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Quality

Head of Build Reliability

Impulse Space logoImpulse Space$185,000–$225,000/yrRedondo Beach, CaliforniaFull TimeAdded 1w ago
  • US citizenship
  • ITAR / US person

How this pay compares

This posting states $185k–$225k a year. Open quality engineer jobs in California post a median of $148k a year, the middle half $122k–$166k, across 128 jobs that state their pay, so this one is above the middle half of what they post.

Quality engineers and inspectors in California: pay by town and employer

About the job

As the Head of Build Reliability at Impulse,you will be the organizational leader and authority for quality. You will own the vision and execution of our quality management ecosystem across all vehicle programs.

Partnering directly with executive leadership and engineering heads you will help ensure that our rapid production timelines are met while maintaining a high level of product reliability. ## Responsibilities - Recruit, mentor, and scale a world-class Build Reliability engineering and inspection department; establish departmental KPIs, manage budgets, and align resource allocation with company build schedules. - Partner across engineering and manufacturing to identify and mitigate build risks early, ensuring designs and processes are producible, inspectable and capable of consistently meeting requirements. - Serve as the Quality Management System (QMS) representative to implement and sustain AS9100 certification, lead Management Review and act as the primary organizational representative for external regulatory bodies and aerospace customer quality audits - Collaborate as a peer to engineering and production leadership to drive systemic quality improvement projects that optimize both vehicle reliability and manufacturing throughput. - Drive the capital expenditure (CapEx) strategy for sourcing, deploying, and validating advanced quality inspection. - Lead build reliability improvements across vehicle programs scaling manufacturing from prototype to high-rate production. ## Minimum Qualifications - Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field - 8+ years in a fast paced manufacturing, quality, build reliability and/or design engineering role - Demonstrated experience building or optimizing a quality management system - A hands on approach to setting up quality systems and solving quality problems ## Preferred Skills and Experience - 10+ years in a quality engineering leadership role working on launch vehicles, spacecraft or satellites - Demonstrated success leading an organization through a successful, full-scope AS9100 certification audit. - Demonstrated technical writing skills - Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate with engineering, production teams and all involved teams ## Additional Information Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.

Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity.

In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan. Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here .

Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

From Impulse Space's job posting, checked 7 Nov 2026. The employer's own page is the final word on requirements and availability.

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About Impulse Space

Transfer vehicles that carry satellites past the orbit their rocket leaves them in.

Pay on its listings: 100% of its open jobs state an hourly rate

How it pays: Paid as an employee on Impulse Space's own payroll (salaried or hourly, as each posting states).

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