Vice President of Quality Management (San Francisco)

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Qcells North America

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San Francisco, CA, United States

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Vice President of Quality Management

Qcells North America

Base Pay Range

$240,000.00/yr - $300,000.00/yr

Job Description

As Vice President of Quality Management at Hanwha Q CELLS America, you are responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive global quality strategy to ensure the delivery of high-quality, safe, reliable and compliant energy solutions. You will lead the endtoend quality, reliability, and product release assurance for AC modules, microinverters, and energy storage systems (ESS) that combine complex electromechanical, embedded firmware, and cloud/mobile software technologies. This is a senior executive leadership role charged with architecting and executing a worldclass quality management system across design, NPI, manufacturing, deployment and customer lifecycle.

You will lead crossfunctional quality efforts across firmware/software (mobile + embedded), hardware, and manufacturing operations, ensuring full integration and accountability across all product dimensions. Youll oversee quality operations both domestically and offshore/nearshore development centers and distributed engineering teams, implementing an integrated QA discipline for complex, distributed product systems. This position reports to the Chief Product Officer and is based in Santa Clara, San Francisco, Bay Area, Irvine, CA, or remote.

TIME & LOCATION: Monday through Friday 8:00am5:00pm (flexible 9:00am6:00pm as needed). Overtime and weekend work may be required. Expected travel up to 20% for onsite support, quality audits, troubleshooting or customer support.

Responsibilities

  • Strategic Leadership
    • Champion a culture of quality throughout the organization, promoting a mindset of continuous improvement, proactive problemsolving, and accountability.
    • Define and lead a comprehensive quality roadmap that unifies hardware, embedded firmware, cloud infrastructure, and mobile apps under a cohesive strategy aligned to corporate OKRs, warranty exposure, and customer expectations.
    • Build and lead a structured quality program for embedded firmware, cloudconnected platforms, and mobile apps (iOS, Android). Deploy software QA metrics, regression testing, automation, CI/CD validation gates, and release readiness reviews across hybrid teams.
    • Drive quality across global partners, including manufacturing sites (e.g., Jabil, Flex) and offshore software development teams. Develop and implement rigorous quality planning, supplier audits, and integrated softwareplushardware validation plans.
    • Work across engineering, product management, customer service, and operations teams to align quality deliverables and maintain accountability across the value chain. Translate customer incidents/VOCs into product and process improvement opportunities.
    • Leverage data analytics and software telemetry from mobile apps, embedded logs, and fleet systems to drive predictive insights. Implement dashboards to track infield performance, software crash trends, and endtoend defect rates.
  • Execution Excellence
    • Oversee the process for ensuring that all products and services meet or exceed customer expectations and regulatory requirements. Establish and operate an integrated QA system across mechanical, electrical, embedded, and mobile software components.
    • Manage inspection and testing programs to verify conformance to requirements. Own quality participation in stagegate and launch governance, including setting quality exit criteria (e.g., defect thresholds, MTBF, beta validation results) and risk signoffs for product release.
    • Own field failure analysis, warranty risk modeling, and VOCbased quality improvement. Monitor field telemetry data, lead RCCA investigations, and translate issues into design/process corrective actions.
    • Lead interactions with independent engineers, banks, and thirdparty reviewers. Prepare technical documentation to support product bankability and certification (UL, IEC, ISO, NFPA, etc.).
    • Lead continuousimprovement culture. Introduce best practices from leading innovators (Tesla, Enphase, Apple, SolarEdge). Cultivate zerodefect mindset and execute Six Sigma/Lean initiatives.
  • Risk Management
    • Identify and mitigate risks associated with product quality, safety, environmental impact, and regulatory compliance.
    • Develop and implement risk mitigation strategies and contingency plans to address potential qualityrelated issues.

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelors degree in Electrical, Mechanical, Software, or Systems Engineering (Masters or MBA a plus).
  • 20+ years in product quality, reliability engineering, or systems QA, including:
    • 10+ years leading multidisciplinary HW/SW/FW teams.
    • Proven experience with embedded systems and mobile/cloud software QA.
    • Quality leadership in electromechanical products (e.g., solar inverters, ESS, EVs, IoT).
  • Experience QA of renewable system components AC modules, microinverters, ESS; embedded firmware systems testing (unit, integration, system); mobile & cloud QA; ISO9001, ISO26262, ASPICE, UL, IEC, NFPA 855.
  • Managing quality across offshore development centers and partners; maintaining a single quality culture across multiple time zones.
  • Proficiency in reliability engineering tools (FMEA, Weibull, rootcause), quality frameworks (ISO9001, UL, IEC, NFPA, ISO26262, ASPICE), and QA tools (Jira, Zephyr, TestRail, Jenkins, Python/R, Tableau, PowerBI).
  • Demonstrated success supporting product certifications, independent engineering reviews, and customer audit engagements.
  • Excellent communicator, able to articulate risk, root cause, and roadmap to Csuite, engineers, and external partners.
  • Strategic thinker with customercentric mindset, datadriven rigor, and urgency to improve rapidly.

Physical, Mental & Environmental Demands

Mobility: Standing 20% of time, Sitting 70%, Walking 10%. Strength: Pulling, Pushing, Carrying, Lifting up to 10lb. Dexterity: Typing, Handling, Reaching Frequent. Agility: Turning, Twisting Frequent. Bending Occasional. Crouching, Balancing, Climbing, Crawling, Kneeling Never.

Equal Opportunity Employer

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Additional Information

California Pay Transparency Act: The salary range above is for CA positions only and should not be interpreted as an offer of compensation. Actual compensation is influenced by education, experience, location, and role requirements. You may view your privacy rights by reviewing Qcells Privacy Policy or contacting our HR team.

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