Senior Product Quality Engineer

Job Description

**About Epirus**
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Epirus is a high-growth technology company dedicated to overcoming the asymmetric challenges inherent to the future of national security. Epirus' flagship product, Leonidas, is a software-defined system built using intelligent power management techniques which allow power-hungry systems to do more with less.

### Job Summary:

This is an exciting **Senior Product Quality Engineer** role with an innovative, high-growth defense technology company. The ideal candidate for the position is agile, collaborative, and results oriented with experience overseeing product quality from design to production for complex electro-mechanical assemblies. This role is responsible for managing in-house nonconformances, field issues, and program/customer-facing quality flowdowns while ensuring alignment with contractual and regulatory requirements. This position also leads the development, tracking, and trending of key quality metrics to enable data-driven decision making and continuous improvement.

Partnering cross-functionally with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and suppliers, this role proactively identifies risks, implements robust quality practices, and ensures scalable, compliant product delivery.

Responsibilities:
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* Develop, implement, and maintain quality assurance processes, plans, and procedures in compliance with AS9100, Customer, and internal Quality Management System requirements.
* Lead non-conformance investigations, corrective actions, root cause analysis, MRB activities, product/process audits, and inspection/test capability analysis.
* Lead implementation and adoption of advanced quality mechanisms in the product development process to drive production readiness.
* Identify potential risks to product/program success and assist in the development of mitigation strategies.
* Manage field quality issues, including failure investigations, customer communication, and timely closure of corrective actions.
* Collaborate with manufacturing and engineering to drive system wide quality initiatives to meet quality and reliability objectives.
* Interpret and implement customer and program-specific quality flowdowns, ensuring compliance across internal teams and suppliers.
* Support internal and external audits and inspections from customers, regulatory bodies, and certification agencies.
* Develop, implement, and maintain product quality metrics (e.g., yield, defect rates, escapes, field returns), including dashboards and trend analysis.
* Support and lead product qualification, first article inspection (FAI), and verification/validation efforts with test engineering.
* Review and analyze test data, inspection reports, and non-conformance reports to ensure product integrity.
* Prepare quality reports, metrics, and presentations for leadership and customers as needed.

Basic Qualifications:
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* BS degree in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Electrical or Industrial Engineering, or related field
* 5+ years of quality, manufacturing, or engineering experience working in aerospace/defense or other regulated and/or high reliability industries. Commercial electronics experience working on complex applications is suitable as well.
* Knowledge of geometric dimensioning and tolerances, design review, configuration management and quality management of complex electro-mechanical assemblies.
* Experience leading cross-functional teams to solve internal/external quality issues, drive continual improvement initiatives, and facilitate adoption of quality requirements throughout the product lifecycle.
* Demonstrated experience managing nonconformances (MRB) and driving corrective actions.
* Knowledge of quality management system standards such as ISO 9001, AS9100, and/or other similar standards.
* Strong experience developing and analyzing quality metrics and using data to drive decisions.
* Experience working with customer or program quality requirements and flowdowns
* Good communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and drive improvements in a fast-paced start-up environment.

Preferred Skills and Experience:
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* Certifications such as ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Certified Auditor, Lean Six Sigma, or IPC standards are a plus.
* Experience with Oracle ERP and QMS software implementation/execution.
* Working knowledge of hardware-enabled software design, test, and release practices.
* Experience in the Aerospace/Defense industry working with highly technical electromechanical assemblies and tests. Knowledge of IPC and MIL-STD specifications.
* Experience developing and implementing APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) elements such as Production Part Approval Processes (PPAP), Control Plans, PFMEA, Process Flow Diagrams, and Measurement Capability Analysis in a quality management system.
* Experience in a startup or high-growth environment building or scaling quality processes.
* Knowledge of reliability engineering, environmental/qualification testing, and failure analysis techniques.
* Proficiency with data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., Excel, Tableau, Power BI, or similar) for KPI tracking and reporting.

Additional Requirements:

* Ability to travel up to 10% as needed.

**ITAR REQUIREMENTS:**

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

At Epirus, you'll work with technical peers and great people---and get first crack at some of the defining technology challenges of our time. Here, "impossible" is just a challenge. We're a diverse, fast-growing team of change-makers fueling the future of energy with revolutionary solutions. Join us and rewrite the rules.

*As required by the Equal Pay Transparency Act, Epirus provides a reasonable range of minimum compensation for roles that may be hired. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and specific office location.*
For the state of California only, the range of starting pay for this role is:
$113,600---$130,800 USD