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Instawork Robotics Labs (IRL) is building infrastructure to close the "100,000-year data gap" between AI language models and physical robot learning. The company deploys skilled workers into real commercial and residential environments—kitchens, warehouses, hotel floors, homes—to capture high-fidelity task data that robotics labs use to train foundation models.
As QA Lead, you will own quality assurance and operations for IRL's data-collection workforce. Your responsibilities span five core areas:
**Workforce & Operations Leadership:** Drive day-to-day management of Clippers, Graders, Regraders, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), and Individual Contributors across multiple shifts and sites. Optimize staffing, capacity planning, and throughput against SLA targets.
**Quality Systems & Methods:** Maintain the Quality Management System (QMS) and apply structured methodologies—Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Corrective and Preventive Action (CAPA), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), 8D problem-solving, and Statistical Process Control (SPC)—to address recurring defects, calibration drift, gold-sample injections, and consensus checks.
**Standard Operating Procedures:** Build, version-control, and continuously iterate SOPs for existing and new program launches. Ensure floor adoption and establish structured QA onboarding and re-calibration pathways.
**Cross-Functional Collaboration:** Translate engineering data requirements into floor-executable QA criteria. Report field issues back to engineering with evidence. Represent QA in program launches and crisis calls.
**Data-Driven Quality:** Monitor and analyze key QA metrics—defect/reject rates, inter-grader agreement (kappa), gold-sample pass rates, yield, and escalation volume—to identify and root out quality degradation.
Success is measured by measurable improvement in QA metrics across all programs, early detection and systematic resolution of quality issues via structured methods, systematic SOP updates with full operational alignment, accurate translation of engineering requirements into actionable floor criteria, and smooth scaling of grading and QA operations across teams, shifts, and locations.
**Requirements:**
- Proven experience managing large or dispersed grading/QA teams across multiple shifts or sites (Distributed QA/QC Leadership)
- Strong working command and practical application of RCA, CAPA, FMEA, 8D, SPC, and QMS frameworks (Quality Methods Depth)
- Proven track record of building and interpreting quality dashboards, interrogating metrics, and quantifying operational trade-offs (Analytical & Data-Driven Mindset)
- Clear, structured communication skills across all levels—upward to leadership, cross-functionally with engineering, and directly to floor teams (Stakeholder & Communication Skills)
- Proactive problem-solver who thrives on the floor building processes and tackling operational challenges directly, with high ownership mentality (Hands-on, High Ownership)
