Cssmerge Head of Quality responsible for building and owning the quality function for autonomous vehicle fleet production from prototype to serial production. Holds final QA authority and leads quality team.
Responsibilities
We are scaling an autonomous vehicle fleet from prototype builds to serial production, spanning PCBA production, compute box assembly, and vehicle upfitting across in-house facilities and contract manufacturers. You will build the quality function from zero and own it end to end. You are the final authority on what ships.
Own release gates and quality systems across the full build: boards, box assembly, vehicle upfitting
Define the quality metric set and drive systematic defect reduction
Hold final QA authority over all production, including any third-party upfitter or CM; no unit releases without your gate
Build root-cause discipline: 8D, CAPA, structured failure analysis feeding back into design and process
Set workmanship and inspection standards and audit suppliers against them
Stand up the quality documentation backbone: control plans, PFMEA, incoming inspection, traceability
Hire and lead the quality team as volumes scale
What we are looking for
10+ years in quality leadership for complex hardware: automotive, AV, EV, space, robotics, or similar safety-critical industries
Scaling experience: has taken quality systems from low-volume builds to serial production
Knows what “really good” looks like: time inside a large OEM or Tier 1 quality organization, combined with the pragmatism to build from zero in a startup environment
Qualification
Scaling experience
Required
10+ years in quality leadership for complex hardware: automotive, AV, EV, space, robotics, or similar safety-critical industries
Scaling experience: has taken quality systems from low-volume builds to serial production
Experience inside a large OEM or Tier 1 quality organization
Deep hands-on knowledge of IPC standards, APQP/PPAP or equivalent, and supplier quality management
Willing to hold the line on release decisions under schedule pressure
