Field Quality Manager (Europe)

About Fairphone

Fairphone is more than just a company - we are a global leader in sustainable, modular electronics, on a mission to change the electronics industry from the inside out. Built on strong social and environmental values, we are a diverse and inclusive team from all walks of life creating market consumer electronics that make a real impact.

At Fairphone, you will find a supportive and safe space where everyone can be themselves, collaborate openly, and have the freedom to learn and grow - because that’s how we innovate and drive change together!

So… are you a proactive, self-motivated team player who loves taking initiative and bringing positive energy? Do you thrive in a fast-moving start-up or scale-up environment? Are you a great communicator who values collaboration and embraces different perspectives? And most importantly, do you feel a strong connection to Fairphone’s mission and values? If you're nodding along and thinking, “Yes, that’s me!”, then check out our vacancy below!

Please know that we acknowledge that we are living in a time where the use of AI can bring many efficiencies and support. However, we want to know the real YOU. Please try to limit the use of AI tools to generate answers to the application; we value authenticity and encourage you to use your creativity!

• Location: China or NL position (you should have the right to work in either of these locations)

• Hours: 40 hours per week

• Start: 01.01.2027 (or earlier)

• Contract duration: The 1st 12-month employment contract with the possibility of extension to permanent

• Deadline to apply: We review applications on a rolling basis. Please apply as soon as possible

About your role

The Field Quality Manager is accountable for the end-to-end integrity of field defect management, taking ownership of a problem from the moment it is detected in the market until there is a resolution.

This role requires a unique balance of analytical triage, technical understanding, and cross-functional project management. You will work directly with live customer data streams (Customer Support, community forums, B2B partners etc) to filter out end-user issues and isolate true defects. Once validated, you will translate these issues into clear tickets and lead the governance push to ensure internal teams and suppliers deliver verified fixes within agreed SLAs.

Additionally, the role drives early-life post-launch surveillance for new product releases and conducts initial operational quality due diligence during supplier selection before handing daily factory execution to Manufacturing Operations in China.

Key Responsibilities & Objectives

Your Key Objectives

• Proactively monitor and drive resolutions to keep overall failure rates for our products consistently below contractual target limits.

• Define and enforce strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) across internal teams and external suppliers, accelerating the speed at which field defects are resolved.

• Build and embed structured intake, funneling, and prioritization frameworks to handle field quality issues from all channels within B2C and B2B.

• Reduce unnecessary return volume and lower after-sales operational costs by defining standard diagnostic decision trees for Customer Support, Repair centers, and Self-RMA portals.

• Perform operational quality due diligence and readiness assessments on prospective products suppliers during sourcing selection to ensure long-term reliability standards

Field Issue Triage, Validation & Diagnostics

• Cross-Channel Issue Triage & Filtering: Continuously monitor, filter, and validate field quality reports coming from Customer Support tickets, community forums, repair center reports, and B2B channels and so on. Distinguish between end-user misuse, software glitches, and true hardware/firmware defects.

• Issues Quality Infrastructure Development: Design, build, and manage a dedicated intake framework to collect, funnel, categorize, and prioritize field issues reported

• Diagnostic & Troubleshooting Protocols: Author, test, and maintain standardized diagnostic troubleshooting trees and decision workflows for Customer Support agents, external repair centers, and Self-RMA online portals to assist resolution of issues and prevent invalid returns.

• Early-Life Product Surveillance: Drive early-life post-launch quality programs for all new products’ releases, establishing intensive surveillance protocols during the initial post-launch window to catch early defects.

Closed-Loop Resolution & SLA Governance

• Closed-Loop Field Failure Resolution: Own and drive the closed-loop resolution of field failure issues identified in Field Failure Rate (FFR) datasets directly with suppliers.

• Resolution Turnaround Time (TAT) Optimization: Lead continuous process improvement projects across internal teams and supplier networks to significantly accelerate defect resolution cycle times.

• Internal & External SLA Governance: Enforce strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for field issue resolution timelines, ensuring technical tickets assigned to the teams move smoothly through triage, debugging, and resolution.

• Cross-Functional Feedback: Collaborate closely with Strategic Sourcing, Manufacturing Ops, Product, Engineering, and Circular Operations to feed real-world failure learnings directly into improvements and future product specifications.

Supplier Selection Quality Due Diligence

• Operational Assessments: Conduct operational quality due diligence evaluations, readiness reviews, and initial risk analyses when evaluating prospective products suppliers during sourcing selection.

• Due Diligence Reporting: Deliver comprehensive due diligence reports, risk matrices, and quality recommendations to Strategic Sourcing and executive leadership prior to supplier contracting.

Core Activities

Your Skills & Experience

• You have a minimum of 5 years of experience in Field Quality or Quality Operations, with a proven track record in consumer electronics (smartphones, audio, or IoT devices)

• Experience interfacing, managing and driving discussions with internal teams and suppliers.

• Technical ability to understand hardware/software anomalies, and translate into actionable tickets

• You have excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Mandarin

• Preferably, you are familiar with working with macOS, Google Workspace, and Basecamp.

What Fairphone can offer you?

• The opportunity to create an impact on the electronics industry around the world.

• A diverse work environment full of international, passionate, warm-hearted team members.

• 25 paid holidays per year (based on a full-time contract) next to the other public holidays in the Netherlands. You’ll also get a day off on your birthday! Additionally, the longer you stay, the more holidays you get!

• Daily, healthy lunch, organic FairChain coffee, and many more tasty things.

• You will join Fairphone’s collective pension scheme, and we will contribute to building your pension.

• You will receive a laptop, Fairbuds, and a Fairphone as working devices.

• Hybrid working model: We are remote-friendly and also contribute up to €250 toward your home office set-up.

• Public transport allowance – we fully cover your 2nd-class commute from your home to the office

• Bike allowance – We support you with a bike purchase of up to €300, and you’ll also have a yearly repair budget of up to €100! We also cover 23 cents per km for your biking distance from home to the office (or train station) and back!

• Grow with us! We encourage you to develop at Fairphone. In addition to €500 for L&D, we’ll support your career goals with coaching (Inuka), workshops, or courses that you can join with your development budget. You will get access to Udemy with unlimited courses and trainings.

• Kitchen with beautiful views to the IJ waterfront.

• There’s a gym in the building where you can build healthy habits, stay active and have fun with your colleagues, as well as a subscription to our mental & physical well-being services (Inuka & Urban Sports)