Staff Quality Engineer

Staff Quality Engineer
Location San Carlos Employment Type Full time Location Type On-site Department Operations Compensation
$164K - $221K • Offers Equity The hiring pay range for this position is based on skills, education, and experience relevant to the role. New hires are typically hired into the low to midpoint of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. Pay ranges are adjusted based on cost of labor in each respective geographical market. Your recruiter can share more about the specific pay range for your location during the hiring process. Benefits include medical, vision, and dental insurance, group and supplemental life insurance, 401k retirement plan, responsible paid time off, parental leave, and more. Other components of total compensation include a competitive options grant at the time of hire (with potential for additional grants). Overview
Application At Nautilus, we have a big and important mission: improve the health of millions by unleashing the potential of the proteome to accelerate drug development and enable a new world of precision and personalized medicine. We are developing a single-molecule protein analysis platform of unprecedented sensitivity, scale, and ease of use that we believe will democratize access to the proteome - one of the most dynamic and valuable sources of biological insight. To accomplish this, we are pursuing hard scientific problems with an entrepreneurial mindset and creating a world-class team of builders, innovators, and dreamers across a wide range of disciplines. We are hiring a strategic Staff Quality Engineer to join our growing team. The Quality Engineer will provide strategic quality leadership during the transition of a complex instrument and consumable from late-stage prototype through design lock and into manufacturing scale. This role architecturally defines supplier and manufacturing quality strategy, anticipates systemic risk, and drives cross-functional alignment to ensure long-term product robustness and scalability. As the primary quality authority, this role will define supplier and manufacturing quality frameworks, anticipate systemic risks, and influence cross-functional and leadership decisions to ensure scalable, robust product performance. While primarily strategic in scope, this individual will also step in hands-on when needed to support critical builds, supplier issues, or manufacturing readiness milestones. Responsibilities Define and own supplier and manufacturing quality strategy for critical components, subassemblies, and manufacturing phases Anticipate systemic quality risks and develop proactive mitigation frameworks that influence design, sourcing, and operational decisions upstream Identify patterns across suppliers, builds, and design iterations, surfacing root causes and enterprise-level implications to leadership Establish scalable quality approaches that support transition from prototype to sustained production Translate complex quality data, inspection findings, and risk assessments into clear narratives that guide leadership trade-off decisions Influence upstream design and sourcing decisions to prevent downstream failure modes. Drive supplier corrective action strategies that address systemic issues, not isolated defects. Architect supplier quality planning and readiness models for critical suppliers and CMO onboarding Define acceptance strategies, control frameworks, and oversight models that ensure long-term supplier capability Lead qualification strategy for Contract Manufacturing Organizations, establishing scalable governance and performance metrics Act as quality program lead during pilot builds, production transfer, and early manufacturing scale Ensure manufacturing documentation, control plans, and inspection systems support repeatable quality at scale Establish success metrics and quality indicators that inform ongoing production health Lead complex root cause investigations with a systems-level perspective Mentor cross-functional partners and potentially junior quality engineers in risk assessment, investigation rigor, and quality thinking Shape quality culture by modeling principled decision-making and balanced risk judgment Influence long-term evolution of Nautilus' quality systems and methodologies Requirements 10+ years of progressive experience in Quality Engineering, Supplier Quality, or Manufacturing Quality Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing, or related field Proven experience: Demonstrated experience defining quality strategy during design lock and manufacturing scale-up Experience qualifying and overseeing Contract Manufacturing Organizations Strong systems-level root cause, risk assessment, and cross-functional influence skills Experience in regulated or highly controlled environments preferred