Senior Supplier Quality Manager

The Team

As part of the Regulations & Safety organization, Quality Assurance establishes the systems and standards that ensure products and processes consistently meet the highest levels of quality and compliance. The team promotes continuous improvement and operational excellence across the company.

The Role

As Senior Supplier Quality Manager, you will build and lead the Supplier Quality organization responsible for ensuring Valar's external supply base delivers materials, components, special processes, and services that meet engineering, quality, and regulatory requirements as the company scales from prototype development to pilot operations and commercial deployment. This role reports to the Head of Quality with a dotted-line relationship to Procurement, preserving both operational integration and independence of oversight.

Valar is highly vertically integrated, but the supply base remains critical to mission success-spanning raw materials, fabricated components, machined hardware, special processes, calibration services, commercial equipment, and construction subcontractors. The challenge is not simply policing suppliers. It is building supplier capability, preventing escapes before they occur, and applying rigor through a risk-informed, graded approach that protects safety and quality without slowing execution.

You will lead and develop Supplier Quality Engineers, Supplier Auditors, Procurement Engineers, and Receiving Inspectors while owning supplier qualification, supplier development, supplier auditing, source and receiving inspection strategy, and the Procurement Engineering function. You will partner daily with Procurement, Engineering, Operations Quality, and Construction Quality to ensure technical and quality requirements are flowed down clearly, executed by suppliers, and verified with appropriate independence.

This is a founding leadership position within the Quality organization. You will operate hands-on today-qualifying suppliers, auditing facilities, dispositioning supplier nonconformances-while architecting the supplier quality systems, standards, and team required for high volume commercial-scale nuclear deployment.

Key Responsibilities

• Build, lead, and develop the Supplier Quality organization, including Supplier Quality Engineers, Supplier Auditors, Procurement Engineers, and Receiving Inspectors.
• Own the supplier qualification and approval process, including capability assessments, quality system evaluations, special process qualification, and maintenance of the Approved Supplier List.
• Develop and execute a risk-based supplier audit program covering quality system audits, process audits, and source surveillance across fabrication, special process, and construction subcontractor suppliers.
• Support and mentor the Procurement Engineering function, ensuring technical procurement requirements, critical characteristics, and acceptance and verification methods for procured items are clearly defined and technically defensible.
• Define and continuously improve source inspection and receiving inspection strategy, applying graded rigor based on safety significance, complexity, and supplier performance.
• Ensure engineering, quality, and regulatory requirements are accurately flowed down through purchase orders, specifications, and supplier quality clauses in partnership with Procurement and Engineering.
• Lead resolution of supplier nonconformances and supplier corrective actions (SCARs), driving root cause analysis, corrective action verification, and prevention of recurrence.
• Establish supplier performance monitoring, including scorecards, escape tracking, on-time quality metrics, and structured supplier development plans for critical or underperforming suppliers.
• Support make/buy decisions, new supplier selection, and early supplier involvement to ensure manufacturability, inspectability, and quality requirements are addressed before hardware is committed.
• Serve as a credible technical interface with suppliers, regulators, auditors, and customers on supplier quality matters, and support internal and external audits of the supplier quality program.
• Help define and institutionalize scalable supplier quality systems, procedures, and training aligned with Valar's graded, risk-informed quality framework.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Quality Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in supplier quality, quality engineering, or manufacturing quality within regulated technical industries such as nuclear, aerospace, defense, power generation, semiconductor, or medical devices.
• 5+ years of experience leading supplier quality teams, audit programs, or supplier development activities.
• Demonstrated experience qualifying, auditing, and developing suppliers, including fabrication, machining, and special process suppliers (e.g., welding, NDE, heat treatment, coatings).
• Strong working knowledge of purchase order quality flow-downs, supplier corrective action (SCAR) processes, nonconformance systems, and root cause analysis methodologies.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, GD&T, specifications, and technical procurement requirements.
• Willingness and ability to travel to supplier facilities and Valar sites, up to 50% at times, including extended stays during key build phases.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Direct experience with nuclear quality assurance programs and risk informed quality systems, including 10 CFR 50 Appendix B, 10 CFR Part 21, and ASME code procurement.
• Hands-on experience establishing or leading a Procurement Engineering function, including definition of technical procurement requirements, critical characteristics, and acceptance methods for procured items.
• Certified Lead Auditor (ISO 9001, AS9100, or equivalent) with experience leading supplier and third-party audits.
• Familiarity with NADCAP special process accreditation, source inspection programs, and construction subcontractor quality oversight.
• Experience with APQP/PPAP, first article inspection (AS9102 or equivalent), PFD, PFMEA, and process control plan review for supplier processes.
• Experience building supplier quality organizations, systems, and Approved Supplier List governance within scaling or startup environments.
• Familiarity with supplier performance analytics, scorecard systems, and data-driven supplier risk management.

What We Offer

• Competitive base salary
• Equity ownership in a rapidly growing advanced energy company
• Comprehensive medical benefits
• Unlimited PTO
• Free daily lunch and dinner provided onsite
• Generous PPE stipend
• High-impact startup environment with significant ownership and autonomy
• Opportunities for rapid career growth and internal advancement
• Direct collaboration with experienced operators, engineers, and industry leaders
• The opportunity to help build and scale transformative energy technology from the ground up

Salary

$190,000-$240,000 USD