Senior Product Validation Manager

Job Summary

Lead and manage a Product Validation team responsible for executing end-to-end validation for assigned programs. Ensure validation scope, coverage, execution quality, and release readiness are achieved while driving strong cross-functional alignment with engineering, product, and manufacturing teams.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Leadership and Management Responsibilities

• Establish clear goals and performance expectations aligned to program delivery and quality metrics
• Manage team workload, resource allocation, and prioritization across multiple programs
• Provide leadership, coaching, and development for engineers and test leads
• Recruit, interview, and hire Product Validation engineering team members
• Identify skill gaps and drive team capability development

• Program Execution Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end validation execution, including planning, scheduling, execution oversight, and reporting
• Define validation scope, coverage strategy, and detailed test plans aligned to requirements
• Ensure validation activities meet phase entry/exit criteria
• Ensure validation results provide clear and actionable engineering signal

• Technical Management Responsibilities

• Guide validation methodology across functional, performance, reliability, compliance, and system-level testing
• Provide technical direction and oversight to engineers on coverage, prioritization, and defect quality
• Lead validation readiness reviews and support release gating decisions
• Ensure test configurations and execution align with product requirements and design intent

• Cross-Functional Responsibilities

• Act as the primary validation point of contact for program teams and stakeholders
• Communicate validation plans, status, risks, and issues clearly and effectively
• Parenthetize with Electrical, Mechanical, Firmware, Systems, and Manufacturing teams to ensure design-for-validation
• Support customer interactions with validation data and technical insights

• Operational Management Responsibilities

• Track and manage key validation metrics, including coverage, defect trends, and schedule adherence
• Ensure documentation of test plans, execution results, and lessons learned
• Drive continuous improvement in validation processes, tools, and reporting
• Support compliance to industry standards and customer requirements
• Roughly 10% travel

Job Qualifications

• Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of experience in product development or validation engineering
• 3–5 years of experience leading engineering teams or technical leads

• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong understanding of product validation methodologies and test lifecycle execution
• Experience with hardware systems (servers, storage, networking) and firmware interaction
• Strong program execution, prioritization, and risk management skills
• Able to translate technical data into clear business and customer messaging
• Effective cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder communication