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Ford topped the automotive industry in recalls in the United States last year by a considerable margin, but the Michigan-based carmaker is not sitting idle. Instead, the company is moving to strengthen its quality control processes, and one of its latest appointments could play an important role in that push. According to The Detroit News, Ford Motor Company has hired National Highway Traffic Safety Administration veteran David Hines for a newly created chief auto safety officer position.

Hines will reportedly report to Ford chief policy officer Steve Croley and will be based in Washington, D.C. His responsibilities will centre on global product safety, compliance, governance and strategy. Before taking up this role, Hines spent more than 13 years as director of NHTSA’s Office of Crash Avoidance Standards.

“David’s thirty years of experience in automotive engineering and safety will be an asset to the company as we continue to put quality first,” Croley said in a statement to The Detroit News.

Hines will also oversee a cross-functional team covering engineering, digital design, quality, manufacturing and purchasing. According to the News, the team’s main task will be to ensure product safety, design integrity and quality throughout a vehicle’s lifecycle.

During his tenure at NHTSA, Hines worked on developing and implementing Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards related to autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems. This is also not his first stint with Ford. He previously worked at the automaker as a product design engineer, where he helped develop the Ford Freestyle SUV and the Five Hundred sedan. Earlier in his career, he also worked at Toyota, focusing on the exterior development of the Camry and Solara.

Bringing in one executive will not, by itself, solve Ford’s quality control problems, but the carmaker is clearly intent on addressing past shortcomings. After all, 12.9 million vehicles covered by 153 separate recalls in a single year is clearly not a figure it would want to repeat. Still, with Hines returning to the company and with other measures such as daily engine teardowns at its Essex, Ontario plant to identify issues early, Ford appears to be trying once again to live up to its old slogan: “Quality is Job One.”