Senior Quality Manager – Space Systems Production

About the role

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. The Senior Quality Manager is a high-visibility leadership role responsible for transforming the quality infrastructure in the factory from low-volume technology development to scalable, high-rate production.

Reporting directly to the Quality Director, you will align, train, and manage a team of approximately quality professionals including Quality Engineers, Quality Specialists, and Quality Inspectors across a multi-site campus. This position oversees production for launch vehicles, satellites, and lunar landers across the entire physical footprint.

Position Details: Location: Nexus, Cortex, Briggs. Travel Expectation: < 10% (primarily localized multi-site campus coverage; occasional travel to remote launch facilities)

Responsibilities

• Direct quality operations across primary production lines, including precision CNC machine shops and advanced composites manufacturing (ply layup, and NDT/NDI), electronics manufacturing and spacecraft cleanroom facilities.
• Establish and manage strict hardware shipping and environmental verification protocols as components transition from main manufacturing facilities to remote launch sites.
• Implement Process Adherence and Oversight controls through means of Statistical Process Controls and other methods as needed to track process drift and maximize assembly yield.
• Establish and maintain a robust MRB process and activities, providing coaching and guidance, urgency and true root cause and corrective action.
• Act as site focal to assist with process flow and conformance without compromising margin or mission success.
• Foster and mentor strong Root Cause and Corrective Action, CAPA lifecycles, migrating shop floor culture from containment patching to deep systemic engineering fixes.
• Develop and implement the AS9102 First Article Inspection workflow to clear backlogs and accelerate structural and electronic component validation timelines.
• Identify skills gaps within the existing workforce, implement specialized space-hardware inspection training, and actively recruit top-tier production quality talent to fuel company growth.
• Instill a "Zero-Defect" Culture by pivoting the workforce mindset from reactive development firefighting to a proactive, process-disciplined Zero-Defect approach.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Materials Engineering, Business, Quality or a related technical discipline.
• 15+ years of quality and leadership experience in aerospace manufacturing and support with at least 7+ years leading quality and inspection teams.
• Demonstrated experience leading and improving quality management systems, strong knowledge of AS9100 standards, regulatory requirement and quality methodologies.
• Proven success implementing Lean principles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Engineering, Business, Quality or related technical discipline.
• Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.
• Experience supporting customer and regulatory audits.