Senior Director, Quality Excellence
Join Axon and be a Force for Good.
At Axon, we’re on a mission to Protect Life. We’re explorers, pursuing society’s most critical safety and justice issues with our ecosystem of devices and cloud software. Like our products, we work better together. We connect with candor and care, seeking out diverse perspectives from our customers, communities and each other.
Life at Axon is fast-paced, challenging and meaningful. Here, you’ll take ownership and drive real change. Constantly grow as you work hard for a mission that matters at a company where you matter.
Your Impact
Reports to: VP, Quality
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Direct Reports: none
We are seeking an exceptional Senior Director to lead our most critical quality initiatives and drive quality excellence across the enterprise. This role is designed as a high-impact, senior individual contributor position with a clear trajectory into broader leadership across the company's quality functions.
In the initial phase, the successful candidate will personally own and drive resolution of the company's top 3-4 highest-impact quality issues — problems that directly affect customers, drive RMA volume, and carry significant business consequence. This is not a role for someone who delegates first; it requires someone who can dissect complex, cross-functional quality failures, develop actionable resolution strategies, and lead the organization to closure.
As the role evolves, the Senior Director will take on increasing responsibility across the full spectrum of quality disciplines — from supplier and manufacturing quality through field performance, reliability, and customer experience — building organizational capability to prevent systemic quality issues before they reach customers.
What You'll Do
Immediate Focus
- Own and drive resolution of the company's most critical quality issues (typically 3-4 concurrent high-severity, high-business-impact problems)
- Conduct rigorous root cause analysis spanning design, manufacturing, supply chain, and field performance data
- Develop and execute corrective action plans with measurable milestones and clear business impact metrics
- Communicate progress, risks, and resource needs to executive leadership with clarity and precision
- Partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Customer Support to drive systemic fixes
- Reduce customer-facing RMA rates and warranty costs on targeted product lines
Growing Responsibilities
- Assume broader leadership across the company's quality disciplines, which may include:
- Supplier quality and incoming material assurance
- Manufacturing and process quality
- Field quality, returns analysis, and warranty performance
- Validation, reliability, and product assurance
- Quality management systems (QMS), audit programs, and regulatory compliance
- Non-conformance management, CAPA, and continuous improvement programs
- Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of quality and reliability professionals
- Define and mature quality strategies, test frameworks, quality gate criteria, and predictive analytics
- Drive standardization of quality processes, tools, and metrics across business units
- Represent quality in new product development, design reviews, and product lifecycle decisions
- Establish early warning systems and data-driven quality dashboards to identify emerging issues before they reach scale
- Champion a culture of quality and continuous improvement across the organization
What You Bring
- 12+ years of experience in quality engineering, reliability, manufacturing quality, or a closely related discipline, with at least 5 years at a director level or equivalent
- Demonstrated track record of personally resolving complex, multi-causal quality problems with measurable business outcomes (reduced RMAs, warranty cost reduction, customer satisfaction improvement)
- Broad exposure across multiple quality domains — you've operated across supplier, manufacturing, design, product reliability, and field quality, not just one silo
- Deep technical fluency — able to engage credibly with engineering teams on failure analysis, root cause methodology (8D, fault tree, FMEA, etc.), and corrective action effectiveness
- Exceptional executive communication skills — able to translate technical complexity into business-relevant narratives for senior leadership and customer-facing stakeholders
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives without direct authority
- Strong analytical capability with experience using field data, manufacturing data, and test data to drive decisions
- Experience spanning both hands-on problem resolution and leadership of technical teams across quality, reliability, test engineering, or supplier quality disciplines
- Track record of building, scaling, or transforming quality organizations through periods of growth or change
- Six Sigma Black Belt, CQE, CRE, or equivalent certification
- Experience implementing or maturing quality management systems (ISO 9001, AS9100, or similar)
Benefits That Benefit You
- Competitive salary and 401(k) with employer match
- Discretionary paid time off
- Paid parental leave for all caregivers
- Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
- Fitness and wellness programs
- Emotional and mental wellness support
- Learning and professional development opportunities
- And yes—we have snacks in our offices
Benefits may vary depending on the nature of your employment and the location where you work.
Don’t meet every single requirement? That's ok. At Axon, we Aim Far. We think big with a long-term view because we want to reinvent the world to be a safer, better place. We are also committed to building diverse teams that reflect the communities we serve.
Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they check every box in the job description. If you’re excited about this role and our mission to Protect Life but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification listed here, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Important Notes
The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all duties, responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job. The job description may change or be supplemented at any time in accordance with business needs and conditions.
Some roles may also require legal eligibility to work in a firearms environment.
We collect personal information from applicants to evaluate candidates for employment. You may request access, deletion, or exercise other CCPA rights at axongreenhousesupport@axon.com or via our Axon Privacy Web Form. For more information, please see the Your California Privacy Rights section of our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Notice.
Axon’s mission is to Protect Life and is committed to the well-being and safety of its employees as well as Axon’s impact on the environment. All Axon employees must be aware of and committed to the appropriate environmental, health, and safety regulations, policies, and procedures. Axon employees are empowered to report safety concerns as they arise and activities potentially impacting the environment.
We are an equal opportunity employer that promotes justice, advances equity, values diversity and fosters inclusion. We’re committed to hiring the best talent — regardless of race, creed, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship status, marital status, disability, gender identity, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances — and empowering all of our employees so they can do their best work. If you have a disability or special need that requires assistance or accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please email recruitingops@axon.com. Please note that this email address is for accommodation purposes only. Axon will not respond to inquiries for other purposes.
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