Director of Quality and Compliance

Job Description

Job Description

We are searching for a world-class  Director of Quality & Compliance for a dynamic aerospace manufacturing organization.

This is a critical leadership position. We are not looking for someone who simply manages inspectors, maintains paperwork, or prepares documents before an audit. We need someone who can take full ownership of our quality systems, audits, customer quality relationships, compliance obligations, and daily quality operations.

Primary Responsibilities

The Director of Quality & Compliance will:

• Own and maintain the Quality Management System.
• Lead customer audits, source inspections, quality system reviews, and corrective-action meetings.
• Interpret and implement customer-specific quality manuals, contractual quality clauses, specifications, and flow-down requirements.
• Serve as the primary quality representative with customers, auditors, certification bodies, and regulatory organizations.
• Confidently represent the company during audits and customer discussions without allowing unreasonable interpretations, unsupported findings, or unnecessary requirements to be imposed on the company.
• Maintain professional, constructive relationships while being willing to respectfully challenge customers and auditors when appropriate.
• Lead root-cause and corrective-action activities using disciplined methodologies such as 8D, 5 Why, fishbone analysis, fault-tree analysis, containment, corrective action, and effectiveness verification.
• Facilitate cross-functional RCCAs rather than simply assigning corrective actions to other departments.
• Ensure corrective actions address true systemic causes and do not become paperwork exercises.
• Implement and strengthen APQP, PFMEA, control plans, process flow diagrams, PPAP or equivalent aerospace production-readiness processes, SPC, process capability, MSA, and gage R&R.
• Maintain effective calibration, inspection, nonconformance, MRB, supplier quality, document-control, internal-audit, and risk-management systems.
• Lead and develop the quality team responsible for receiving, in-process, final, and first article inspections
• Rewrite and simplify quality procedures, work instructions, forms, and training materials.
• Ensure written procedures accurately reflect how work should be performed and are practical for employees to follow.
• Develop and deliver quality training throughout the organization.
• Partner with engineering, operations, purchasing, and manufacturing to build quality into the process rather than relying on final inspection.
• Support lean manufacturing, standard work, mistake-proofing, process control, scrap reduction, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Develop meaningful quality KPIs and use data to identify recurring defects, process risks, customer concerns, and improvement priorities.

Leadership Profile

The ideal candidate will be:

• Confident, credible, and technically strong.
• Comfortable serving as the highest quality authority in the company.
• Calm and composed during difficult audits, customer escalations, and production problems.
• Assertive without being combative.
• Able to distinguish between a legitimate requirement and an auditor’s or customer representative’s personal preference.
• Highly organized and capable of managing several certifications, customers, corrective actions, and operational priorities simultaneously.
• A strong teacher and coach who develops people rather than merely issuing instructions.
• Collaborative and open-minded, with no “my way or the highway” mentality.
• Willing to listen to manufacturing and engineering personnel who understand the process.
• Able to balance compliance, product integrity, customer expectations, operational realities, risk, cost, and schedule.
• Comfortable working in a growing, entrepreneurial, high-mix aerospace manufacturing environment.
• Willing to roll up their sleeves and perform detailed work rather than operating solely through delegation.
• Motivated by building systems and improving an organization, not simply maintaining an established corporate quality department.

We specifically do not want someone who expects to manage exclusively from an office, relies on authority to get results, creates unnecessary bureaucracy, or treats quality as separate from manufacturing.

Preference will be given to candidates who have personally led quality systems and audits in a hands-on aerospace manufacturing environment. Candidates whose experience is primarily administrative, inspection supervision focused, or limited to supporting a larger corporate quality organization are unlikely to fit this role.

Preferred Experience

The strongest candidate will have:

• At least 10 years of progressive quality experience in aerospace, defense, or another highly regulated manufacturing environment.
• At least five years in a quality leadership position.
• Direct experience owning or leading an AS9100-certified Quality Management System.
• Direct experience serving as the lead company representative during AS9100 audits.
• Meaningful experience with NADCAP special processes, preferably NADCAP Composites.
• Experience with composite manufacturing, adhesive bonding, core processing, metal bonding, machining, sheet metal, special processing, or complex aerospace assemblies.
• Strong working knowledge of AS9102, APQP, PFMEA, control plans, SPC, MSA, gage R&R, process capability, RCCA, 8D, and supplier quality.
• Experience interpreting engineering drawings, specifications, GD&T, purchase-order quality clauses, and customer-specific requirements.
• Experience managing customer corrective actions and quality escalations with major aerospace or defense customers.
• Experience leading and developing inspectors, quality engineers, and other quality personnel.
• Experience improving or rebuilding quality systems and procedures—not merely inheriting and maintaining them.
• A bachelor’s degree in engineering, quality, manufacturing, or related technical discipline, or equivalent directly applicable experience.

Preferred certifications include: