Senior Manager, Process Assurance

About You: You 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 it. You have written, audited, or defended process documentation that successfully completed regulatory System Reviews/ Process Assurance audits. You have strong leadership and communications skills and a passion for developing and leading new initiatives backed by your years of experience. You 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 direction. 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. If 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 you.

Responsibilities: 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. Partner 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. Qualifications: Bachelor'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 assurance. Direct working knowledge on completed certification programs of configuration management, DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A/B, and ARP4761A. Working knowledge of software/tool qualification (DO-330) as applied to development and verification tools used on certification programs. 5+ years of experience leading or managing a team of engineers, including hiring, mentoring, and performance management across multiple technical disciplines. Experience 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). Working 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 documentation. U.S. citizenship required and ability to obtain security clearance. Nice to Have: Experience with ASTM F3230 and F3061 consensus standards, or other Part 23 / consensus-based certification bases relevant to small and autonomous aircraft. Experience leading development and implementation of complex PLM tools Experience managing problem reporting tools including standardization and analytics across common programs. Background in autonomous or unmanned aviation systems, or another safety-critical domain where process rigor and rapid iteration must coexist. Experience building or scaling configuration management and process assurance functions in a startup. Active clearance. TS preferred. Experience with CMMI-based process maturity appraisals for DoD-facing engineering organizations. Experience with airworthiness cybersecurity certification (DO-326A/ED-202A, DO-356A) and integrating security risk assessment into certification evidence. Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top-notch benefits package (health, dental, life, flexible paid time off, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission. Merlin Labs is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, military service or obligation or disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. All job offers are contingent upon the candidate passing background and reference checks. At this time, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship or consider candidates who require visa transfers. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing an application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to: people@merlinlabs.com Merlin Labs does not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than directly from candidates. 200000 - 265000 USD a year The compensation range provided is reflective of base salary only, and is a good-faith estimate based on a wide range of factors. The actual offer will be determined by a variety of factors including the candidate's qualifications, skills, experience, education and training. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Merlin's total compensation package. Additionally, Merlin offers top-tier benefits for full‑time employees.