Chief Test Operations Officer

Skills at this level

Test Coverage Philosophy & Test Architecture

— Defines the organization's approach to what production test must catch and how — setting test coverage philosophy and the overall test architecture across product lines so that ICT, FCT and functional checks combine to verify functionality and quality efficiently.

Test Escape Elimination

— Directs the development of methods to continually reduce and eliminate test escapes, translating Failure Review Board data on production test failures into corrective actions that prevent defective units from passing to the field.

Manufacturing Test Process Development

— Governs the development of manufacturing processes for new products from engineering specification, including PFMEA and statistical process control (SPC), so that products are released to the floor with capable, monitored test steps.

Design for Manufacturing (DFM) & Six Sigma

— Drives Six Sigma and Design for Manufacturing tools across the organization to improve process capability and product quality, ensuring products are designed to be testable and to reduce cost of test and rework.

Test Equipment Strategy (ICT/FCT/ATE)

— Leads the selection and capital planning for the manufacturing test fleet — In-Circuit Test, Functional Circuit Test and Automated Test Equipment — in SMT/PCBA environments, balancing quality, throughput and cost.

Test Automation Platform Direction

— Sets enterprise direction for automated test programs and frameworks (e.g., LabVIEW/TestStand-based test sequences and fixtures), standardizing how automated test sequences are built and run across sites.

Failure Review Board Governance

— Establishes and oversees the Failure Review Board process, ensuring test failure data from the manufacturing floor is systematically reviewed and routed into root-cause and continuous-improvement action.

Continuous Improvement / Lean Manufacturing

— Leads continuous-improvement and lean initiatives that raise test yield and process efficiency while controlling quality and cost across the production test operation.

Executive Stakeholder & Customer Communication

— Explains test strategy, quality decisions and capability commitments to other executives, major customers, regulators and the board, converting production test outcomes into business and risk terms.

Cost of Test & Quality Economics

— Frames investment in test coverage and equipment against the risk reduction it buys, arbitrating when added test rigor is justified by yield, escape and field-failure economics at enterprise scale.