Director, Quality

Exol

7d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Quality will lead Symbotic’s Quality function across automation and robotics products, covering Quality Engineering, Quality Manufacturing, Supplier Quality, and Installation Quality. This role ensures that quality requirements will be defined, and our quality standards are met from supplier components through manufacturing and field deployment, enabling reliable performance and customer satisfaction at scale. The successful candidate will bring deep experience in automation and robotics, with proven leadership in operational quality, compliance, and technical excellence. They will partner closely with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and service teams—both internally and at external partners—to drive continuous improvement, execution to plan, and flawless customer installations. Frequent travel to supplier, manufacturing, and customer sites is required, with occasional extended stays depending on project needs. This role is a hybrid remote/onsite opportunity. Our ideal candidate will be local to our Wilmington, MA headquarters, with a secondary preference for the Detroit metro area.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related technical discipline required.
Minimum of 15 years of experience in quality, manufacturing, and automation development, with strong preference for robotics or advanced automation.
Leadership experience across quality engineering, supplier quality, manufacturing quality, and installation quality.
Deep technical understanding of automation equipment deployment and field installations.
Strong project management and cross-functional leadership skills.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to adapt messaging for diverse stakeholders.
Ability to thrive in environments of complexity, uncertainty, and rapid change.
Flexibility to travel frequently to partner, supplier, and customer sites.
Employees must have a valid driver’s license and the ability to drive and/or fly to client, other customer locations or our main office in Wilmington, MA.
The person taking this position will be required to perform work at our customer installation locations for extended periods of time where equipment is installed and ready for commissioning.
The employee is responsible to own a credit card and manage expenses personally to be reimbursed on a bi-weekly basis.
Must comply with all safety requirements and protocols, including without limitation Lock out tag out safety protocols and fall protection safety protocols.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (MBA, Master’s in Engineering, or Quality/Regulatory focus) preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead product quality engineering activities to ensure design intent translates into reliable and manufacturable solutions.
Partner with R&D and product engineering teams to embed quality requirements into new product development.
Apply advanced quality tools (e.g., FMEA, root cause analysis, risk assessments) to anticipate and mitigate issues.
Support Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) for new product introduction and production ramps.
Oversee manufacturing quality across internal operations and external contract manufacturers.
Define and enforce quality standards for production processes, testing, and validation of automation and robotics systems.
Monitor yield, process stability, and defect trends; drive corrective and preventive actions to sustain continuous improvement.
Ensure timely resolution of deviations and change management requests.
Develop and maintain supplier quality programs to ensure reliable components, assemblies, and materials.
Audit and monitor supplier performance for adherence to quality, delivery, and cost commitments.
Collaborate with supply chain and engineering teams to qualify new suppliers, support sourcing decisions, and drive supplier improvement initiatives.
Track supplier metrics including defect rates, corrective actions, and compliance with technical specifications.
Provide leadership for quality during field installation, commissioning, and customer acceptance of robotic and automated systems.
Ensure installation practices meet safety, quality, and performance standards.
Partner with field service and operations teams to resolve installation issues quickly and effectively.
Capture field lessons learned and feed them back into engineering and manufacturing for continuous improvement.
Establish processes to track and report on quality metrics across engineering, manufacturing, suppliers, and installations.
Facilitate cross-functional problem-solving and CAPA activities.
Drive cost-of-quality reduction initiatives while maintaining customer satisfaction and product reliability.
Act as a senior escalation point for critical product, supplier, or installation issues.