Acuity Inc. (NYSE: AYI) is a market-leading industrial technology company. We use technology to solve problems in spaces, light and more things to come. Through our two business segments, Acuity Brands Lighting (ABL) and Acuity Intelligent Spaces (AIS), we design, manufacture, and bring to market products and services that make a valuable difference in people’s lives.
We achieve growth through the development of innovative new products and services, including lighting, lighting controls, building management solutions, and an audio, video and control platform. We focus on customer outcomes and drive growth and productivity to increase market share and deliver superior returns. We look to aggressively deploy capital to grow the business and to enter attractive new verticals.
Acuity Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia, with operations across North America, Europe and Asia. The Company is powered by approximately 13,000 dedicated and talented associates. Visit us at www.acuityinc.com.
Job Summary
The Customer Quality Engineer serves as the primary quality liaison among Technical Support, Product Management, Engineering, and Software and System Quality for customer-reported product issues. This role investigates field-reported behavior across software, embedded devices, controllers, networks, and building automation configurations to determine reproducibility, technical validity, customer impact, and appropriate disposition.
The Customer Quality Engineer recreates representative customer environments, gathers and analyzes technical evidence, and works with Engineering to drive confirmed defects through resolution and release validation. The role distinguishes true product defects from configuration issues, installation problems, interoperability concerns, training gaps, documentation issues, and enhancement requests.
The role also serves as an important feedback loop between customers and product development. Customer issues and field findings are translated into improved product requirements, regression coverage, system test scenarios, troubleshooting guidance, and preventive quality actions.
For building automation products, the Customer Quality Engineer applies working knowledge of Building Management Systems (BMS), HVAC controls, networking, controllers, software, firmware, and relevant communication protocols to understand how products behave in real installations and how customers and system integrators use them.
Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)
Customer Escape Management
- Review customer-reported product issues submitted through Technical Support and other established escalation channels.
- Investigate reported behavior to determine reproducibility, technical validity, customer impact, and potential product risk.
- Determine whether reported issues represent true customer-escaped defects.
- Differentiate between product defects, configuration or installation issues, interoperability problems, training gaps, documentation issues, and enhancement requests.
- Gather and analyze logs, configuration details, network information, software and firmware versions, screenshots, databases, and other technical evidence.
- Provide clear, evidence-based dispositions and recommended next steps to Technical Support and other stakeholders.
- Escalate significant or systemic quality issues based on severity, customer impact, recurrence, or product risk.
Defect Creation and Ownership
- Create and maintain high-quality Azure DevOps defect records.
- Ensure defects contain:
- Reproduction steps
- Business impact
- Customer impact
- Technical evidence
- Logs and attachments
- Product and version information
- Work with engineering teams to clarify defect details.
- Drive defect ownership and accountability through resolution.
Resolution Tracking
- Monitor customer-reported defects throughout the development lifecycle.
- Collaborate with Product Managers and Engineering Leads regarding prioritization and scheduling.
- Track fix implementation status and release targets.
- Verify defects are resolved in designated builds.
Support Communication
- Serve as the primary quality contact for Technical Support.
- Communicate defect status and resolution plans.
- Provide released build information containing fixes.
- Assist Technical Support in understanding workaround options.
- Support customer escalation discussions when necessary.
Quality Analysis and Continuous Improvement
- Analyze escaped defect trends.
- Identify recurring failure modes and product quality risks.
- Produce metrics including:
- Customer-found defects
- Escaped defects by product
- Root cause categories
- Defect aging
- Resolution cycle time
- Customer impact trends
- Recommend preventive quality improvements.
Skills and Minimum Experience Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, Engineering Technology, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 3+ years of experience in Quality Assurance, System Testing, Software Testing, Technical Support, Product Support, Software Engineering, or a related technical role.
- Experience investigating complex customer or system issues and determining reproducibility, technical validity, and business impact.
- Experience reproducing issues in integrated hardware and software environments.
- Working knowledge of software and system test methodologies, defect lifecycle management, root-cause analysis, and corrective action practices.
- Experience creating and maintaining defect records in Azure DevOps, Jira, or a comparable application lifecycle management platform.
- Ability to analyze technical evidence including logs, product configurations, software and firmware versions, network information, databases, and attachments.
- Working understanding of TCP/IP networking and common network troubleshooting techniques.
- Ability to configure representative test environments and work with physical or virtual system components.
- Ability to translate complex technical findings into clear, actionable information for Technical Support, Engineering, Product Management, and Quality stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to independently manage investigations, organize competing priorities, and follow issues through resolution.
- Strong analytical, troubleshooting, collaboration, and written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Experience with Building Management Systems (BMS), HVAC controls, building automation, energy management, IoT, embedded systems, facilities management, or related technologies.
- Hands-on experience configuring or troubleshooting building controllers, supervisory controllers, gateways, sensors, actuators, graphical interfaces, alarms, schedules, or control sequences.
- Familiarity with BACnet/IP, BACnet MS/TP, Modbus, LON, M-Bus, TCP/IP, or related building and industrial communication protocols.
- Experience working with embedded firmware, edge devices, controller applications, cloud-connected products, or mixed hardware/software solutions.
- Experience building or maintaining system test environments that simulate real customer installations.
- Experience supporting Technical Support, customer escalation, system integrator, or field engineering workflows.
- Experience with Agile/Scrum development practices and product release planning.
- Experience creating Azure DevOps test cases, test plans, queries, dashboards, defects, and traceability.
- Experience performing defect trend analysis, corrective action analysis, or preventive quality improvement.
- Experience creating quality dashboards, metrics, or reports related to customer escapes, defect aging, root cause, and resolution trends.
- English/French bilingual proficiency is an asset.
- Relevant quality, testing, Agile, networking, building automation, or technical support certifications are an asset.
We value diversity and are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regards to race, color, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, ethnicity or national origin, disability, pregnancy, religion, covered veteran status, protected genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Accommodation for Applicants with Disabilities: As an equal opportunity employer, Acuity Brands is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in its application process for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans. If you have difficulty using our online system due to a disability and need an accommodation, you may contact us at (770) 922-9000, select option 4. Please clearly indicate what type of accommodation you are requesting and for what requisition.
Any unsolicited resumes sent to Acuity Inc. from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to an Acuity Inc. mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Acuity Inc. employees, or to Acuity Inc. resume database will be considered Acuity Inc. property. Acuity Inc. will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume.
Knowledge of French is required for positions permanently located in Quebec so incumbents can communicate with their colleagues and suppliers in Quebec as necessary. French-language training is offered to all incumbents in permanent positions in Quebec who do not have a good knowledge of French.
The requirement for another language other than French is necessary for this position in order to communicate with clients, partners, and colleagues who are predominantly located outside of Quebec. The company has very few clients in Quebec and therefore must constantly use another language to communicate outside of Quebec
Acuity Inc. will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.
