Quality Manager

• Huntington Beach

The Quality Manager is responsible for leading and executing Quality operations in alignment with organizational and customer requirements, reporting to the Director of Quality. This role provides direct supervision of Quality Supervisors and Quality Team members and is accountable for day-to-day Quality performance across assigned programs and operations. The Quality Manager serves as a key customer-facing Quality representative, leading internal and external meetings, audits, and issue resolution activities.

This position ensures effective implementation and maintenance of the Quality Management System, drives corrective action and continuous improvement efforts, and partners cross-functionally to support program execution and customer satisfaction.

Karman Space & Defense provides concept-to-production solutions for mission-critical systems on spacecraft, launch vehicles, missiles, hypersonics, and integrated defense systems. We believe that solving the industry’s most complex and mission-critical challenges requires relentless determination and a willingness to push the boundaries of possibility. Karman Space & Defense brings to bear unparalleled production capabilities, unmatched engineering expertise, and unflinching analysis to render the impossible, possible.

• Medical, Dental, Vision
• Company Paid Life Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Paid Holidays
• Tuition Reimbursement*

• Direct supervisory responsibility for Quality Supervisors and Quality Team members, including Quality Engineers, Documentation Specialists, and supporting quality personnel.
• Provide leadership, coaching, performance management, and development planning for direct and indirect reports.
• Establish team objectives, workload priorities, and resource planning to meet business, program, and customer requirements.
• Responsible for hiring, onboarding, training, and succession planning within the Quality organization.
• Monitor and approve timecards and ensure compliance with timekeeping policies.

• Accountable for meeting or exceeding the Safety, Quality, Employee, Delivery and Cost expectations for internal and external customers and within the Quality function.
• Lead and manage a team of Quality Supervisors, Quality Engineers, and Documentation Specialists.
• Develop Quality Team to perform Product Quality Engineering Function and create processes and procedures for effective program maintenance.
• Implement new and updated processes, ensuring standardization and compliance across the operating unit.
• Serve as the primary Quality point of contact for customers, representing the organization in customer-facing meetings, audits, program reviews, and issue resolution discussions.
• Lead and facilitate internal and external meetings, including customer reviews, quality reviews, RCCA meetings, MRB discussions, and cross-functional program meetings.
• Collaborate and coordinate with other functional managers, process center leaders, value stream leaders and value stream owner(s) to meet business and program objectives.
• Accountable for maintenance of the Quality Management System (QMS) and AS/ISO certifications across the Operating Unit.
• Serve as Management Representative as required per AS9100 and coordinate 3rd party audits, ensuring organizational readiness and resource availability.
• Lead root cause and corrective action process (RCCA) and analysis on failure investigations for high impact issues and lead personnel in use of RCCA for low impact level issues.
• Responsible to determine and manage technical quality document preparation, including quality plans, inspection plans, end item data packages (EIDP) in accordance with customer requirements and statements of work.
• Manage the review and approval of quality requirements for manufacturing planning, purchase orders (PO’s), and engineering drawings / specifications to ensure customer requirements are met.
• Support customer proposals by providing technical and scope information as it pertains to the proposal process.
• Maintain the process for tool, equipment, and machinery…