Director of Quality Assurance

ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE

As an end-to-end space transportation company, Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the surface of the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

About the Role

Quality Assurance owns the processes and tools by which Firefly identifies, contains, eliminates, and prevents non-conformances. Quality is charged with defining and maintaining the processes and tools which prove product capabilities meet requirements and result in a predictably economical and reliable product.

We are seeking an experienced Director of Quality Assurance to lead our efforts in ensuring the reliability, economy, and performance of our products and services. This role is crucial in driving the strategic vision for reliability across the organization and managing a team of engineers and inspectors focused on proactive quality controls, risk management, process repeatability, and operational resilience. This position is located at our Production and Test facility north of Austin, in Briggs, TX.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the Quality Assurance team in developing and implementing reliability strategies across the entire product lifecycle, from design to manufacturing, assembly, and deployment.
• Lead and mentor a team of engineers and inspectors to achieve technical excellence and career development.
• Collaborate with senior leadership to integrate quality and reliability as core aspects of the company’s engineering and operations culture.
• Establish and enforce reliability standards, policies, and procedures throughout the organization.
• Guide the evolution and ensure that the Quality Management System (QMS) conforms to the requirements of AS9100, maintaining QMS integrity as changes are planned and implemented
• Lead cross-functional investigations to resolve quality issues identifying and mitigating the immediate and underlying root causes in order to reduce risk and improve reliability of designs and processes.
• Ensure scalability and resilience in product design and process introduction through strategic input at the early stages of development.
• Work cross-functionally with engineering, supply chain, operations, and launch/mission operations teams to drive improvements in system reliability.
• Ensure adequate and efficient coverage of quality support to all operational areas; ensure quality engineering and inspection skills are adequately defined and developed.
• Drive initiatives for process optimization and efficiency to reduce defects and improve overall product quality.
• Establish and drive reliability metrics and quality assurance standards for launch vehicles and spacecraft systems; ensuring all products and services meet industry requirements and company goals.
• Maintain a feedback loop to drive hardware inputs that enable reliable and rapid operations cadence; using data to make the quality landscape transparent and drive prioritization of resolving high impact issues.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement through the implementation of best practices, training, and technology upgrades.
• Participate in design reviews and work with engineering to ensure design for quality (DFQ), design for manufacturability (DFM), risk quantification/mitigation, and that appropriate test validation methods and inspection techniques, including nondestructive evaluation methods have been considered.
• Design and implement training to increase quality awareness and proficiency across the company.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

What We’re Looking For

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering or related discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry)
• 10+ years of hands-on experience in a engineering, manufacturing, and/or quality role
• 5+ years of experience leading a team and/or technical project, serving as a leadership focal point and decision-maker
• Proven experience in building and leading high-performing engineering teams
• Deep knowledge of quality standards, reliability principles, risk management, root cause analysis, and system performance optimization
• Hands-on experience with tools and processes for monitoring, alerting, and incident management (e.g., Grafana, PowerBI)
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities; creative flexibility regarding workflow and process
• Excellent leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Ability to manage complex projects and prioritize under tight deadlines
• Passion for innovation

Desired Qualifications

• Master's degree in mechanical engineering or related discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry)
• 15+ years of hands-on experience in a manufacturing environment with knowledge of processes, controls, and inspection methods
• 5+ years experience deploying and managing quality functions in an AS9100 or ISO 9001 environment
• Knowledge of quality tools such as Lean principles, measurement systems analysis, design of experiments, statistical process control, root cause analysis and corrective action, advanced product quality planning (APQP), metrology, process failure mode and effects analysis (PFMEA), control plans, and various problem solving approaches
• Dedicated to adopting a lean approach to quality without compromising safety or reliability
• Extensive ERP expertise to help mold common company tools to best meet quality’s needs in a nearly autonomous/invisible approach
• Experience developing or supporting: critical mechanical/structural assemblies, test and automation, composites systems and repairs, fluid component/system assembly and test, NDT techniques and appropriate usage, and/or avionics integration and testing
• American Society for Quality (ASQ) Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) Certification

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.