Head of Quality - Defence and Aerospace Manufacturing

Location: Glasgow

Head of Quality  Defence & Aerospace Manufacturing
£75,000  £85,000 + BUPA + 31 Days Holiday + Flexible Hours
Central Scotland
Were recruiting for a highly successful Tier 1 manufacturer supplying technically complex, mission-critical products into some of the worlds largest Defence & Aerospace organisations.
The business is experiencing significant growth and increasing production volumes. As a result, they are looking to appoint a  Head of Quality  who can lead an established quality function and help take technical quality capability, standards and performance to the next level.
This is a  Senior Management position  with responsibility for a team of approximately 12 across Quality Engineering, Supplier Quality and Laboratory functions.

The Role
Youll take overall leadership of the Quality function, but the emphasis here goes considerably beyond systems, audits and compliance.
The business operates within an extremely demanding technical environment where product performance, reliability and customer confidence are critical.
Youll be responsible for:
Leading, coaching and developing a multidisciplinary Quality team
Creating the right culture, environment and standards across the function
Driving improvements in root cause analysis, fault finding and failure analysis
Improving reaction times and the quality of response when technical issues occur
Leading risk management, FMEA and preventative quality activity
Supporting investigation of complex product and process issues
Developing Quality Engineering capability as production volumes increase
Overseeing non-conformance, product conformance and qualification activity
Working closely with Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Operations
Providing credible technical leadership during customer visits and technical discussions
Supporting the continued development of an already established aerospace quality management system
Importantly, youll inherit a capable team including a strong and highly experienced number two, allowing you to concentrate on leadership, technical development and raising overall capability.

The Person
The technical requirement is important.
Ideally, youll be  degree qualified in Mechanical Engineering , although Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering or another highly relevant technical discipline will also be considered.
You may already be operating as a Head of Quality / Quality Manager, or you could be a technically strong Senior Quality Engineer, Quality Engineering Manager, Process Engineer or Development Engineer ready to step into a broader leadership position.
Were particularly interested in people who can demonstrate:
Strong technical engineering capability

Experience with in complex serial manufacturing
Excellent root cause analysis and structured problem-solving skills
An understanding of stresses, strains, test data, failure modes and technically complex products
Strong Quality Engineering and risk-management capability
The ability to challenge existing standards and drive continuous improvement
Credibility with demanding technical customers
A methodical, detailed and disciplined approach
Strong leadership capability with the ability to coach, support and develop engineers
The personality and gravitas to establish high standards while bringing a team with you
Defence or Aerospace experience would obviously be attractive, but it is  not essential .
We are equally interested in people from other technically demanding, highly regulated manufacturing environments including  Automotive, Medical Devices, Electronics and other complex engineered products .
The Opportunity
What makes this particularly interesting is the scale of what is happening within the business.
Production volumes are increasing significantly as demand from…