The Director of Quality Assurance will be responsible for leading all aspects of Quality Assurance throughout the product development lifecycle. The Director 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 company quality, delivery and cost targets. This position will lead quality personnel located in Peterborough, Ontario Canada, Irvine, California, USA and Mexicali, Mexico and collaborate frequently with Program leadership, Engineering, Manufacturing and Supply Chain personnel. This is a hands-on, highly involved leadership position reporting to the CEO.

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.
• Manage the Quality Staff by creating and implementing the strategic vision for the Quality department.
• Develop and implement strategic Quality initiatives and programs in support of the business 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.
• Support the certification of development programs and mentor members of the Design Assurance team in the application of ARP4754, DO-178 B/C and DO-254
• Ensure that manufacturing, 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.
• 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 and other required certifications, ensure yearly recertification of current or future company regulatory registrations
• Provide coaching and mentoring to other team members
• Must be able to attain a designation of Person Responsible for Maintenance (PRM) from Transport Canada.

Experience Required:

• 5+ years Quality management or operations leadership experience.
• Bachelor’s Degree with a minimum of 12 years of prior related experience.

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.
• Prior experience in a TCCA Approved Maintenance Organization (AMO) or FAA Repair Station is desirable
• Greenbelt or Blackbelt certification and/or proven education or work history in leading and implementing projects.
• Experience with Configuration Control management practices.
• Experience with J-STD and IPC standard implementation.
• Experience with AS9145, APQP &PPAP requirements
• ASQ certification preferred; Experience managing AS9100 certified business.
• Willingness to travel to multiple sites.
• 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.

Salary Range: $135-150k

***Only qualified candidates who meet all of the requirements will be contacted for interview. Thank you and good luck with your search.