Senior Quality & Manufacturing Lead

VAST Data, Inc.; California; On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Drive Capital is seeking a Senior Quality & Manufacturing Lead to manage quality initiatives across operations. This role is pivotal for enhancing product reliability and driving quality improvements.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in quality engineering, with over 7 years of experience, and will be responsible for systemic corrective actions and strategic quality processes throughout the product lifecycle.

This position is based in California and offers an opportunity to significantly impact the enterprise hardware sector.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in quality engineering in enterprise hardware, manufacturing, storage, or data center technologies.
• Strong experience in supplier, manufacturing, and field quality operations.
• Proven track record of measurable quality improvements and driving systemic corrective actions.

Responsibilities

• Lead quality initiatives across supplier, manufacturing, and field operations.
• Drive systemic corrective and preventive actions for recurring quality issues.
• Analyze quality trends and failure data to identify improvement opportunities.

Skills

Quality engineering experience

Analytical skills

Project coordination

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related technical field

Tools

Jira

Tableau

Confluence

Job description

Senior Quality & Manufacturing Lead

• Operations
• California
• Senior
• Full-time
• ID: VDT27064

Description

We are seeking an experienced Senior Quality & Manufacturing Lead to lead quality initiatives across manufacturing, supplier, and field operations for enterprise hardware products. This role is responsible for driving systemic quality improvements, managing cross-functional quality activities, and ensuring effective processes are in place throughout the product lifecycle.

The ideal candidate combines strong technical and analytical skills with strategic thinking, operational discipline, and proven execution. This individual must be highly organized, data driven, and capable of driving corrective actions across internal teams, suppliers, manufacturing partners, and field organizations.

VAST Data is the data platform company for the AI era. We are building the enterprise software infrastructure to capture, catalog, refine, enrich, and protect massive datasets and make them available for real-time data analysis and AI training and inference. Designed from the ground up to make AI simple to deploy and manage, VAST takes the cost and complexity out of deploying enterprise and AI infrastructure across data center, edge, and cloud.

Our success has been built through intense innovation, a customer-first mentality and a team of fearless VASTronauts who leverage their skills & experiences to make real market impact. This is an opportunity to be a key contributor at a pivotal time in our company’s growth and at a pivotal point in computing history.

Key Responsibilities

Quality Leadership & Improvement

• Lead quality initiatives across supplier, manufacturing, and field operations to improve overall product reliability and customer experience.
• Drive systemic corrective and preventive actions (CAPA/SCAR/RCCA) for recurring quality issues.
• Analyze quality trends, failure data, and operational metrics to identify risks and improvement opportunities.
• Develop and implement quality processes, standards, and best practices across the organization.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives focused on reducing defects, RMAs, DOA/ELF events, and operational escapes.

Supplier, Manufacturing & Field Quality

• Partner with suppliers and manufacturing partners to drive quality expectations, process improvements, and issue resolution.
• Support supplier audits, qualification activities, FAI reviews, process validations, and production readiness assessments.
• Lead field quality investigations, failure analysis coordination, and customer-impact escalations.
• Track quality issues from identification through containment, corrective action, validation, and closure.
• Collaborate with engineering, operations, manufacturing, and support teams to ensure alignment on quality objectives and execution.

Data, Reporting & Program Execution

• Develop and maintain quality dashboards, metrics, and executive-level reporting.
• Ensure accurate tracking, documentation, and communication of quality activities, corrective actions, and program status.
• Drive disciplined issue management processes including action tracking, ownership accountability, and closure verification.
• Support NPI and sustaining programs with quality planning, risk assessments, and release readiness reviews.
• Present quality performance, trends, and strategic improvement plans to leadership teams.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or related technical field.
• 7+ years of experience in quality engineering within enterprise hardware, manufacturing, storage, or data center technologies.
• Strong experience across supplier quality, manufacturing quality, and field quality operations.
• Proven track record driving measurable quality improvements and systemic corrective actions.
• Experience leading failure analysis, RCCA/SCAR processes, and quality escalations.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent documentation, tracking, and project coordination capabilities.
• Experience developing quality metrics, dashboards, and executive reporting.
• Strong communication skills with ability to work across technical and operational organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with enterprise server, storage, SSD, or AI infrastructure platforms.
• Experience with manufacturing audits, supplier management, and production process validation.
• Knowledge of quality methodologies including CAPA, FMEA, SPC, 8D, and root cause analysis tools.
• Experience with Jira, Tableau, Confluence, or quality management systems.
• ASQ CQE certification or equivalent quality certification preferred.