Job Description

At Sonova, we create innovative hearing solutions that improve the lives of millions of people worldwide. To strengthen our commitment to delivering exceptional product quality and customer experience, we are looking for a Director Reliability Engineering to lead our reliability strategy, build organizational capability, and drive reliability excellence across the full product lifecycle.

In this highly visible leadership role, you will combine people leadership, technical problem-solving, and strategic product reliability planning. You will lead a team of reliability engineers, partner with stakeholders across R&D, Quality, Operations and Product Management, and ensure reliability is embedded into both current products and future innovations.

More about the role

• Lead, develop, and structure a high-performing Reliability Engineering team, establishing effective operating models, governance, and best practices.
• Drive complex product reliability investigations, root cause analyses, and failure assessments of field returns and customer complaints, translating findings into actionable improvement plans.
• Partner with key customers and internal stakeholders to communicate technical findings, present recommendations, and feed reliability learnings back into product development.
• Define and execute Sonova’s reliability engineering strategy, ensuring Design for Reliability principles, methods, and decision-making are embedded from concept through design, verification, industrialization, and lifecycle management.
• Establish and continuously improve reliability methodologies, including D-FMEA, Critical-to-Quality frameworks, reliability planning & accelerated life testing, and data-driven failure analysis.
• Identify reliability risks and opportunities within the innovation pipeline, proactively assessing future products and technologies before market launch.
• Lead cross-functional improvement initiatives that enhance product robustness, customer satisfaction, and long-term business performance.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, and reliability excellence across the organization.

More about you

• Degree in Engineering, Physics, Electronics, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of leadership experience in Product Reliability Engineering, Reliability Testing, Quality Engineering, or a closely related field.
• Proven track record of leading and developing engineering teams, establishing structures, processes, and ways of working that enable scalability and performance.
• Strong expertise in root cause analysis, design for reliability, failure investigation, and product improvement methodologies.
• Experience working in highly regulated and quality-driven industries such as medical devices, automotive, aerospace, industrial electronics, or similar.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and communicate complex technical topics to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strategic mindset with the ability to balance operational execution, customer-facing activities, and long-term product reliability planning.
• Fluent English communication skills.
• Knowledge of medical device regulations is advantageous.