Manager Quality & EHS

Aitech Defense Systems is renowned for its innovation in rugged embedded systems, designed to operate reliably in the challenging environments of military, defense, aerospace, and space applications. Founded in 1983, Aitech has a rich history of pioneering advancements such as the world’s first conduction-cooled MIL-SPEC VMEbus board and has continually evolved its product line to include state-of-the-art SBCs, GPGPU-based AI applications, and advanced cybersecurity for mission-critical systems.

Joining us means you’ll be working at the forefront of technology with projects that span across land, sea, air, and space, supporting some of the top prime contractors in the industry. This opportunity will allow you to contribute to groundbreaking projects and push the boundaries of embedded computing technology.

About the Role

We are seeking a hands-on Manager, Quality & EHS to lead and evolve our quality assurance, environmental health & safety, and compliance programs. This role is central to ensuring our products meet the highest standards across design, development, production, and delivery.

 You will lead a small but growing team, manage compliance frameworks, and partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Supply Chain, Production, and the PMO to ensure traceability, audit readiness, and performance across the full product lifecycle.

 This is a senior-level management role with strategic impact, scoped at the Manager level with a clear path to Director, based on experience, performance, and company growth.

 Key Responsibilities

Quality Management

• Lead and maintain compliance with AS9100D and customer, industry, and regulatory standards.
• Manage and continuously improve the Quality Management System (QMS), including audits, non-conformance processes, and supplier quality.
• Oversee First Article Inspections (FAI), customer source inspections, and all inspection stages (incoming, in-process, final).
• Establish and track quality KPIs to identify trends, drive root cause analysis, and implement CAPA improvements.
• Partner with Engineering and the PMO to support New Product Introduction (NPI) and contract-driven quality deliverables.
• Coordinate and manage the FRACAS process, ensuring systemic reporting, analysis, and resolution of product or process failures.
• Drive timely resolution of CAPAs, CARs, SCARs, and customer-reported escapes.
• Lead and directly manage Configuration Management (CM) & Document Control (DM), ensuring product baseline integrity, ECO workflows with SLAs , and audit readiness. Quality owns CM/DM compliance; PMO and Engineering retain decision authority for baseline approvals and priorities.

Environmental Health & Safety (EHS)

• Own site-level EHS compliance, ensuring adherence to OSHA, environmental, and company standards.
• Develop proactive risk mitigation strategies, including incident tracking and root cause elimination.
• Conduct safety audits and foster a safety-conscious culture across the site.
• Integrate EHS metrics and procedures into the QMS framework for streamlined governance.

Supplier & External Interface

• Build and lead the supplier quality function.
• Support supplier audits, manage supplier performance (PPM, OTD), and drive SCAR closure.
• Act as a key customer interface for quality-related communications, audit responses, and field issue resolution.

Leadership

• Lead and develop a small but expanding team aligned with growth.
• Set clear performance objectives, provide coaching, and build technical capabilities.
• Drive a culture of prevention, continuous improvement, and accountability across functions.

 Stakeholder & Team Collaboration

 This role interfaces directly with:

• Engineering: design quality, manufacturability, and baseline compliance.
• Production & Supply Chain: inspection readiness and supplier quality.
• PMO: contract deliverables, customer quality clauses, milestone validation.
• BD: proposals, customer audits, pre-award quality assessments.
• Finance: COPQ tracking, vendor scorecards, budgeting for quality initiatives.
• External Stakeholders: customers, certification bodies, and regulatory auditors.

The expected annual salary range for this role is $160,000 to $185,000 a year. 

Please note the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations. 

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field (Engineering, Quality, Industrial Technology, Applied Science) OR equivalent technical training and 10+ years aerospace/defense quality experience.
• Minimum 10 years of QA experience in aerospace/defense.
• Strong hands-on experience with AS9100 implementation and audits.
• Familiarity with CM/DM processes, inspection methods, and EHS programs.
• Proven experience leading or supporting customer, certification, and regulatory audits.
• Strong analytical and data reporting skills.
• Excellent leadership, planning, and communication abilities.
• U.S. person status required.

Preferred Qualifications

• AS9100 Lead Auditor Certification
• Six Sigma (Green or Black Belt)
• IPC-A-610 knowledge (Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies)
• Professional certifications: CQE / CRE / CQM
• Familiarity with Software Quality Assurance
• Knowledge of Reliability Engineering principles

Location Requirement

This role is onsite in Chatsworth, CA (Los Angeles area).