Quality & Reliability Engineer

Frontline Wildfire Defense; South Gate (CA); Remote; USD 145,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company-provided cell phone and laptop

Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance

Remote-first work environment

14 paid holidays

Flexible time off

Job summary

Frontline Wildfire Defense is seeking a Quality & Reliability Engineer to establish and lead our hardware quality and reliability program for field-deployed systems. You will own the loop turning field failures into root causes and permanent fixes across designs, suppliers, and contract manufacturers in collaboration with hardware engineering, operations, and field support.

This role requires hands-on leadership in FA/RC/CA, reliability testing, supplier quality, and field investigations, with

Qualifications

• 5+ years in quality and/or reliability engineering for physical, deployed hardware.
• Demonstrated ownership of failure analysis and corrective action, driven to verified closure.
• Direct supplier and contract-manufacturer quality experience: corrective action, incoming inspection, and qualification.
• Reliability-testing experience (HALT/HASS, life, environmental) and the ability to act on the results.
• Willing to travel to the field and suppliers.

Responsibilities

• Stand up our FA/RC/CA process - failure analysis, root cause, and corrective action - and the tracking and review cadence behind it
• Define and track quality and reliability metrics to target the biggest issues
• Help define and build and run reliability tests (HALT/HASS, life, environmental) to catch failures before they ship
• Own field‑failure investigations end to end, from field and telemetry signals to verified root cause
• Drive and verify fixes across mechanical, electromechanical, fluidic, and electronic systems, and feed them back into design
• Partner with field support and operations to quantify failure modes and prioritize reliability improvements
• Run supplier issues to ground - containment, corrective action, incoming inspection, and verification
• Qualify new and second‑source suppliers and work with contract manufacturers on build quality
• Build quality gates into new product introduction and review design and BOM changes for risk

Skills

Failure analysis

Root cause analysis

Reliability testing

Supplier quality

Field support

Job description

Please note that we do not accept unsolicited candidate introductions, referrals, or resumes from external recruiters or staffing agencies.

Location: Remote - Candidates should be located in Southern California

As part of our hiring process, Frontline Wildfire Defense conducts comprehensive background checks for all new hires. These checks typically cover the past 7–10 years and may include employment and education verification. For roles that require work in the field, driving record verification is also required. Employment offers are contingent upon the successful completion of these background checks.

About Frontline Wildfire Defense

Founded in 2017, Frontline developed the first fully integrated wildfire defense system to stop the leading cause of home loss in wildfires: ember-driven ignition. The system combines exterior sprinklers, full-coverage design, and connected software for remote monitoring and response, allowing homes to protect themselves long after families evacuate or infrastructure fails.

Proven effective during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, 96% of homes with Frontline systems survived. That success has earned top industry recognition, including Frontline being recognized as one of TIME’s Best Inventions 2025 in the Green Tech category and receiving the PCBC Gold Nugget Award for “Most Innovative Housing Concept” and the Best of IBS Award for “Best Home Technology.”

As wildfires grow hotter and more frequent, our vision is to give people the tools and strategies to live safely with fire. We’re building a mission-driven team creating real-world solutions in wildfire safety and climate tech.

About This Opportunity

As the Quality & Reliability Engineer, you will stand up Frontline’s hardware quality and reliability function and run it hands‑on. Our connected, field‑deployed systems have to work the one day they are needed, so quality is mission‑critical.

You will own the loop that turns a field failure into a root cause and a permanent fix - across our designs, suppliers, and contract manufacturer - building the quality process and doing the work, in partnership with hardware engineering, operations, and field support.

Key Responsibilities

Quality & Reliability Process

• Stand up our FA/RC/CA process - failure analysis, root cause, and corrective action - and the tracking and review cadence behind it
• Define and track quality and reliability metrics to target the biggest issues
• Help define and build and run reliability tests (HALT/HASS, life, environmental, etc.) to catch failures before they ship

Field Failure Analysis & Corrective Action

• Own field‑failure investigations end to end, from field and telemetry signals to verified root cause
• Drive and verify fixes across mechanical, electromechanical, fluidic, and electronic systems, and feed them back into design
• Partner with field support and operations to quantify failure modes and prioritize reliability improvements
• Run supplier issues to ground - containment, corrective action, incoming inspection, and verification
• Qualify new and second‑source suppliers and work with contract manufacturers on build quality
• Build quality gates into new product introduction and review design and BOM changes for risk

Qualifications

Must‑Have:

• 5+ years in quality and/or reliability engineering for physical, deployed hardware (electromechanical, fluidic, or connected‑device a plus)
• Demonstrated ownership of failure analysis and corrective action, driven to verified closure
• Direct supplier and contract‑manufacturer quality experience: corrective action, incoming inspection, and qualification
• Reliability‑testing experience (HALT/HASS, life, environmental) and the ability to act on the results
• Comfortable building process and doing the work in a scaling company, and willing to travel to the field and suppliers

Nice‑to‑Have:

• Field or operations exposure: debugging deployed systems and working with installers
• Connected/IoT products: telemetry‑driven diagnostics and firmware/OTA failure modes
• Familiarity with reliability statistics and PLM/ECO and BOM rigor
• Salary Range: $145,000 - $170,000 DOE
• Company‑provided cell phone and laptop
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Flexible time off + 14 paid holidays (yes, your birthday is one of them!)
• Work‑from‑home stipend to support your remote setup
• Remote‑first work environment, fostering work‑life balance and autonomy
• Company‑provided equipment
• Join a high‑performing, mission‑driven team doing work that truly matters
• And much more!

Join Our Mission!

If you're excited about building technology that protects homes and families from wildfire disasters, we want to hear from you!

Diversity and inclusion are essential values at Frontline. We know we'll do our best and most impactful work when we feel represented, and we belong. We encourage talented people from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Voluntary Self‑Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self‑identification survey.Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiringprocess or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in aconfidential file.

As set forth in Frontline Wildfire Defense’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three‑year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.