team, department, or company as a whole. For example, like this resume, “implemented continuous integration process, resulting in 200% decrease in production incidents and 3x shipping speed.”
For Quality Engineer jobs, you will need to be skilled in programs or methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, AutoCAD and ISO 9001:2015. As you read through the job description carefully, you can include the skills that the company is looking for throughout your resume in your skills section or in your bullet points.
You might say something like, “streamlined existing procedures based on the ISO 9001:2015 changes.” This will help you get through the Applicant Tracking System. This tracking system is typically an automated filter and as you use the specific words that the system is tracking, you will be more likely to be chosen by the system to move forward.
This word cloud highlights the important keywords that appear on Quality Engineer job descriptions and resumes. The bigger the word, the more frequently it appears on job postings, and the more 'important' it is.
Quality Engineers need to have experience testing and automating processes, developing procedures, and creating solutions to problems. You can emphasize these skills using your action verbs -examples: use Led and Managed to show your leadership skills.
As you list your bullet points, remember to begin with an action verb. By doing this you are emphasizing what you’ve been able to achieve in other roles. Employers are looking for Quality Assurance Engineers that have proven results so use your action verbs to support this in your resume.
For more related action verbs, visit Engineering Action Verbs.
For a full list of effective resume action verbs, visit Resume Action Verbs.
If you're a senior-level employee, or you're changing careers to become a Quality Engineer, it's useful to add a paragraph at the top of your resume highlighting your most impressive accomplishments. This is called a resume summary.
Here's an example of a summary that can be used on a Quality Engineer resume.
A resume summary is a totally optional section, and in most cases, it's better to leave it out of your resume than include it. For example, if you're a student or mid-level hire, you should not include a summary, and instead use the space to add to your work experience.
To learn how to write an effective resume summary for your Quality Engineer resume, or figure out if you need one, please read Resume Summary Examples for Job Seekers: When To Include One.
You should use bullet points to describe your achievements in your Quality Engineer resume. Here are sample bullet points to help you get started:
Created knowledge base of 80 internal resources, improving employee onboarding and reducing time spent per project on administrative tasks by 40%
Introduced standardized on-boarding templates and training program for 100+ new joiners; reduced employee on-boarding time from one month to just one week
Led 2 business analysts to automate repetitive process flows using Excel Macros / VBA and reduce analysis time by 10+ hours per week
Designed strategy for large-scale operational transformation initiative encompassing 1700+ full-time employees (FTEs), resulting in 500 FTE savings
Received Recognition Award for automating booking system, reducing required man-hours by 75%; promoted 6 months ahead of schedule
For more sample bullet points and details on how to write effective bullet points, see our articles on resume bullet points, how to quantify your resume and resume accomplishments.
