Senior Quality Manager – Space Systems Production

Department: Quality Assurance

Location: TX

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. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

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—from the main rocket manufacturing plant, through nearby avionics/spacecraft facilities, out to domestic and international launch sites—ensuring absolute mission success and strict compliance for direct government contracts and Tier-1 prime aerospace suppliers. Key to this building a proactive culture of quality and building relationships across various organizations including program, design, manufacturing and launch.

Position Details

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

Key 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.

Required 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.