Quality Assurance Engineer

Job Overview

PacSci EMC is seeking a Quality Assurance Engineer to provide customer- and program-focused quality leadership across assigned aerospace and defense programs. This role serves as a key quality interface with customers and internal program teams while maintaining end-to-end ownership of quality issues that may extend into manufacturing and the supplier base.

Essential Functions

• Own quality performance for assigned customer and program portfolios, serving as a primary quality interface with customers and aerospace/defense prime contractors.

• Review proposals, statements of work, customer requirements, and related program documentation to help ensure alignment with design intent, quality requirements, regulatory requirements, and contractual commitments.

• Partner closely with Program Management and cross-functional teams including Engineering, Operations, Procurement, Strategic Sourcing, and Supplier Quality to identify, assess, and resolve quality risks.

• Maintain end-to-end ownership of quality issues across customer, manufacturing, and supplier boundaries; coordinate the appropriate resources and drive issues through effective resolution.

• Support first article readiness and execution, including AS9102/FAI requirements, and help ensure supplier quality requirements and flow-downs are understood and properly implemented.

• Lead and support root cause investigation and corrective/preventive action using structured methodologies such as 5 Why, Fishbone/Ishikawa, CAPA, 8D, Apollo, or other appropriate problem-solving methods.

• Support manufacturing process validation, control plans, inspection instructions, quality records, and other quality-system documentation required to demonstrate process and product compliance.

• Analyze production and quality data to identify trends, systemic issues, and improvement opportunities, and use data to support sound technical and business decisions.

• Participate in customer and program reviews as the quality and compliance voice for assigned programs, communicating risks, status, corrective actions, and quality performance clearly and professionally.

• Exercise independent judgment and ownership in making quality decisions that may have significant customer, program, compliance, and financial impact; escalate appropriately when additional support or authority is required.

• Drive continuous improvement using Lean, Six Sigma, and other appropriate quality tools and methodologies.

• Build effective working relationships across functions and levels of the organization, influencing outcomes without direct authority and fostering a team-first approach to problem solving.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline preferred; equivalent directly relevant quality engineering experience will be considered.

• Three or more years of hands-on Quality Engineering experience required; five or more years preferred.

• Aerospace and defense quality experience strongly preferred. Experience in other highly regulated manufacturing environments, particularly medical device or automotive, may also be considered.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrated experience supporting customer- or program-facing quality activities, including direct interaction with customers and cross-functional program teams.

• Strong working knowledge of manufacturing process validation, control plans, inspection methods, quality records, and corrective action processes.

• Experience with structured root cause and corrective action methods; ability to select and apply the appropriate method based on the problem.

• Working knowledge of AS9100 strongly preferred; strong ISO 9001 experience may be considered where it demonstrates transferable quality-system capability.

• Experience with AS9102 / First Article Inspection strongly preferred.

• Working knowledge of GD&T, FMEA, process capability/Cpk, and related quality engineering tools preferred.

• Lean and/or Six Sigma experience preferred.

• Ability to interpret technical requirements and communicate quality and compliance expectations across Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain, suppliers, and customers.

• Strong analytical judgment, ownership, curiosity, and decision-making capability, including the confidence to make consequential decisions with appropriate escalation.

• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills; able to influence different personalities and functions without direct authority.

• Positive, team-oriented, and coachable approach with a willingness to ask for help, challenge assumptions constructively, and remain engaged until issues are resolved.

• No specific ERP, statistical analysis, or quality software package is required for consideration.

Work Environment and Travel

• This position is 100% onsite.

• Typical schedule is Monday through Friday with reasonable flexibility in start time based on business and leadership alignment. Mission and customer needs may occasionally require additional hours.

• Travel is expected to be minimal, generally approximately 5% or less.

Export Control Requirement

Due to U.S. Government contract requirements applicable to this position, only U.S. citizens are eligible for employment in this role.

#LI-FP1