Senior Quality Manager

About the role

Forterra is looking for a Senior Quality Manager to support a large autonomous research client in the Clarksburg, MD area. Key responsibilities will be to work closely with design and production teams to solve problems. The Senior Quality Manager will also own and manage all assigned CAPAs to ensure timely closure and that appropriate corrective actions are established and adhered to.

The Senior Quality Manager will act as a key participant of the configuration management process where applicable. They will also help by responding to questions about how to achieve quality goals and implement changes to reduce the instance of human or machine errors. When working on a new project, the Senior Quality Manager will meet with customers (Internal/External) to discuss their quality expectations, including details about expected performance and visual appearance.

They will also help design documents, processes, and procedures that clearly outline these specifications and communicate them to all responsible teams. As a leader of continuous improvement, the Senior Quality Manager will also observe the production process and identify how to implement cost effective improvements that drive consistent quality and improve efficiency. Lastly, the Senior Quality Manager will act as the escalation point for and support the Non‑Conformance Management Review process.

• Understand and analyze complex problems and derive solutions.
• Effectively communicate technical issues, solutions, ideas, and concepts to a diverse audience including Managers, Customers, and Executive Management.
• Drives continuous improvement and defect reduction using data analysis.
• Support nonconformance/noncompliance investigations to analyze and determine root cause, define corrective actions, and ensure corrective action implementation is effective.
• Lead program and quality assurance reviews.
• Monitor and ensures completion of monthly quality performance metrics.
• Understand design intent, requirements, and specifications and drives reviews of customer and Forterra requirements to ensure all are consumed into product/process requirements.
• Review quality documentation including policies, procedures, processes, to ensure compliance with internal and external requirements.
• Maintain, enforce, and measure quality assurance processes.
• Drive counter measures for Quality processes not achieving prescribed KPI/PPI targets.
• Monitor and control the overall activities of the team and identifies problem areas requiring support.
• Assign duties and monitor quality of work; assure that staff conforms to government regulations and organizational policies and procedures.
• Support representation of Quality processes during internal and external third‑party audits.
• Conduct internal audits of products, processes and procedures to drive compliance.
• Provide support in development and growth of the APQP process.
• Provide support on occasion to conduct supplier evaluations, assessments, and audits.
• Monitor and manages the Quality department budget.
• Develop talent within the team to increase performance.
• Proactively addresses performance issues on the team.
• Perform other duties as assigned by management.
• Role may require up to 20% travel

Mission-First Mindset
- We put the needs of the mission and our customers first and understand that the US and its allies have no preordained right to victory in any future conflict.

Ownership Mentality
- We’re looking for owners; those who have a natural bias to assume responsibility, a healthy dose of skepticism, and contribute to a culture of performance.

Technical Aptitude and Intellectual Curiosity
- We are first and foremost a technology company, working at the leading edge of capabilities like machine learning, autonomy, distributed networking, and multi-modal sensor fusion.

Structured Thinker and Problem Solver
- Leading technical programs requires clear communication and well‑thought‑out plans. A solution‑driven approach, the ability to distill complexity into its essential, digestible components, and the ability to supervise execution are critical to ensure mission success.

360 Degree Leader
- We are a…