Senior Manager of Specialty Engineering - 1093On-site — Full-timeUS Broomfield, CO

We are seeking a Senior Manager of Specialty Engineering in our Broomfield, CO location to lead Quality Engineering, Materials and Process Engineering, and subsystem Reliability Engineering for complex quantum computing hardware. This leader will build and develop the people, methods, laboratories, data systems, and technical standards required to improve product quality, material and process robustness, and system reliability across the product lifecycle.

All applicants for placement in safety-sensitive positions will be required to submit a pre-employment drug test.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead, develop, and scale the Quality Engineering, Materials and Process Engineering, and Reliability Engineering disciplines.
• Define capability roadmaps, competency models, technical standards, career development expectations, hiring plans, and succession depth for each discipline.
• Coach engineers and technical leaders, establish communities of practice, and ensure lessons learned are translated into repeatable organizational capability.
• Plan and prioritize specialist resources across technology development, product realization, production, supplier, and sustaining needs.
• Own the strategy, architecture, implementation, maintenance, and continuous improvement of the hardware QMS.
• Establish practical QMS controls for design and development, risk management, inspection and acceptance, product traceability, non-conformance, supplier quality, calibration, training, audits, CAPA, and management review.
• Own the hardware failure analysis capability, including issue triage, containment, investigation strategy, analytical methods, root-cause determination, reporting, and organizational learning.
• Partner with functional leaders so quality processes are embedded in daily engineering and manufacturing work, not treated as a separate compliance activity.
• Guide selection, development, qualification, approval, and change control of materials and special processes used in precision mechanical, optical, photonic, electrical, vacuum, and cryogenic hardware.
• Establish material and process specifications, approved materials and process lists, qualification plans, process controls, supplier requirements, and technical standards.
• Partner with Supplier Quality and Supply Chain to translate materials, process, quality, and reliability requirements into supplier qualification, surveillance, corrective-action, and readiness activities.
• Serve as a critical technical partner in architecture trades, technology maturation, design reviews, risk reviews, and product realization decisions for future systems.
• Bring quality, reliability, materials, process, supplier, testability, inspectability, maintainability, and producibility considerations into early technology and system decisions.
• Provide concise technical and operational updates to senior leadership, including decisions needed, risks, tradeoffs, and recovery plans.
• Establish and review meaningful metrics for yield, defects, escapes, rework, CAPA aging and effectiveness, process capability, supplier quality, reliability, failure recurrence, and QMS health.
• Bachelor's degree minimum required.
• Minimum 8+ years of experience in quality, reliability, materials and process, product, systems, or manufacturing engineering for complex hardware.
• Minimum 8+ years of experience with QMS processes, non-conformance, root cause analysis, CAPA, risk management, and verification of corrective-action effectiveness.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience leading technical teams, including direct people leadership and capability development.
• Minimum 5+ years of experience partnering with R&D and product teams to mature technology from prototype through qualification and production readiness.
• Due to Contractual requirements, must be a U.S. Person. defined as, U.S. citizen permanent resident or green card holder, workers granted asylum or refugee status
• Advanced degree - Masters or PhD - in Physics, Engineering, or related technical field preferred
• Demonstrated experience building or significantly improving one or more specialty engineering functions, technical centers of excellence, or cross-functional engineering systems.
• Ability to lead technically ambiguous investigations, integrate evidence across disciplines, and make clear risk-based recommendations.
• Experience developing engineers, setting technical standards, and balancing strategic capability building with urgent program execution.
• Leadership experience spanning two or more of the following: Quality Engineering, Materials and Process Engineering, Reliability Engineering, Supplier Quality, Failure Analysis, or Systems Engineering.
• Experience with low-volume, high-complexity hardware in quantum, aerospace, semiconductor, photonics, precision instrumentation, medical device, or similarly rigorous environments.
• Knowledge of ISO 9001 or comparable quality-system frameworks and experience translating requirements into practical engineering controls.
• Experience with precision mechanical assemblies, optics and photonics, electronics, vacuum systems, cryogenic systems, cleanrooms, and contamination-sensitive hardware.
• Experience establishing failure analysis laboratories or external laboratory networks and applying analytical techniques such as SEM/EDS, XPS, FTIR, microscopy, metrology, leak detection, or contamination analysis.
• Experience with reliability planning, FMEA/FMECA, accelerated testing, reliability growth, FRACAS, or field-data analysis.
• Six Sigma, ASQ, reliability, quality-auditor, or related professional certification.
• Excellent judgment, communication, organizational leadership, and cross-functional influence.

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