100 Head of Quality

Help Build Europe’s Hypersonic Capability

Hypersonica , we’re redefining what’s possible in European defence technology.

We exist to deliver speed, resilience, and technological independence at a pace that sets a new standard.

We are a small, elite team working on problems that matter, and solving them fast.

By joining

Hypersonica , you’re not stepping into a predefined role.

You’re joining a talent dense environment where every individual shapes the direction of the company.

Our philosophy is to hire a small number of exceptional people with broad, deep technical capability, strong judgement, and the ability to operate autonomously.

We hire for talent, not rigid boxes.

This role represents a business need, but the way it evolves will be shaped by the individual.

If you’ve achieved what others said was impossible, or you bring a unique combination of skills that doesn’t fit a traditional mould, we want to hear from you.

The work you do here directly contributes to Europe’s technological independence.

• What You’ll Do
• Build and lead Hypersonica’s UK quality function across design, supply chain, manufacturing, assembly, test, and production.
• Design and implement a lean, scalable Quality Management System from zero, aligned to AS9100 and relevant defence quality requirements.
• Own the pathway to AS9100 certification, including gap assessment, process architecture, documentation, internal audits, management reviews, corrective actions, and certification readiness.
• Define the minimum credible quality controls required for prototype, development, qualification, and production hardware, increasing rigour as the programme matures.
• Embed quality into engineering and operations from the outset, ensuring requirements, design decisions, change control, verification evidence, and build records remain clear and traceable.
• Own nonconformance, MRB, concessions, deviations, CAPA, and root‑cause processes, ensuring issues are contained quickly and permanently resolved.
• Build the supplier quality operating model, including supplier selection, qualification, quality agreements, audits, first article inspection, incoming inspection, performance management, and corrective action.
• Establish product and process quality controls across manufacturing and assembly, including inspection plans, critical characteristics, special processes, calibration, measurement systems, and configuration traceability.
• Define and lead quality readiness gates across design reviews, production readiness reviews, first article inspection, test readiness, and flight readiness.
• Act as the senior quality authority during high‑consequence decisions, balancing programme speed with evidence, traceability, and product integrity.
• Build audit‑ready systems by default, ensuring evidence exists because it supports delivery rather than because someone may ask for it later.
• Lead engagement with customers, certification bodies, auditors, suppliers, and defence stakeholders on quality matters.
• Create concise quality metrics that leadership actually uses, including NCR cycle time, escape rate, supplier quality, first‑pass yield, audit findings, CAPA closure, and recurring defect trends.
• Build and lead the future UK quality team, defining the required capabilities across design quality, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, and quality systems.
• Establish a culture where quality is owned by everyone and the quality function enables engineering rather than policing it.

Who You Are

• A senior quality leader with substantial experience in aerospace, defence, complex hardware, or another high‑consequence engineering environment.
• Proven at building or fundamentally reshaping a Quality Management System, ideally through AS9100 implementation or certification.
• Experienced across the full product lifecycle, from requirements and design through supplier manufacture, assembly, test, qualification, and production.
• Deeply familiar with AS9100 and practical aerospace or defence quality expectations, including configuration control, traceability, nonconformance, CAPA, FAI, supplier quality, and audit readiness.
• Comfortable operating across design quality, supplier quality, and manufacturing quality rather than being confined to one narrow area.
• Proven at handling serious quality escapes, leading containment and root‑cause analysis, and driving corrective actions to permanent closure.
• Credible with senior engineers, programme leaders, manufacturing teams, suppliers, customers, and auditors.
• Able to distinguish between controls that protect product integrity and process that exists only because it has always existed.
• Strong at building simple, usable systems that teams follow under pressure.
• Experienced qualifying and managing suppliers producing flight‑critical, safety‑critical, or tightly controlled hardware.
• Comfortable making hard calls when schedule pressure conflicts with evidence, traceability, or product conformity.
• Hands‑on by default. You are prepared to be on the shop floor, in design reviews, at supplier sites, and inside investigations when the programme needs it.
• Calm, decisive, and commercially aware, with the judgement to keep hardware moving without normalising risk.
• Experience with AQAP, Mo D quality requirements, composite manufacturing, special processes, or missile systems is highly valuable but not essential.
• Experience working with hazardous materials, explosives, energetic materials, or other major‑hazard environments would be an advantage, but is not essential.
• Motivated by building a quality function from zero where the standard directly determines whether hardware is accepted, tested, and flown.
• Security and Eligibility Requirement
• Due to the nature of the work with the UK Mo D, applicants must be a British Citizen, or a dual national holding British citizenship, and eligible for UK Security Clearance and, where required, Developed Vetting.

What We Offer

• A mission driven environment with the opportunity to work on one of Europe’s most consequential defence challenges, with direct impact on sovereign capability and security.
• Daily collaboration with top experts across engineering, operations, and defence, with real opportunity to learn from the best, contribute, and grow.
• High ownership and autonomy; no time tracking, no micromanagement, just clear objectives and accountability for outcomes.
• A fast paced environment where good ideas are implemented quickly, and feedback from test and flight drives real decisions.
• A culture that values clarity, integrity, and excellence, and supports people who take initiative and push boundaries responsibly.
• Competitive compensation and real share options aligned to responsibility and impact, not tenure or hierarchy.

Hypersonica is an equal‑opportunity employer and assesses candidates solely on merit, capability, and potential.

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