Project Manager, Quality & Transformation

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Job Description:

Are you a strategic quality professional with the business acumen to scale a fast-moving business? Airbus Flexrotor is seeking a dynamic Project Manager within our Quality and Transformation department to play a pivotal role in standardizing, maturing, and shaping the future of our unmanned aviation business.

This isn't about enforcing heavy, rigid bureaucracy. We are looking for an agile change agent—someone who can leverage a solid quality engineering foundation to implement an elegant, customer-centric Quality Management System (QMS) and Business Management System (BMS) that drives efficiency without slowing us down.

Meet the Team:

The Airbus Helicopters Flexrotor Program offers one of the most sophisticated small tactical unmanned aerial systems (STUAS) with vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). It can be used day or night by US and allied forces for a diverse range of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) on land and at sea.
 

Your Working Environment:
Nestled in the heart of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge in Bingen, WA, our workplace offers innovation and the ability to contribute to game-changing solutions while enjoying the flexibility to spread your wings. Whether it's solving complex challenges, or celebrating victories, you’ll be part of a cohesive crew that thrives on innovation and the beauty that the Northwest has to offer!
 

How We Care for You:

• Financial Rewards: Competitive base salary, incentive compensation which may include profit sharing schemes, retirement savings plan and the ability to participate in an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”)

• Work/Life Balance: Paid time off including personal time, holidays and a generous paid parental leave program.

• Health & Welfare: Comprehensive insurance coverage including medical (traditional and high-deductible health plans), prescription, dental, vision, life, disability, Employee Assistance Plan (“EAP”) and other supplemental benefit coverages.

Your Challenges:

Lead QMS and BMS implementation: 35%  

• System Design and Deployment: Define and improve quality processes alongside the core quality team at Airbus Flexrotor.

• Define a simplified BMS framework that is customer-centric for the entire company. Minimize complexity and ensure cohesion between departmental processes. Collaborate with cross-functional department heads to map, document, standardize and optimize end-to-end business processes. 

• Support with governance, decision making and escalation path design.

• Change management: Act as a change agent for process adoption across the business by spreading awareness that the right processes drive efficiency and prevent uncertainty. Support a fast-moving and adaptable organization by ensuring it is not hindered by heavy, bureaucratic processes. 

• Drive the adoption of the BMS and QMS companywide through being the champion for change, to standardize and simplify daily operations.

• Measure process efficiency and drive improvements as needed.

Project management for transformation: 35%  

• End-to-End Project Delivery: Successfully scope, plan, and define objectives for transformation projects. Launch and manage projects within timeline and budget constraints, while consistently reporting on overall progress. 

• Integrated Planning: Maintain accurate project plans and map interdependencies across other projects, departments, and stakeholders to drive initiatives to successful completion. 

• Risk Mitigation: Proactively identify project risks and operational bottlenecks, developing and implementing robust contingency plans to safeguard uninterrupted business continuity. 

Internal auditing and external compliance: 15%  

• External certification management: Own the preparation and readiness strategy for the division's AS9100 certification. 

• Strategic roadmap: Perform comprehensive gap analyses and design the execution plan for the business’s route to AS9100 certification. 

• Internal auditing oversight: Define the overarching internal audit strategy, supporting the entire organization by reviewing process applications, highlighting opportunities for continuous improvement, and identifying systemic gaps or inefficiencies. 

• Regulation and customer requirements: Maintain oversight of all external regulatory and contractual customer requirements. Define and implement a robust compliance tracking system, provide clear visibility to the leadership team and define corrective actions as needed 

 Continuous Improvement: 15%  

• Continuous improvement: Spearhead cross-functional continuous improvement initiatives that embed quality and maximize customer satisfaction across all business operations. 

• Airbus core values: Exemplify and uphold Airbus Core Values to cultivate an environment of success. Set the standard by welcoming challenges while maintaining integrity, commitment, courage, teamwork, customer focus, respect, and reliability.

• Executive intelligence: Formulate high-level performance narratives, translating complex compliance and quality data into strategic, actionable intelligence to guide the senior leadership team's business decisions. 

Your Boarding Pass:

• Must possess a Bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, business administration, quality management or equivalent.  

• Eight (8) + years of experience in quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, auditing or business improvement.  

• Working knowledge of Business Management Systems or Quality Management Systems. 

Preferred Education/Skills:

• A combination of a business related, project management and quality or engineering experience 

• Experience with an approved quality management system such as AS9100 or ISO9001 

• Experience in unmanned aviation industry 

• Master’s degree in related technical discipline  

• Lean Six-Sigma black belt 

• Project Management Professional qualification 

• Proficiency in French, German or Spanish  

Travel Required: 

• 10% Domestic and International

Citizenship: 

•  Must be a US Person under ITAR definition (U.S. Citizen, green card holder or person covered under our existing ITAR license)  

 

Physical Requirements:

• Onsite or remote:  90% on-site in Bingen, WA

• Vision: able to see and read computer screens and other electronic equipment with screens, able to read documents, reports and engineering drawings. Daily. 

• Hearing: able to participate in conversations in person and via teleconference or phone and to hear sounds on the production floor including safety warnings or alarms.  Daily.

• Speaking:  able to speak in conversations and meetings, deliver information and participate in communications. Daily.

• Equipment Operation (personal computer, telephone, copies, fax machine, and related office equipment and using electronic identification card to enter building floors and internal doors): able to operate most office and personal electronic equipment and some tools including production tools such as hydraulic lifts.  Daily. 

• Carrying: able to carry documents, tools, drawings, electronic equipment up to 30lbs/14kgs. Daily. 

• Lifting:  able to lift documents, tools, drawings, electronic equipment up to 30lbs/14kgs. Daily. 

• Pushing / Pulling:  able to push and pull small office furniture and some equipment and tools. Daily.

• Sitting:  able to sit for long periods of time in meetings, working on the computer. Daily.

• Squatting / Kneeling:  able to squat or kneel to retrieve or replace items stored on low shelving. Daily. 

• Standing: able to stand for discussions in offices or on the production floor. Daily. 

• Travel:  able to travel independently and at short notice. 15% or less yearly. 

• Walking (include routine walking such as to a shared printer to retrieve documents):  able to walk through office and production areas including uneven surfaces. Daily. 

• Personal Protective Equipment required:  Required PPE includes, but is not limited to, Safety Shoes, Safety Glasses, Hearing Protection, Respirators/Masks, and/or Protective Gloves as required by site and/or customer site

• Administrative position only PPE required: Steel-toed shoes are required for all shop floor visits, appropriate hearing/eye protection may also be required when visiting the shop floor.

Salary range based on the required profile: $102,000k to $163,000K /year.  Actual minimum and maximum may vary based on geographic differential. Individual pay is based on skills, experience, and other relevant factors. This position offers the following benefits:  Medical insurance, Dental insurance, Vision insurance, Prescription insurance, Employee Assistance Program, Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts, Basic & Voluntary Life and Accidental Death & Dismemberment insurance, Short and Long-term Disability insurance, 401(k), Paid time off including paid holidays, Tuition Assistance, Bonus(es) subject to performance criteria.  These are our current benefit offerings for the current plan year and are subject to change without notice.

Take your career to a new level and apply now!

A full job description will be provided to candidates who progress to the interview stage or any candidate upon request.

This job requires an awareness of any potential compliance risks and a commitment to act with integrity, as the foundation for the Company’s success, reputation and sustainable growth.

Company:

Aerovel Corporation

Employment Type:

US - Direct Hire

Experience Level:

Professional

Remote Type:

On-site

Job Family:

Quality Management System

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