Senior Product Quality Engineer

Senior Product Quality Engineer

Torrance, California, United States

Epirus is a high-growth technology company dedicated to overcoming the asymmetric challenges inherent to the future of national security. Epirus' flagship product, Leonidas, is a software-defined system built using intelligent power management techniques which allow power-hungry systems to do more with less.

This is an exciting Senior Product Quality Engineer role with an innovative, high-growth defense technology company. The ideal candidate for the position is agile, collaborative, and results oriented with experience overseeing product quality from design to production for complex electro-mechanical assemblies. This role is responsible for managing in-house nonconformances, field issues, and program/customer-facing quality flowdowns while ensuring alignment with contractual and regulatory requirements.

This position also leads the development, tracking, and trending of key quality metrics to enable data-driven decision making and continuous improvement.

Partnering cross-functionally with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and suppliers, this role proactively identifies risks, implements robust quality practices, and ensures scalable, compliant product delivery.

• Develop, implement, and maintain quality assurance processes, plans, and procedures in compliance with AS9100, Customer, and internal Quality Management System requirements.
• Lead non-conformance investigations, corrective actions, root cause analysis, MRB activities, product/process audits, and inspection/test capability analysis.
• Lead implementation and adoption of advanced quality mechanisms in the product development process to drive production readiness.
• Identify potential risks to product/program success and assist in the development of mitigation strategies.
• Manage field quality issues, including failure investigations, customer communication, and timely closure of corrective actions.
• Collaborate with manufacturing and engineering to drive system wide quality initiatives to meet quality and reliability objectives.
• Interpret and implement customer and program-specific quality flowdowns, ensuring compliance across internal teams and suppliers.
• Support internal and external audits and inspections from customers, regulatory bodies, and certification agencies.
• Develop, implement, and maintain product quality metrics (e.g., yield, defect rates, escapes, field returns), including dashboards and trend analysis.
• Support and lead product qualification, first article inspection (FAI), and verification/validation efforts with test engineering.
• Review and analyze test data, inspection reports, and non-conformance reports to ensure product integrity.
• Prepare quality reports, metrics, and presentations for leadership and customers as needed.

• BS degree in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Electrical or Industrial Engineering, or related field
• 5+ years of quality, manufacturing, or engineering experience working in aerospace/defense or other regulated and/or high reliability industries. Commercial electronics experience working on complex applications is suitable as well.
• Knowledge of geometric dimensioning and tolerances, design review, configuration management and quality management of complex electro-mechanical assemblies.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams to solve internal/external quality issues, drive continual improvement initiatives, and facilitate adoption of quality requirements throughout the product lifecycle.
• Demonstrated experience managing nonconformances (MRB) and driving corrective actions.
• Knowledge of quality management system standards such as ISO 9001, AS9100, and/or other similar standards.
• Strong experience developing and analyzing quality metrics and using data to drive decisions.
• Experience working with customer or program quality requirements and flowdowns
• Good communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and drive improvements in a fast-paced start-up environment.

• Certifications such as ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), Certified Auditor, Lean Six Sigma, or IPC standards are a plus.
• Experience with Oracle ERP and QMS software implementation/execution.
• Working knowledge of hardware-enabled software design, test, and release practices.
• Experience in the Aerospace/Defense industry working with highly technical electromechanical assemblies and tests. Knowledge of IPC and MIL-STD specifications.
• Experience developing and implementing APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) elements such as Production Part Approval Processes (PPAP), Control Plans, PFMEA, Process Flow Diagrams, and Measurement Capability Analysis in a quality management system.
• Experience in a startup or high-growth environment building or scaling quality processes.
• Knowledge of reliability engineering, environmental/qualification testing, and failure analysis techniques.
• Proficiency with data analysis and…