Quality Assurance Engineer

Quality Assurance Engineer

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.

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.

Why Join PacSci EMC

- Join a growing aerospace and defense business with significant customer demand and long-term opportunity.

- Gain exposure to the specialized energetics market and work directly with major aerospace and defense customers.

- Develop broad quality expertise through exposure to Customer/Program, Manufacturing, and Supplier Quality.

- Work in a highly visible role with meaningful program ownership and interaction across multiple levels of the organization.

- Build experience that can support progression into more senior Quality Engineering and future leadership opportunities.

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.