Director of Process Assurance & Certification

Quiet Capital; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 265,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, life

401k with match

Flexible paid time off

Job summary

Merlin Labs, headquartered in Boston, MA, seeks a senior leader to own the process backbone for certification across multiple autonomous aviation programs. You will lead CM, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality teams, coordinating with engineering and flight test to govern documentation and evidence for DO-178C/DO-254 and related standards.

The role emphasizes building scalable, repeatable process frameworks, auditing compliance, and interfacing with certification

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical field; 12+ years experience in aerospace systems, software, or hardware development.
• Direct working knowledge on completed certification programs (configuration management, DO-178C/DO-254, ARP4754A/B, ARP4761A).
• Experience with software/tool qualification (DO-330) applied to development/verification tools on certification programs.
• 5+ years leading or managing a team of engineers across disciplines.
• Experience developing, auditing, or defending engineering process documentation for regulatory or customer compliance with audit track records (FAA Stage of Involvement).
• Knowledge of military airworthiness, civil certification, systems safety, and quality standards (SAE EIA-649B, MIL-STD-882E, AS9100D).
• US citizenship and ability to obtain security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a team of engineers spanning CM, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality assurance.
• Own CM and partner with engineering/flight test leaders to develop, maintain, and improve these processes.
• Standardize and deploy core processes across engineering to support future certification.
• Establish and run a compliance auditing program verifying process documents meet policy for military and civil certification.
• Represent process assurance with certification authorities and customer quality, providing evidence of process compliance.
• Serve as primary contact for DCMA and other government QA reps on military programs.
• Drive continuous improvement of engineering processes based on audits and guidance.
• Lead root-cause analysis to close audit findings and prevent recurrence.
• Report process health and audit outcomes to VP of Airworthiness & Certification.
• Build scalable process frameworks to stay ahead of growth.

Skills

Leadership

Regulatory knowledge

Stakeholder communication

Team management

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical field

Tools

DO-178C

DO-254

ARP4754A/B

ARP4761A

DO-330

SAE EIA-649B

MIL-STD-882E

AS9100D

CMMI-based appraisals

PLM tools

Job description

Merlin Labs, headquartered in Boston, MA, seeks a senior leader to own the process backbone for certification across multiple autonomous aviation programs. You will lead CM, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality teams, coordinating with engineering and flight test to govern documentation and evidence for DO-178C/DO-254 and related standards.

The role emphasizes building scalable, repeatable process frameworks, auditing compliance, and interfacing with certification