Senior Partner Quality & Safety Programs Lead

Aurora Innovation Inc.; Coppell (TX); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 167,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Equity compensation

Benefits

Job summary

Aurora Innovation Inc. in Coppell, TX, is seeking a Staff Program Manager, Partner Quality, to own the quality and safety dimensions of the partner KPI framework across vendor categories. You will set standards, audit cadences, and certification requirements, guiding actions with Product Operations.

You will design vendor audits, surface quality risks early, and lead root-cause investigations to implement corrective plans with-category leads and senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Operations, Engineering, Quality Management, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience; advanced degree preferred.
• 7+ years of relevant experience in supplier/vendor quality management, quality assurance, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience independently leading complex, cross-functional quality or safety programs across vendor categories.
• Proven ability to define quality standards, audit frameworks, and corrective-action systems in ambiguous environments.
• Track record of resolving systemic quality issues through structured root-cause analysis.
• Strong executive communication, business judgment, and stakeholder influence skills.
• Advanced experience developing and using quality metrics, audit scorecards, and performance systems to drive decisions.
• Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification, or ability to obtain certification within 90 days of hire.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the strategic owner for the quality and safety dimensions of the partner KPI framework, defining standards, audit cadence, and certification requirements across partnership categories.
• Design and operate vendor audit processes to proactively surface quality risks before they affect commercial or safety outcomes.
• Investigate systemic quality failures, root-cause findings, and drive corrective and preventive action plans in partnership with Product Operations and affected category leads.
• Partner with category leads to embed quality and safety metrics into vendor scorecards and Quarterly Business Reviews.
• Apply Lean Six Sigma and DMAIC methodology to resolve recurring quality issues in both Aurora's and partners' processes.
• Frame quality risk, safety exposure, and remediation tradeoffs for senior and executive leaders, driving alignment across Operations, Product, and Safety.

Skills

Vendor quality management

Cross-functional leadership

Quality assurance

Lean Six Sigma

Executive communication

Data-driven decision making

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/Operations/Engineering/Quality Management

Tools

Jira

Jama

Confluence

Google Suite

Job description

Aurora Innovation Inc. in Coppell, TX, is seeking a Staff Program Manager, Partner Quality, to own the quality and safety dimensions of the partner KPI framework across vendor categories. You will set standards, audit cadences, and certification requirements, guiding actions with Product Operations.

You will design vendor audits, surface quality risks early, and lead root-cause investigations to implement corrective plans with-category leads and senior stakeholders.