Head of Qualification

Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America. By combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing, we help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost.

Following our $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, Hadrian is rapidly expanding our manufacturing footprint, launching new capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more, while scaling our Factory-as-a-Service platform to transform how critical products are built.

Backed by leading investors including JPMorgan Chase, Valor Equity Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, 137 Ventures, Lux Capital, T. Rowe Price, and Morgan Stanley, we’re building the future of American manufacturing—and looking for exceptional people to help make it happen.

If you’re ready to take on the most challenging and rewarding work of your career while helping create American manufacturing jobs for generations to come, you’re exactly who we’re looking for.

Hadrian is seeking a Head of Qualification to own and scale how parts get qualified for production across our defense programs. This is the leader who turns incomplete, legacy technical data into production-ready manufacturing data and source-approved parts, at speed and at scale.

Qualification is its own discipline at Hadrian: the end-to-end pipeline that takes a part from intake through technical data evaluation, gap resolution, qualification data package assembly, first article verification, and part qualification to source approval. The Director of Qualification owns that pipeline — the process, the tooling that runs it, the team of Product Qualification Managers (PQMs) and engineers who do the substantive technical work, and the customer-facing relationships that move parts through approval.

This person will define what qualification means at Hadrian, hold a clear line on what is and isn't in scope, and build a function that gives our customers full visibility into where every part is and what's blocking it, while keeping qualification throughput and confidence in the data extremely high.

• Own Hadrian's end-to-end qualification function — from part intake through technical data evaluation, gap resolution, qualification data package assembly, first article verification, and source approval — in alignment with customer requirements

• Define and maintain qualification scope, and own the qualification pipeline and its workflow automation

• Lead the technical core: direct Product Qualification Managers (PQMs) and Manufacturing/Quality Engineers performing technical data evaluation and qualification data package generation, producing production-ready design data sets and TDPs

• Own qualification performance and reporting — tracking metrics such as time-to-qualification, parts in pipeline, parts qualified, and parts overseen per PQM — and serve as Hadrian's qualification interface to the customer, running part prioritization jointly

• Partner closely with reverse engineering, manufacturing engineering, and quality to ensure qualification outputs translate into producible, source-approved parts, while hiring, developing, and scaling a high-performing qualification organization

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Manufacturing Engineering or a related technical field, and 8+ years of experience in qualification, quality, manufacturing engineering, or related leadership roles

• Detailed knowledge of part/product qualification, first article verification, technical data packages (TDPs), and source approval; aviation component qualification is a plus

• Demonstrated ability to interpret and apply complex regulatory and customer requirements based on intent and risk, and to translate them into clear, practical workflows

• Demonstrated ability to build, scale, or significantly improve systems, processes, or organizations in complex, ambiguous environments, including leading and developing high-performing teams

• Strong decision-making in ambiguous, high-risk, customer-facing situations, with excellent communication and cross-functional leadership across engineering, operations, and government customers

• Direct experience with DoW qualification, airworthiness, or source approval processes

• Hands-on experience with technical data package development, reverse engineering, and proprietary data/data rights issues

• Experience standing up qualification pipelines, workflow automation, or supporting tools

• Strong track record of balancing compliance requirements with practical, scalable implementation

• Experience in high-growth or startup manufacturing environments

For this role, the target salary range is $150,000-220,000 (actual range may vary based on experience).

This is the lowest to highest salary we reasonably and in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range, and the range may be modified in the future. An employee's pay position within the salary range will be based on several factors, including, but not limited to, relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, performance, and business or organizational needs.

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans for employees

• 401k

• Relocation support may be provided for certain situations, based on business need.

• Flexible vacation policy

• Equity

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Hadrian uses AI-assisted tools in our recruiting and hiring processes to help our team work more efficiently. This may include tools that help organize and analyze recruiting data, as well as an AI-powered notetaker that can record and transcribe interviews and help coordinate feedback. These tools support our team and are not used to make hiring decisions. All candidate evaluations and hiring decisions are performed by humans. If an interview will be recorded, you will be notified in advance and may opt out at any time with no impact on your candidacy. Candidate data processed through these tools is subject to the same protections described in our Privacy Policy.

It is the Company’s policy to provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. The Company does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race inclusive of traits historically associated with race (including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, such as braids, locks and twists), color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, national origin (including, in California, possession of a drivers license), ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, height or weight, medical condition, family care status, military or veteran status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, exercise of reproductive rights, any other basis protected by local, state, or federal laws, or any combination of the above characteristics. When necessary, the Company also makes reasonable accommodations for disabled candidates and employees, including for candidates or employees who are disabled by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.