Senior Manager, Quality

What you'll do

Development Quality Leadership

• Serve as the quality leader for XBAT development.
• Establish quality strategy, objectives, and metrics aligned with program milestones.
• Integrate quality requirements into the product development lifecycle.
• Ensure quality considerations are incorporated during system architecture, design reviews, verification, validation, and qualification activities.
• Partner with Engineering leadership to identify and mitigate technical and programmatic risks.
• Drive a culture of proactive quality and continuous improvement throughout the program.

Design & Configuration Quality

• Ensure quality requirements are appropriately captured in product definitions, specifications, and design documentation.
• Participate in design reviews, change control boards, and configuration management activities.
• Ensure full configuration and traceability for all material installed into prototype aircraft.
• Evaluate engineering changes for quality and production readiness impacts.
• Support requirements verification and validation planning.
• Drive design-for-manufacturing, design-for-quality, and design-for-reliability initiatives.

Risk Management & Reliability

• Lead quality participation in program risk management activities.
• Establish and maintain FRACAS processes for development and flight test phases of the program.
• Facilitate root cause and corrective action investigations for design, manufacturing, supplier, and field failures.
• Support reliability growth planning and execution.
• Monitor defect trends, failure modes, and reliability metrics to identify systemic risks.

Verification, Validation & Test Quality

• Develop quality oversight strategies for laboratory, ground, and flight test activities.
• Ensure test results, anomalies, and nonconformances are appropriately documented and dispositioned.
• Support qualification and certification efforts.
• Establish processes for managing test escapes, failures, and corrective actions.

Nonconformance & Corrective Action Management

• Lead Material Review Board activities for development hardware.
• Establish scalable processes for nonconformance management.
• Drive root cause analysis using structured problem-solving methodologies.
• Ensure timely and effective corrective and preventive actions.
• Track effectiveness of corrective actions through closure.

Production Readiness & Industrialization

• Partner with Manufacturing and Supply Chain teams to transition products from prototype to production.
• Define quality requirements for production readiness reviews.
• Support development of inspection plans, acceptance criteria, and control strategies.
• Ensure lessons learned from development are incorporated into production processes.
• Lead quality planning activities supporting low-rate initial production and rate increases.

Quality Management System

• Develop and implement quality processes supporting aerospace development programs.
• Ensure compliance with AS9100, customer requirements, and internal procedures.
• Drive continuous improvement of development quality processes.
• Support internal and external audits as required.
• Establish scalable systems that support future production growth.

Leadership & Team Development

• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing quality organization.
• Recruit and develop quality engineers, inspectors, and technicians.
• Establish clear objectives, priorities, and performance expectations.
• Promote a culture of accountability, technical excellence, and collaboration.
• Develop organizational capabilities to support future company growth.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, aviation, space, or other highly regulated industries.
• 5+ years of leadership experience managing technical quality organizations.
• Experience supporting complex product development programs from concept through production transition.
• Strong knowledge of quality systems, engineering development processes, and aerospace manufacturing.
• Experience leading root cause investigations and corrective action programs.
• Experience with risk management, reliability engineering, and failure analysis.
• Working knowledge of AS9100 quality management systems.
• Demonstrated ability to influence cross-functional teams and senior leadership.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience supporting UAV, aerospace, defense, aviation, autonomous systems, or advanced technology programs.
• Experience leading quality organizations during rapid company growth.
• Background in systems engineering, reliability engineering, or development engineering.
• Experience with flight test programs and qualification testing.
• ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), or equivalent certification.
• Familiarity with government defense programs and customer quality requirements.