Director of Quality / Sr. QA Manager

The Director / Sr. Manager of Quality will be responsible for leading all aspects of Quality Assurance throughout the product development lifecycle. This division is comprised of 2 major manufacturing locations and this position will have responsibility for direct supervision and leadership of 40 quality personnel with 13 direct reports.

The Sr. Manager will be responsible for driving continual process and product improvement ensuring product and process integrity, leading to customer satisfaction and overall mission success while supporting division quality, delivery and cost targets. This position will lead quality personnel located across multiple sites and collaborate frequently with Program leadership, Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply Chain personnel.  This is a hands-on, highly involved leadership position.

Essential Functions:

• Responsible for the Quality Engineering and Inspection functions, supporting all business practices, including quality planning, compliance monitoring and validation for programs, hardware, software and inspection.
• Responsibility for resolving technical challenges, ensuring successful tactical execution, as well as creating and implementing the strategic vision for the Quality department.
• Develop and implement strategic Quality initiatives and programs in support of the Electronic Warfare Division promoting sound and effective principles as set forth in company procedures, government standards and directives, and commercially proven methodology and ensure that the department conforms to these principles.
• Promote a strong culture of quality focused on every employee engaged and enhancing the customer experience through rigorous attention to detail and prevention of defects.
• Work closely with the program teams and the functional organizations to ensure that all phases of the product life cycle, from early customer involvement through post-delivery support, meet the requirements for mission success. 
• Ensure that manufacturing engineering, operations and design engineering interact sufficiently throughout the product planning and design phases to ensure a seamless hand-off during product transition to production including design reviews and facilitating quality concurrent Engineering.
• Responsible for the maintenance of quality records that document the quality status of material/products and provide necessary information and cumulative data for internal and external Customer responses.
• Develop, review and verify compliance of all Work Package Descriptions issued for Quality tasks for proposals and ongoing contracts/projects.
• Improve the efficiency of the Quality organization through effective leadership, individual and group training, and process improvement.
• Collect and analyze key quality measures such as Cost of Poor Quality to develop zero defect plans, improve yields and reduce rework during engineering and manufacturing efforts. Report to senior leadership on business performance including action plans to improve business execution and status of strategic initiatives.
• Maintain certification and compliance efforts for AS9100, CMMI and other required certifications.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace/Electrical/Mechanical/Software Engineering or technical equivalent with a mimimum of 12 years of prior related experience or Graduate degree with a mininum of 10 years of prior related experience.
• 5 years Quality management or operations leadership experience.
• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills including communications, facilitation, consulting, coaching, and influencing
• Self-motivated and possess demonstrated ability to motivate others to achieve timely results.
• Highly collaborative style, capable of working across multiple functional areas to drive results.

Preferred Additional Skills:

• In depth knowledge of quality and reliability methods and procedures for hardware and software systems as they apply to the aerospace or electronic industry.
• Greenbelt or Blackbelt certification and/or proven education or work history in leading and implementing projects.
• Experience with Configuration Control management practices.
• Experience with Agile Oracle, Windchill, Cincom and/or Doors software suites
• Experience with J-STD and IPC standard implementation.
• ASQ certification preferred; Experience managing AS9100 certified business.
• Willingness to travel up to 20 percent
• Active TS security clearance or ability to obtain a DoD TS security clearance