SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 174,050 - 239,320 / annual
Divergent 3D is building an integrated engineering and manufacturing platform for advanced systems in aerospace and automotive industries. The Senior Manager, Quality Systems Engineering leads Divergent's Quality Systems Engineering organization, owning the Enterprise Quality Management System (QMS) and driving the development of the Digital Quality Management System (DQMS)—an internally developed platform consolidating part quality information into a single digital thread.
Key responsibilities include:
**Enterprise QMS Ownership**: Own the complete QMS architecture (policies, procedures, work instructions) that defines how Divergent designs, industrializes, and produces. Keep documented systems aligned with actual work practices across the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS), retiring or rewriting outdated documentation. Integrate quality requirements into product lifecycle stage gates rather than reconstructing controls after the fact. Maintain QMS as a coherent system, resolving conflicts and gaps between functions.
**Digital Quality Management System Leadership**: Own the vision, direction, and roadmap for DQMS. Define functional and data requirements for part quality information capture, structure, and completeness standards. Lead development in partnership with software, IT, and data engineering, setting priority and sequence. Retire fragmented spreadsheets and disconnected systems. Establish governance for data ownership, entry discipline, validation, and relationships with existing systems of record. Build business case and demonstrate ROI across roadmap cycles.
**Team Leadership**: Lead quality systems engineers and document control specialists. Set priorities, balance workload against audit and certification commitments, and own hiring. Build depth in audit practice, root cause methodology, and QMS administration. Define quality standards for audit reports, CAPA records, and process documentation.
**Audit Program**: Own internal audit schedule, auditor qualification, finding classification, and escalation. Lead layered process audits on the production floor. Serve as primary interface for registrar, customer, and third-party audits, managing responses through verified closure.
**Certification & Compliance**: Maintain AS9100, ISO 9001, IATF 16949, and Nadcap certifications. Manage competing aerospace and automotive demands within one coherent system. Translate standard requirements into company process language. Anticipate quality system requirements for new programs.
**Document Control & Change Management**: Own ETQ as the system of record for controlled documents, revisions, approvals, and retention. Administer Management of Change process for process, material, equipment, and supplier changes. Enforce revision discipline and record retention.
**Corrective Action**: Own CAPA pipeline, converting escapes, audit findings, and nonconformances into systemic corrective actions. Set and maintain structured root cause analysis method standards company-wide. Verify effectiveness and reopen ineffective actions. Escalate systemic gaps to Senior Director, EHS and Quality.
**Quality Data & Reporting**: Consolidate nonconformance, issue, and risk intake into coherent triage path. Define and report metrics showing QMS effectiveness (audit trends, CAPA cycle time, document health, certification status). Present quality system performance and risk to senior leadership.
**Cross-functional Partnership**: Partner with Product Reliability Engineering on control plans and customer escapes. Partner with Build Reliability Engineering on root cause standards and equipment qualification. Work with Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Program Management to embed quality at decision points.
**Requirements:**
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical discipline
- 8+ years quality engineering or quality systems experience in manufacturing
- 3+ years leading and developing a team with direct people management
- Demonstrated QMS ownership in regulated/certified manufacturing, including documentation structure responsibility
- Experience planning and conducting internal audits and supporting external registrar/customer audits
- Working knowledge of AS9100, ISO 9001, and IATF 16949
- Applied experience with structured root cause and corrective action methodology (8D, 5-Why, fishbone, FMEA) and driving actions to verified closure
- Experience defining requirements for and deploying quality systems software, partnering with software/IT teams
- Experience administering electronic QMS or document control platforms
- Ability to lawfully access information and technology subject to US export controls
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- Certified Lead Auditor for AS9100, ISO 9001, or IATF 16949
- ASQ certification (CQE, CQA, CMQ/OE)
- Experience leading digital quality, digital thread, or part traceability initiatives
- Experience integrating quality data across MES, PLM, and ERP systems
- Experience deploying layered process audit programs in production
- Experience in additive manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, or low-volume high-mix environments
- Experience standing up or substantially restructuring a QMS
- Experience holding certification to both aerospace and automotive standards within one system
- ETQ Reliance administration experience
- Six Sigma Black Belt certification
- Experience supporting aerospace or automotive structures programs
