Quality Assurance Lead

About the role

Pulse Nova, the joint venture between EDGE Group and Indra, is seeking a senior Quality Assurance Lead to drive the development, governance and continuous improvement of quality assurance and control across its advanced defense manufacturing operations in Abu Dhabi. The role reports to executive leadership and serves as the senior advisor on quality for mission‑critical programs.

Key responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership for Quality Assurance & Quality Control across the full manufacturing lifecycle, ensuring regulatory, contractual and customer compliance.
• Establish, govern and continuously improve the enterprise Quality Management System (QMS), including procedures, control plans, traceability and calibration governance.
• Own non‑conformance and CAPA governance (NCR/MRB), ensuring fast containment, robust root‑cause analysis (8D) and prevention of recurrence.
• Lead quality readiness for industrialisation and ramp‑up, including validation support, inspection/control plan readiness and change impact management (ECR/ECN).
• Define and drive supplier quality strategy with Supply Chain (qualification, audits, surveillance, scorecards and escalation).
• Define and govern quality KPIs and risk indicators (FPY, escapes, NCR aging), driving cross‑functional actions and executive reporting.
• Lead customer, regulatory and third‑party audits, acting as final quality authority to protect compliance and delivery.
• Champion quality culture, capability development and competency governance across Manufacturing, Engineering and Supply Chain.

Required profile

• 10+ years in quality leadership roles within defence, aerospace or other high‑reliability manufacturing environments.
• Proven experience establishing and governing enterprise‑level QMS (EN/AS 9100 family, ISO 9001) in regulated production settings.
• Track record of quality governance across industrialisation, ramp‑up, serial production, system integration and customer acceptance.
• Experience leading supplier quality strategy and defence supply‑chain oversight, including audits, risk classification and escalation.
• Executive‑level experience managing non‑conformance, CAPA governance, regulatory compliance and customer audit engagement.
• Ability to act as trusted advisor to senior leadership, customers and regulators in complex, mission‑critical programs.
• Experience in the UAE or Middle‑East defence/aerospace environments is highly valued.

Required skills

• EN/AS 9100 family standards
• ISO 9001 standard
• CAPA governance
• Root‑cause analysis (8D methodology)
• Supplier quality management
• Quality Management System (QMS) implementation and governance