Quality Engineer II

Description

The company builds rockets, spacecraft, and critical subsystems for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, and it works fast on real hardware.

The Space Systems team builds complete spacecraft, precision payloads, and the components they rely on in orbit, including solar panels, flight software, star trackers, optical systems, separation systems, and radios.

The team has supported more than 1,700 missions, from interplanetary exploration and in-space manufacturing to national security and defense work, with partners such as NASA, the Space Development Agency, and the U.S. Space Force.

This Quality Engineer II role is based at the company's new site in Albuquerque, NM, which came with an acquisition. You will help keep product quality and compliance with AS9100 and customer requirements on track across the product lifecycle, owning the Quality Management System and speaking for quality across the business.

Responsibilities

• Build a quality culture that centers on continuous improvement and new ideas, so the organization gets strong results.
• Work with cross-functional teams on customer design reviews, new product development, in-process monitoring, contract reviews, and internal specification reviews.
• Track product performance over its lifecycle to confirm it meets customer and internal specifications, and push for efficiency and change.
• Write, monitor, and keep improving QMS procedures, policies, work instructions, manuals, and records so they meet AS9100, customer, and internal requirements.
• Handle customer matters on quality, including complaints, visits, audits, and inquiries.
• Lead quality improvements, root cause analysis, corrective actions, internal audits, and non-conformance reviews as needed.
• Take part in technical reviews of engineering changes to confirm they fit customer requirements, internal standards, and manufacturing protocols.
• Check that in-process and finished products meet all performance and appearance requirements.
• Roll out the Quality Management System within your scope of work to support operational excellence.
• Run Material Review Boards, Corrective Action Boards, and Return Material Authorization processes as needed.
• Build and automate metrics for discrepancy reports, nonconformances, corrective actions, supplier quality, cost of poor quality (CoPQ), KPIs, RMAs, and other quality measures.
• Act when KPIs fall short of expectations.
• Run internal and supplier quality audits and identify compliance gaps or non-conformities against AS9100.
• Manage incoming supplier quality, including supplier on-time delivery (OTD), defect tracking, and corrective actions for poor performance.
• Design and put in place sampling plans, inspection requirements, and procedures for incoming, in-process, and final product quality.
• Attend staff, design, project review, customer, technical review, operational, and audit meetings.
• Give technical support to Quality and Manufacturing Inspection Technicians on documentation, quality requirements, and spotting non-conformances.
• Train and certify inspectors as needed.
• Find and record non-conformances, and take part in root cause and corrective action work.
• Stop any process that threatens product quality, company reputation, or employee safety.
• Start corrective action and halt processes when major nonconformances are found.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree.
• 2+ years in an Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or Chemical Engineering related field.
• Experience running cross-functional projects in a technical environment.
• Nice to have: experience writing and optimizing SQL queries and keeping data accurate.
• Nice to have: experience automating the creation, assembly, and distribution of documents with tools such as Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office, or other documented automation software.
• Nice to have: experience designing and building customer data reports with tools such as Microsoft Power BI or other business intelligence software.
• Nice to have: familiarity with common Quality Management System standards and principles.
• Nice to have: strong communication and interpersonal skills, especially with customers and other departments.
• Nice to have: problem-solving skills in real working settings where data guides decisions. A strong statistics background is a plus.
• Nice to have: ability to read, analyze, and interpret technical procedures, drawings, and government regulations and standards.
• Nice to have: excellent verbal and written communication, plus the ability to write procedures as required.
• Nice to have: ability to answer common questions or complaints from customers, regulators, or business contacts.
• Nice to have: ability to work with a cross-functional team to find and solve problems.
• Nice to have: the role may involve long periods of sitting, standing, walking, and computer work, and occasional exposure to moderate noise, dust, and fumes in production areas.

Conditions

Based at the Albuquerque, NM site.

Travel may be required for off-site testing, customer repair trips, or program meetings.

Work is held to tight deadlines and often under pressure.

For US offices: to meet US government space technology export rules, including ITAR, you must be a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder), a refugee or asylee lawfully admitted to the U.S., or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or Department of Commerce, as applicable.

For New Zealand offices: background checks, including nationality checks, happen before any offer. You must be eligible to access ITAR-regulated equipment and data. Under these rules you may be ineligible if you do not hold citizenship of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union, or a NATO member country, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality.