Manager, NPD Quality Hardware

About Us 

SharkNinja is a global product design and technology company, with a diversified portfolio of 5-star rated lifestyle solutions that positively impact people’s lives in homes around the world. Powered by two trusted, global brands, Shark and Ninja, the company has a proven track record of bringing disruptive innovation to market, and developing one consumer product after another has allowed SharkNinja to enter multiple product categories, driving significant growth and market share gains. Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts with more than 3,600+ associates, the company’s products are sold at key retailers, online and offline, and through distributors around the world.  

 

The NPD Quality Manager (Hardware) is responsible for ensuring that all new hardware products developed by the organization meet the highest standards of quality, safety, reliability, and compliance. This role supports the full product development lifecycle—from concept and prototyping through design freeze, scale-up, and commercialization—and acts as a critical liaison between Quality, R&D/Engineering, Operations, Industrial Design, and Supply Chain. The focus of this role is to ensure that hardware performance, component reliability, electromechanical safety, and system-level quality are built into the design from the start.

The successful candidate will have deep experience in hardware quality engineering, risk management, design controls, and product development processes within a fast-paced consumer hardware environment.

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Key Responsibilities

New Product Development Support

• Lead quality assurance activities throughout all phases of hardware development, including concept, breadboard/prototype builds, engineering validation (EVT), design validation (DVT), and production validation (PVT).

• Participate proactively in cross-functional engineering/design reviews to ensure design-for-quality, design-for-reliability, and design-for-manufacturability principles are applied.

• Ensure hardware product requirements, engineering specifications, and verification/validation plans are documented, traceable, and aligned with technical and regulatory standards.

• Identify critical-to-quality (CTQ) characteristics for mechanical, electrical, and firmware elements and ensure alignment with product performance targets.

Quality Planning & Risk Management

• Develop and implement hardware-focused quality plans, including Design Controls, system-level and subsystem-level Risk Assessments (DFMEA, PFMEA), and robust validation protocols.

• Lead DFMEA sessions for electromechanical assemblies, considering component tolerances, failure modes, long-term durability, environmental stresses, and real-world use cases.

• Identify potential hardware quality and compliance risks early in development—such as thermal hazards, material compatibility, component derating, EMC/EMI issues, and mechanical fatigue—and drive data-backed mitigation strategies.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Mechanical, Electrical, Firmware, and Reliability Engineering teams to ensure seamless design transfer, manufacturability, test coverage, and quality guardrails.

• Partner with Procurement and Supplier Quality to evaluate, qualify, and validate new hardware suppliers, materials, or critical components.

• Provide quality oversight during stage-gate reviews and confirm appropriate documentation, risk assessments, and test evidence are complete and compliant.

Compliance & Documentation

• Ensure hardware products comply with relevant safety, quality, and regulatory standards (e.g., UL/IEC, FCC/EMC, CE, FDA where applicable, GMP, ISO standards).

• Oversee the creation, review, and maintenance of hardware technical documentation including:

  • Design History Files (DHF)

  • Product Requirement Documents (PRD)

  • Engineering Specifications

  • Verification & Validation (V&V) test protocols and reports

  • Component and subsystem qualification records

• Support internal and external audits related to NPD quality, hardware design controls, and compliance testing.

Continuous Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement initiatives within hardware NPD quality systems, processes, and testing methodologies.

• Apply structured problem-solving, root cause analysis, and CAPA processes to resolve hardware issues identified during prototype builds, validation, or launch.

• Monitor, analyze, and report hardware-related KPIs, including reliability metrics, failure trends, validation performance, and field-performance feedback.

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Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Quality Engineering, or related technical field.

• Advanced degree (MS or MBA) preferred but not required.

Experience

• 6–10 years of experience in hardware quality engineering or NPD quality, ideally supporting electromechanical consumer products.

• Experience in consumer goods, consumer electronics, personal care devices, medical devices, or other highly regulated hardware-related industries.

• Demonstrated expertise in quality engineering tools (FMEA, DOE, SPC, fault-tree analysis, problem-solving methodologies).

• Experience working with global manufacturing partners and suppliers (ODM/OEM) strongly preferred.

Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; comfortable interpreting engineering data, test results, and statistical analyses.

• Ability to work cross-functionally in a fast-paced, innovation-driven engineering environment.

• Clear, concise communication skills for both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Proficient with quality systems software, statistical tools, CAD/PLM systems, and Microsoft Office; experience with eQMS and reliability tools (e.g., Weibull analysis) a plus.