Reliability and Quality Director

Company: Idealab
Location: California
Posted on: February 25, 2021

Job Description:

Position at Heliogen The Company:Heliogen is a clean energy company focused on eliminating the need for fossil fuels in all sectors of the economy. Heliogen's mission is to create the world's first technology that can commercially replace fossil fuels in industrial processes with carbon-free, ultra-high temperature heat from the sun and to transform sunlight into fuels, including hydrogen, at scale. Heliogen was created at Idealab, the leading technology incubator.
Position Purpose:The Reliability and Quality Director (indicated by RQD below) will ensure that the Heliogen heliostat systems meet the requirements and expectations for both our customers and our internal stakeholders. As Heliogen develops new heliostat systems, equipment, and products related to heliostats or the cleaning, installation, and maintenance of heliostats the RQD will ensure that the product testing, manufacturing systems, production documentation, and other related tools/ processes are in place to ensure lifetime product quality and reliability. The RQD would have the Heliogen Southern California manufacturing site as their normal base of operations and work location. The RQD will interface with suppliers, various external contractors, and Heliogen personnel as needed to meet the goals above. A regular presence of additional Heliogen personnel based at the Pasadena corporate offices will be expected at the manufacturing site.
Key Position Accountabilities:

• Reliability Test Support - Interface with the design engineers, internal test site personnel, and outside test facilities to help design and execute on-sun testing, extended field testing, environmental testing, accelerated life testing, and other testing protocols to validate the design and ongoing manufacturing of the Heliogen heliostats.
• Failure Analysis and Troubleshooting - Facilitate and assist in the analysis of field failures, in process production failures, as well as assessments of development test parts and qualification test parts (whether failed or even operating normally) to better improve the product and understand the wear and failure mechanisms present.
• Supplier Quality - Use of PPAP and APQP (or similar methods) to develop and maintain supplier quality through clear understanding of requirements and appropriate controls to manage and maintain supplier processes and outgoing part quality.--
• Control Plan - Create and manage the control plan for the heliostat production processes in general.
• Continuous Improvement - Empower and foster a culture of continuous improvement. This will include improvements in both manufacturing and design.
• Design Analysis with FMEA - Use DFMEA/ PFMEA (or similar tools) to continuously evaluate potential product risks and reduce those risks through design and process improvements.
• Lean Manufacturing - Empower and foster a culture of lean manufacturing. This will include input to the design engineers to best use resources (materials, as well as transformation processes with either labor, automation, and/ or other capital resources).
• Work Instruction Oversight - Provide input and final approvals to process work instructions to best optimize operator actions and related plant/ field installation controls.The activities above will often include plant workers, site adjacent workers (who do some assembly process near a site), and site field workers (who are involved in the installation of heliostats at a site). The actual installation site locations will be at Heliogen and customer locations around the world.
  Requirements:
  • BS, MS, or PhD in Engineering with minimum of 10 years work experience that includes hands-on experience in a high-volume manufacturing environment. 5 years minimum in a quality or reliability leadership role.
  • Extensive experience in implementation and use of SPC in a high-volume production environment.
  • Extensive experience in implementing continuous improvement in a high-volume production environment.
  • Extensive experience with lean manufacturing in a high-volume production environment.
  • Extensive familiarity with APQP and PPAP (or similar) processes to manage and ensure vendor quality.
  • Experience managing/ supervising quality technicians and engineers. A minimum of 5 years is preferred.
  • Ability to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
  • Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed is required.
  • Position requires occasional physical activities including climbing ladders, working on elevated towers and platforms, stooping to work on equipment installed in small/ limited spaces, and lifting and carrying loads of 40 lbs. or more.
  • Excellent organizational ability, including ability to manage deliverables and timeline for execution to achieve project goals.
  • Self-motivated hands-on individual who will work diligently to make Heliogen and the heliostat production efforts the best they can be.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Excellent with MS Word, Excel, and similar applications.
    Desirable Experiences:
    • Experience with product development projects around entirely new products and/ or products where the company has no previous manufacturing experience with the product are being developed is highly desirable.
    • Startup company experience is highly desirable.
    • Experience in vendor/ supplier identification and qualification is highly desirable. This would include component suppliers, equipment suppliers, and possibly even construction contractors.
    • Practical knowledge of various production processes like stamping, injection molding, break forming, robotic welding, casting, etc. is highly desirable.
    • Practical knowledge of basic fabrication and assembly skills including operation of basic hand tools, drill presses, grinders, band saws, and similar equipment is beneficial.
      Heliogen, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. You have been redirected to a Idealab job page

Keywords: Idealab, Alexandria , Reliability and Quality Director, Executive , California, Virginia