SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Hypersonica is building Europe's hypersonic defence capability and seeks a Head of Quality to establish and lead the quality function across German operations. This is a regional leadership role responsible for quality across design, supply chain, manufacturing, assembly, test, and production, working closely with the Group Director of Quality and UK counterpart.
You will build Hypersonica's quality systems from the ground up—this is not an inherited mature aerospace organisation. Your mission is to design and implement a lean, scalable Quality Management System aligned to EN9100/AS9100 and defence quality requirements, own the pathway to certification, and embed quality into engineering and operations from the outset.
Key responsibilities include: designing and implementing quality controls for prototype through production hardware; owning nonconformance, MRB, concessions, deviations, CAPA, and root-cause processes; building the supplier quality operating model including qualification, audits, and performance management; establishing product and process controls across manufacturing and assembly; defining quality readiness gates; acting as senior quality authority on high-consequence decisions; creating actionable quality metrics; building and leading the German quality team; and establishing a culture where quality enables rather than polices engineering.
You will travel to suppliers, test locations, and other Hypersonica sites as needed. The role requires hands-on involvement on the shop floor, in design reviews, at supplier sites, and in investigations. You will engage with customers, certification bodies, auditors, suppliers, and defence stakeholders on quality matters.
Hypersonica operates as a small, elite, talent-dense environment where individuals shape company direction. The company hires for exceptional capability, strong judgement, and autonomous operation rather than rigid role definitions.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Senior quality leader with substantial experience in aerospace, defence, complex hardware, or high-consequence engineering environments
- Proven track record building or fundamentally reshaping a Quality Management System, ideally through EN9100/AS9100 implementation or certification
- Experience across full product lifecycle: requirements, design, supplier manufacture, assembly, test, qualification, and production
- Deep familiarity with EN9100/AS9100 and practical aerospace/defence quality expectations including configuration control, traceability, nonconformance, CAPA, FAI, supplier quality, and audit readiness
- Comfortable operating across design quality, supplier quality, and manufacturing quality
- Proven handling of serious quality escapes, leading containment and root-cause analysis, driving corrective actions to closure
- Credible with senior engineers, programme leaders, manufacturing teams, suppliers, customers, and auditors
- Ability to distinguish between controls protecting product integrity and unnecessary process
- Strong at building simple, usable systems that teams follow under pressure
- Experienced qualifying and managing suppliers producing flight-critical, safety-critical, or tightly controlled hardware
- Comfortable making hard calls when schedule pressure conflicts with evidence, traceability, or product conformity
- Hands-on by default; prepared to be on shop floor, in design reviews, at supplier sites, and in investigations
- Calm, decisive, commercially aware with judgement to keep hardware moving without normalising risk
- Highly valuable but not essential: AQAP, German defence quality requirements, composite manufacturing, special processes, missile systems experience
- Advantageous but not essential: experience with hazardous materials, explosives, energetic materials, or major-hazard environments
- Security eligibility: must meet nationality, security, and clearance requirements applicable to defence programmes
The company offers mission-driven work on Europe's consequential defence challenges, collaboration with top experts, high ownership and autonomy, fast-paced environment where ideas are implemented quickly, culture valuing clarity and integrity, and competitive compensation with real share options.
