Senior Quality Engineer

* Due to the classified nature of our work, U.S. citizenship is required. *

Location: Sunnyvale, CA

Pacific Defense is seeking a seasoned and highly collaborative Senior Quality Engineer to provide technical leadership and end-to-end ownership of quality across our Sunnyvale operations. This role is ideal for a hands‑on quality leader who can establish scalable processes, influence cross‑functional teams, and serve as a trusted quality authority for programs, suppliers, customers, and government stakeholders.

Our high‑performance systems support applications including signals intelligence, secure and covert digital communications, threat detection, RF jamming, and radio direction finding. These systems incorporate advanced hardware such as FPGAs, SoCs, and GPUs, along with sophisticated software and firmware that enable intuitive command and control, data collection, and processing.

The Senior Quality Engineer will own quality planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle, from design and supplier selection through production, test, product acceptance, and post‑delivery support. This individual will drive the continued development and implementation of the Pacific Defense Quality Management System (QMS), lead supplier and internal quality initiatives, and ensure products consistently meet contractual, regulatory, and customer requirements.

As a senior individual contributor and quality leader, the selected candidate will set priorities, establish standards, mentor team members, lead complex problem‑solving efforts, and provide clear quality performance reporting and recommendations to company leadership. The role requires strong judgment, the ability to operate independently, and the credibility to influence decisions across Engineering, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Program Management, and Operations.

• Own and lead quality strategy, planning, and execution for assigned programs, products, and the supply base.
• Serve as the primary quality authority and senior quality representative on integrated product teams (IPTs), design reviews, production readiness reviews, and customer or government engagements.
• Ensure quality requirements are defined, flowed down, verified, and maintained throughout development, design, test, transition to production, product acceptance, and post‑delivery support.
• Lead the implementation, maturation, and continuous improvement of the Pacific Defense Quality Management System (QMS), including procedures, work instructions, controls, audits, and quality records.
• Act as the business owner for Supplier Quality Management and Incoming Quality Control (IQC) processes.
• Establish supplier quality expectations, qualification criteria, audit plans, performance measures, and escalation processes.
• Lead supplier quality audits, source inspections, supplier development activities, and risk-based supplier surveillance.
• Develop and maintain supplier scorecards and key performance indicators (KPIs), and routinely present supplier quality performance, risks, and improvement plans to cross‑functional and executive stakeholders.
• Lead investigations involving nonconforming material, escapes, defects, and supplier nonconformances; ensure effective containment, root cause analysis, corrective action, and verification of effectiveness.
• Own or chair Material Review Board and Failure Review Board activities, as applicable, and ensure timely, risk‑informed disposition of nonconforming product.
• Provide technical leadership for Non‑Conforming Material Reports (NCMRs), Supplier Corrective Action Requests (SCARs), Root Cause and Corrective Action (RCCA), and Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA).
• Lead cross‑functional problem‑solving and continuous improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma, statistical methods, and other structured improvement tools.
• Develop predictive and proactive quality metrics to identify trends, mitigate risk, improve first‑pass yield, reduce cost of poor quality, and strengthen program performance.
• Partner with Engineering and Configuration Management to ensure hardware, software, firmware, drawings, specifications, and quality…