Quality, Director

Company Overview ARA is a leading C5ISR company that designs, manufactures, tests and installs innovative technologies that provide the national security community with unparalleled situational awareness, threat detection, and communications capabilities. Our disruptive, integrated solutions, assemblies and subsystems rise to the challenging demands of discerning, mission-critical customers. We leverage our capabilities to meet and exceed the requirements of our customers and empower them to remain ahead of evolving threats and complexities in a dynamic security landscape. Job Summary The Director of Quality is accountable for establishing, maintaining, and continually improving the company’s Quality Management System (QMS) and for ensuring products, processes, and suppliers consistently meet customer, contractual, regulatory, and internal requirements. This operational leader will build a proactive quality culture that prevents defects, reduces cost of poor quality, improves on-time delivery, and protects customer confidence. This role leads AS9100/ISO 9001 compliance and, where applicable, FAA, DoD, ITAR/EAR, customer flow-down, special-process, configuration-management, and source-inspection requirements. AS9100 leadership expectations include integrating the QMS into core business processes, applying risk-based thinking, and reporting QMS performance to leadership. Travel requirement: Up to 15-25%, including supplier and customer visits as needed. U.S. Citizenship is required, as only U.S. Citizens are authorized to access information under this program/ contract. Essential Functions Quality Strategy and Leadership Develop and execute a quality strategy aligned with the company’s growth plan, operational objectives, customer commitments, and risk profile. Establish annual quality objectives, operating plans, staffing models, capital needs, and improvement roadmaps. Serve as the senior authority for product quality, QMS effectiveness, release readiness, audit response, and regulatory/customer quality matters. Build a culture in which quality is owned by every function—not merely inspected at the end of production. Partner with the COO, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, and Program Management to integrate quality into SIOP, program reviews, production readiness, make/buy decisions, supplier selection, and new-product introduction. Lead management-review processes and provide clear executive reporting on quality performance, key risks, corrective actions, and resource needs. Quality Management System and Compliance Own the design, maintenance, certification, and continual improvement of the QMS, including policies, procedures, work instructions, records, document control, training, and internal-audit processes. Maintain AS9100D and/or ISO 9001 certification, as applicable; prepare the organization for registrar, customer, government, and regulatory audits. Ensure controlled processes for nonconformance, corrective action, preventive action, root-cause analysis, change control, risk management, calibration, inspection, traceability, and record retention. Ensure quality requirements are incorporated into operating procedures, engineering processes, work instructions, purchasing documents, and supplier flow-downs. Oversee compliance with customer, contractual, statutory, and regulatory requirements, including export-controlled information where applicable. Product and Process Quality Lead quality planning from proposal through design, prototype, qualification, production launch, sustainment, and field support. Establish robust quality gates for contract review, design transfer, first article inspection, production readiness, in-process inspection, final acceptance, and shipment release. Ensure effective use of APQP-like planning, PFMEA, control plans, first article inspection (FAI), process validation, capability studies, and risk-based inspection plans as appropriate. Drive containment, root-cause analysi…

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