Staff Engineer, Quality Assurance

What you'll do

• Support quality planning, inspections, readiness, and acceptance activities for the weapons system and subsystems
• Review engineering drawings, specifications, work instructions, inspection plans, and acceptance criteria
• Develop and maintain quality documentation, including inspection plans, control plans, first article inspections, nonconformance reports, corrective actions, and quality records
• Lead root cause analysis and corrective/preventive action efforts for manufacturing defects, supplier issues, test failures, process/procedure failures, and any other quality concerns
• Support material review board activities, disposition of nonconforming material, and implementation of containment actions
• Work with manufacturing and engineering teams to build process capability and product reliability
• Analyze quality data, defect trends, performance, and escape rates to identify improvement opportunities
• Participate in supplier quality activities, including issue resolution, corrective actions, and quality flow-down requirements
• Ensure compliance with applicable aerospace, defense, customer, and internal quality requirements
• Promote a culture of safety, compliance, accountability, and continuous improvement

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (STEM), Quality Engineering or related field, or similar experience levels supporting developmental test operations
• 5-10 years of experience with developmental and/or operational ground and flight test, unmanned/manned aircraft systems, aircraft integration, or aerospace systems engineering
• Experience in quality engineering, ground and flight test execution, maintenance, manufacturing engineering, supplier quality, production support, or aerospace hardware
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, technical specifications, bills of materials, work instructions, and inspection requirements
• Proven experience with nonconformance management, root cause analysis, corrective action, trend analysis, and quality documentation
• Familiarity with inspection methods, measurement tools, and manufacturing processes used in aerospace or complex hardware integration and development test environments
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills
• Ability to work cross-functionally with engineering, manufacturing, test operations, supply chain, and program leadership
• Maintains liaison with manufacturing, engineering, material management, suppliers to resolve quality problems
• Detail-oriented approach with a strong commitment to product quality and process discipline
• Ability to work in a fast-paced ground and flight test environment
• Willingness to travel and work outdoors at test ranges and other program requirements
• Overtime and weekend coverage as required

Preferred qualifications

• 10+ years of experience with developmental and/or operational ground and flight test, unmanned aircraft systems, aircraft integration, or aerospace systems engineering
• Knowledge of AS9100, ISO9001, FAA, DoD, and other aerospace and defense quality standards
• Experience with first article inspections
• Experience supporting prototype aircraft, weapon systems, or mission critical aerospace systems
• Familiarity with configuration management, drawing release processes, and engineering change processes
• Experience using quality tools such as 8D, 5 Why’s, Fishbone diagrams, FMEA, control plans, or process capability analysis
• Certified Quality Engineer, Six Sigma Green/Black Belt, or related certification