Director, Quality

Ōura•San Francisco, CA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

ŌURA is seeking a Director, Quality to lead quality strategy and execution across its global engineering organization and supply chain. The role ensures that quality and reliability are built into products, components, suppliers, and manufacturing processes from concept and development through launch, ramp, and sustaining operations. The Director will lead a global team and partner with Product Development, Hardware, Software, Reliability, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Customer Experience, and external suppliers. The role connects customer and field needs to engineering requirements, component controls, supplier capability, manufacturing performance, and product reliability, while promoting early risk identification, evidence-based decisions, defect prevention, and durable corrective actions. The Director will define the quality vision, operating model, standards, metrics, and priorities; build and develop a high-performing global quality organization; and establish effective quality gates across the product lifecycle. The position influences architecture, design, materials, specifications, validation, and manufacturability; strengthens component and supplier quality; and ensures manufacturing processes are validated, controlled, and continuously improved. It leads risk-based planning, complex problem solving, launch and ramp readiness, quality-related change governance, data-driven quality operations, and field-quality feedback. The Director also presents risk-based recommendations and quality assessments to senior leadership and builds a culture of prevention, accountability, and shared ownership. This is a hybrid role based out of ŌURA’s San Francisco office. ŌURA offers competitive salary and equity packages, insurance and mental health resources, an Ōura Ring and employee discounts, paid time off and holidays, flexible wellness time off, paid sick leave, and parental leave. Pay is market-based and varies by location and job-related factors; the listed regional salary ranges contain placeholders rather than specific amounts. ŌURA is an equal opportunity workplace and provides reasonable accommodation during the employment process and on the job.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in product quality, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, reliability, operations quality, or a related engineering discipline, including significant people leadership experience.
Demonstrated success leading quality for complex, high-volume consumer electronics, wearable, medical-adjacent, or similarly reliability-sensitive products.
Experience leading and developing teams in one or more areas such as product quality, component quality, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, reliability, program quality, or sustaining quality.
Track record of establishing quality strategy and operating mechanisms and delivering measurable improvements from early product development through launch and sustaining.
Strong understanding of product development, design verification and validation, component qualification, reliability engineering, supplier quality, manufacturing processes, and production ramp.
Strong command of FMEA, 8D, CAPA, SPC, GR&R, DOE, root-cause analysis, control plans, and process capability.
Experience using engineering, field, warranty, customer support, supplier, and manufacturing data to identify systemic risks and drive corrective action.
Demonstrated ability to influence engineering, operations, suppliers, and executive leadership without relying solely on direct authority.
Experience with engineering change control, supplier changes, component qualification, process validation, manufacturing readiness, or production quality improvement.
Strong understanding of DFM/DFA, GD&T, Lean and Six Sigma principles, measurement systems, and quality management systems.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical risks into concise decisions and actions.
Self-directed, pragmatic, and resilient leadership style, with willingness to engage deeply in details while maintaining a strategic perspective.
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Industrial, Systems, Manufacturing, or a related engineering field required.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or quality certification.
Experience across both product quality and supplier or manufacturing quality, or demonstrated ability to operate effectively across both domains.
Experience with batteries, electronics, sensors, RF systems, precision mechanics, adhesives, miniaturized assemblies, or other demanding product technologies.
Experience leading quality for products combining hardware, firmware, software, and cloud-enabled member experiences.
Experience building or scaling quality management systems during rapid company growth.
Familiarity with product safety, regulatory, compliance, traceability, and risk-management requirements relevant to wearable technology.
Experience with supplier development, APQP, PPAP, SCAR processes, multi-source strategies, capacity expansion, or major manufacturing transitions.
Experience working across multiple countries, engineering sites, suppliers, and manufacturing partners.
Hardware experience, global distributor teams, and experience growing an organization.

Responsibilities

Define the quality vision, operating model, standards, metrics, and priorities across product development, components, suppliers, manufacturing, reliability, and the field.
Build, mentor, and manage a global quality organization spanning product, component, supplier, manufacturing, reliability, program, and sustaining quality.
Establish quality gates and decision criteria from concept and architecture through EVT, DVT, PVT, launch, ramp, and sustaining operations.
Influence product architecture, design, materials, specifications, interfaces, validation plans, and manufacturability to prevent quality and reliability issues.
Translate product requirements into component specifications, supplier quality requirements, qualification plans, control plans, inspection strategies, and process controls; improve supplier capability and performance across the global supply chain.
Ensure production processes are validated and controlled, including appropriate PFMEA, process capability, measurement systems, yield targets, traceability, reaction plans, and continuous improvement mechanisms.
Establish disciplined risk-based quality planning using methods such as DFMEA, PFMEA, reliability planning, design reviews, tolerance analysis, GR&R, SPC, DOE, and risk-based verification and validation.
Lead containment, failure analysis, root-cause investigation, corrective and preventive action, and verification of effectiveness for product, component, supplier, manufacturing, reliability, and field issues.
Build field-quality feedback loops using warranty, returns, customer support, field failure, reliability, manufacturing, and supplier data to identify systemic risks and reduce member impact and cost of poor quality.
Review product and component qualification, supplier capability, manufacturing readiness, validation evidence, yield, open risks, reliability results, and corrective actions before launch and ramp decisions.
Govern design, material, component, supplier, process, software, and manufacturing changes, assessing quality and reliability impacts and implementing changes consistently through ECR/ECN and change-control processes.
Establish leading and lagging quality indicators across development, suppliers, manufacturing, and the field; improve data quality, traceability, dashboards, and escalation mechanisms.
Drive continuous improvement to reduce defects, escapes, returns, warranty claims, rework, scrap, and other cost-of-poor-quality sources while improving reliability, supplier performance, and customer experience.
Provide clear, risk-based recommendations when quality, schedule, cost, performance, capacity, and supply-continuity priorities compete.
Present concise assessments of product risk, supplier and manufacturing performance, launch readiness, field quality, and improvement priorities to senior leadership.
Promote quality as a shared responsibility across engineering and operations, with clear ownership for requirements, validation, supplier controls, manufacturing execution, and sustained performance.