Product Quality Engineering Lead

The future of aerospace and defense starts here. Ursa Major was founded to revolutionize how America and its allies access and apply high-performance propulsion, from hypersonics to solid rocket motors, satellite maneuvering and launch. We design and deliver propulsion and defense systems that solve the most urgent and critical national security demands. The Product Quality Engineering Lead owns the team and the systems that make product quality possible. This includes but is not limited to inspection standards, process controls, internal corrective actions, and long-term process improvements. This role oversees a team of Product Quality Engineers and has the autonomy to adjust roles and responsibilities as necessary to support the business. It is a hands-on leadership role: you will build and scale product quality engineering processes while personally leading the investigations, root cause analysis, and high-impact issues that matter most. The right candidate is both a strategic builder and a technical operator. We are deliberately not looking for someone to step into a well-defined seat and run the existing playbook — the playbook is part of what you will rewrite. Responsibilities: Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Product Quality Engineers – including hiring, performance management, and career development Set priorities and balance workload across the team while ensuring stakeholder alignment Build a high-ownership culture in which each engineer is accountable for the quality of their assigned products and processes Develop the architecture of product quality engineering processes end-to-end. This includes but is not limited to inspection planning, in-process and final inspection, nonconformance management, and root cause and corrective action Drive processes to AS9100D compliance and beyond while supporting other certification or accreditation schemes as they come to fruition Define key metrics for product and team performance and establish a reporting cadence that makes them visible across the organization Provide significant input into the design and continuous improvement of the Quality Management System (QMS), especially product realization and verification/validation Lead or directly support high-stakes investigations, test failures, first article inspections (FAI), and critical build and test activities Own escalations for product quality issues the team cannot resolve independently Lead or support MRB, root cause analysis, and corrective actions for product related issues Partner with Engineering and Manufacturing on DFM, process capability assessments, control plans, and technical drawing reviews Ensure inspection methods, sampling plans, and acceptance criteria are defined and implemented to balance risk, cost, and schedule Support qualification efforts by ensuring activities are executed to requirements, evidence is complete and accurate, and quality controls are appropriately applied. Partner closely with the Responsible Engineers who own product qualification Serve as the senior point of contact for product quality engineering across the entirety of the business Represent product quality engineering in cross functional settings as applicable Collaborate with Design, Configuration, Systems Engineering, Operations, and Test to align verification plans, test approaches, and quality controls Other duties as assigned Required Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree 5+ years of progressive experience in product quality, manufacturing quality, test engineering, or a comparable quality-focused role within aerospace, defense, or a regulated manufacturing environment Demonstrated experience building or substantially overhauling product or manufacturing quality systems and processes Working knowledge of AS9100D and a track record of bringing internal quality processes into compliance Strong understanding of inspection planning, first article inspection, nonconformance management, root cause analysis, and corrective action E…