Full Job Description
This is a team leadership role at the intersection of product quality, consumer excellence, and new product development. As Senior Manager, you will own the 5-star standard across your assigned NPD programs - embedding yourself deep in the work, leading a small team of quality professionals, and holding the line on quality with Engineering, Product Development, and Marketing at every stage of the pipeline.
Product Excellence's mandate is clear: every product SharkNinja creates should earn and sustain 5 stars. Achieving that standard requires someone who combines deep technical credibility with the confidence to challenge cross-functional peers, the rigor to run structured quality processes without dropping the ball across multiple program, and the leadership presence to bring a team with them.
You will be both a practitioner and a people leader. You will run EB0 reviews, lead Pre-MP VEGA Hacks, build and apply predictive models, and own the quality and completeness of DFMEAs ahead of TRA - while also coaching and developing the team members who support these activities. You are the one who finds issues before the consumer does, and who drives the cross-functional action needed to resolve them.
You report into the Director or VP, In-Market Product Quality & Customer Excellence, and work in close day-to-day partnership with Engineering and Product Development leads across your program portfolio.
Key Responsibilities
5-Star NPD Standard
Own the 5-star quality standard across your assigned NPD program - maintaining a clear, evidence-based view of risk and trajectory for each and escalating early when a program is not on track.
Lead quality input into build reviews, bringing structured, actionable perspectives that go beyond flagging issues to proposing specific improvements with clear consumer rationale.
Act as a quality coach and challenger to Engineering and Product Development counterparts - building relationships that allow for constructive challenge and faster resolution of quality risks.
Team Leadership
Lead and develop a small team of NPD quality professionals - setting clear expectations, supporting their growth, and creating the conditions for high-quality work across the portfolio.
Own the day-to-day direction of your team - managing workload, reviewing outputs, and ensuring rigor and consistency across programs.
Contribute to hiring and capability development within the broader Product Excellence function, helping to build a team that raises the bar over time.
EB0 and Pre-MP VEGA Hacks
Lead quality input into EB0 build reviews, ensuring all product excellence requirements are visible and tracked from the earliest engineering build.
Plan and lead Pre-MP VEGA Hacks - running structured sessions to surface and resolve quality and consumer experience issues before mass production lock.
Ensure findings are documented, tracked to resolution, and fed back into the engineering and design process as repeatable learnings for future programs.
Predictive Modelling for 5-Star Performance
Build and apply predictive models at each build stage to forecast in-market rating performance, identifying the consumer experience factors most likely to drive or suppress 5-star outcomes.
Translate consumer validation results and IHUT data into structured, prioritized recommendations for Engineering, Product Development, and Marketing - making the case for change with evidence, not opinion.
Track model accuracy over time and refine the approach as new consumer data becomes available, building a methodology that improves with every program cycle.
Testing, Safety, Regulatory, and Certification
Ensure Testing has built comprehensive testing plans and protocols for each NPD program, covering performance, durability, safety, and consumer experience - and identify gaps and competitive opportunities.
Maintain active oversight of safety, regulatory, and certification delivery across your programs, partnering with Engineering, Testing, and external labs to keep everything on track and escalating blockers before they become program risks.
Pre-TRA DFMEA Quality
Own the quality and completeness of DFMEAs ahead of TRA for your programs - reviewing, challenging, and improving outputs to ensure all failure modes are identified, assessed, and have credible mitigation actions in place.
Push Engineering counterparts to ensure DFMEAs reflect real-world consumer use, not just theoretical design intent.
Track open actions through to closure, ensuring nothing reaches TRA without a clear resolution plan and a named owner.
Who You Are
Required:
7+ years of experience in product quality, product development, or a related engineering or consumer insights function - ideally within consumer electronics or home appliances.
Early people leadership experience - you have managed or mentored others and are ready to take on formal team leadership responsibility at scale.
Strong working knowledge of DFMEA methodology - able to lead, challenge, and improve DFMEA quality across multiple programmes simultaneously.
Solid knowledge of safety testing, regulatory standards, and certification processes across at least one major market (US, EU, or UK), with exposure to others.
Analytically strong - comfortable building predictive models, working with IHUT data, and translating findings into actionable engineering recommendations.
A confident, evidence-based communicator who can challenge peers and senior stakeholders constructively and follow through to resolution.
Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage a complex portfolio of NPD programmes without losing quality rigour on any of them.
Strongly Preferred:
Experience leading or playing a senior role in VEGA Hacks or equivalent structured pre-production quality events, with measurable impact on launch quality outcomes.
Experience building or applying predictive quality models from consumer research or IHUT data.
Claims development experience, with an understanding of the interface between testing, legal, and marketing.
Multi-market regulatory knowledge across consumer electronics or home appliance categories.
A track record of driving quality improvements in fast-paced, commercially driven NPD environments.
Salary and Other Compensation: The annual salary range for this position is displayed below. Factors which may affect starting pay within this range may include geography/market, skills, education, experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate.
The Company offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements: medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts (HSA) with company contribution, 401(k) retirement plan with matching, employee stock purchase program, life insurance, AD&D, short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, generous paid time off, company holidays, parental leave, identity theft protection, pet insurance, pre-paid legal insurance, back-up child and eldercare days, product discounts, referral bonus program, and more.
Pay Range
$117,000-$175,000 USD