Senior Manager of Process Assurance

Merlin Labs, Inc.; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in Merlin

Flexible paid time off

Comprehensive healthcare

Parental leave

Lifestyle spending account

401K program

Job summary

Merlin Labs, Inc. is seeking a senior leader to own and evolve the process backbone for certification across programs in autonomous aviation.

You will lead a cross-disciplinary team and partner with engineering and flight test leaders to standardize processes and ensure alignment with regulatory guidance. You will establish a formal auditing program, interface with certification authorities, and drive continuous improvement, balancing rigor with the pace of a fast-growing company.

Qualifications

• Experience leading or managing a team of engineers across multiple technical disciplines.
• Experience with engineering process documentation and regulatory System Reviews/Process Assurance audits.
• Proven track record in configuring management, development assurance, and process assurance.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of engineers responsible for configuration management, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality reporting to the VP of Airworthiness & Certification.
• Own configuration management and partner with engineering and flight test leadership to manage processes.
• Standardize and deploy core processes within engineering to support future certification.
• Establish and run a compliance auditing program for military and civil certification of autonomous systems.
• Represent process assurance in interactions with certification authorities and customer quality teams.
• Drive continuous improvement of engineering processes based on audits and lessons learned.
• Lead root-cause and corrective action to close audit findings and prevent recurrence.
• Report process health and improvement roadmap to VP of Airworthiness & Certification.

Skills

Leadership

Regulatory knowledge

Process improvement

Auditing

Configuration management

Development assurance

Do-178C knowledge

AS9100

DO-330 tool qualification

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

PLM tools

Quality reporting tooling

Job description

• Merlin Labs builds autonomous aviation systems for civil and defense customers, and the engineering organization behind that work needs a leader who owns the process backbone supporting certification across multiple programs
• You will lead a team of engineers responsible for configuration management, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality reporting to the VP of Airworthiness & Certification
• Lead and grow a team of engineers spanning configuration management, development assurance, process assurance, and software quality assurance
• Own configuration management and partner with key leaders in the engineering and flight test organization to manage the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of these processes
• Parter with all technical leaders to standardize and deploy core processes within engineering, ensuring they comply with established policies and guidance, and reflect best practices to support future certification
• Establish and run a compliance auditing program verifying that engineering process documents and their execution meet established policy and guidance for military and civil certification of autonomous systems
• Represent process assurance in interactions with certification authorities, designated engineering representatives, and customer quality, providing objective evidence of process compliance and maturity
• Serve as the primary point of contact for DCMA and other government quality assurance representatives on military programs, providing evidence of process compliance during surveillance and audits
• Drive continuous improvement of engineering processes based on audit findings, program lessons learned, and evolving regulatory guidance, balancing rigor with the pace a fast-growing company requires
• Lead root-cause and corrective action analysis to close audit findings and prevent recurrence
• Report to the VP of Airworthiness & Certification on process health, audit outcomes, open findings, and the improvement roadmap across engineering
• Build scalable, repeatable process frameworks so process assurance stays ahead of planned growth

Benefits

• Equity in Merlin
• Flexible paid time off
• Comprehesive healthcare
• Parental leave
• Lifestyle spending account
• 401K program

You have strong leadership and communications skills and a passion for developing and leading new initiatives backed by your years of experienceYou have written, audited, or defended process documentation that successfully completed regulatory System Reviews/ Process Assurance auditsYou have spent years inside engineering organizations that built certified aircraft systems, and you know that a program lives or dies on the rigor of the process behind itYou lead by building relationships and processes, and you know how to get a team of engineers with different specialties, working in a fast-paced environment pulling in the same directionWorking knowledge of military airworthiness process, civil (FAA) certification frameworks, systems safety, and quality management system standards (e.g., SAE EIA-649B, MIL-STD-882E, AS9100D) as applied to engineering process documentationIf you want to build the process infrastructure that enables a fast-moving company to certify complex autonomous systems repeatably instead of reinventing it every program, this is the role for you5+ years of experience leading or managing a team of engineers, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management across multiple technical disciplinesWorking knowledge of software/tool qualification (DO-330) as applied to development and verification tools used on certification programsExperience developing, auditing, or defending engineering process documentation for regulatory or customer compliance with a track record of successful internal or external audits (System Reviews, e.g., FAA Stage of Involvement per Order 8110.4C/8110.49)U.S. citizenship required and ability to obtain security clearanceDirect working knowledge on completed certification programs of configuration management, DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A/B, and ARP4761ABachelor’s degree in engineering or a related technical field, with 12+ years of experience in aerospace systems, software, or hardware development, including significant experience in configuration management, process assurance, and development assuranceExperience with ASTM F3230 and F3061 consensus standards, or other Part 23 / consensus-based certification bases relevant to small and autonomous aircraftExperience leading development and implementation of complex PLM toolsExperience managing problem reporting tools including standardization and analytics across common programsBackground in autonomous or unmanned aviation systems, or another safety-critical domain where process rigor and rapid iteration must coexistExperience building or scaling configuration management and process assurance functions in a startupActive clearance. TS preferredExperience with CMMI-based process maturity appraisals for DoD-facing engineering organizationsExperience with airworthiness cybersecurity certification (DO-326A/ED-202A, DO-356A) and integrating security risk assessment into certification evidence