Senior Manager, Supplier Quality; R6220

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company with the mission of protecting service members and civilians with intelligent systems. Its products include Hivemind autonomy software, V-BAT and X-BAT aircraft, and Aechelon simulation and synthetic reality technologies. With offices and facilities across the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific, Shield AI’s technology actively supports operations worldwide. For more information, visit (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below). Follow Shield AI on Linked In, X, Instagram, and You Tube.

Shield AI is actively seeking candidates with deep expertise in manufacturing and quality methodologies, paired with a relentless drive to enable supplier success and strengthen mission-critical operations.

Shield AI’s Supply Chain Quality team is responsible for global quality oversight across our supplier base. The team reduces supply-chain risk through supplier assessments and internal risk reviews, proactively drives supplier qualification and development activities.

In this role, you will lead a supplier quality team responsible for supplier qualification, development, performance management, and quality assurance across Shield AI’s aerospace and defense supply base. You will set supplier-quality priorities; manage team capacity, technical execution, and resource allocation; and develop high-performing quality leaders. The role also oversees supplier audits, nonconformance resolution, root-cause investigations, and hands on hardware dispositions.

You will evaluate supplier capability, quality performance, organizational risk, and resource needs to ensure purchased hardware and materials meet Shield AI engineering, customer, regulatory, and quality requirements. As an experienced aerospace quality leader, you will partner closely with Supply Chain, Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, and Program teams to resolve complex supplier-quality issues, improve supplier capability, and reduce quality and delivery risk across the supply base.

What you’ll do:

• Develop the supplier quality team responsible for supplier qualification, surveillance, performance management, and corrective-action activities across Shield AI’s global aerospace and defense supply base.
• Establish supplier-quality priorities, allocate resources, and translate functional objectives into staffing, workload, and execution plans that support product, program, and organizational needs.
• Develop Supplier Quality leaders and engineering personnel through coaching, performance management, succession planning, workforce development, and technical mentorship.
• Oversee supplier qualification, risk assessments, periodic performance reviews, supplier audits, source inspections, and approved-supplier status across complex aerospace hardware, commodities, and manufacturing processes.
• Ensure supplier requirements are effectively flowed down and that suppliers comply with applicable quality management system, engineering, customer, contractual, regulatory, and statutory requirements.
• Escalate significant supplier-quality risks and direct SCARs, supplier recovery efforts, and capability-improvement plans that could affect product quality, delivery, mission readiness, or program execution.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, Supply Chain, and Program teams to address supplier producibility, design-for-manufacturability, process capability, technical execution, and quality risks.
• Advance supplier-quality processes, business systems, data analytics, and continuous-improvement practices that strengthen supplier capability, product quality, delivery performance, and supply-base resilience.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, or another related technical…