Principal Quality Engineer - Development Programs (R5350)

Job Description:

The Principal Quality Engineer serves as the senior technical quality authority for a complex aerospace development program. This role is responsible for establishing and driving quality engineering strategies that ensure products are designed, developed, tested, and transitioned to production with the highest levels of safety, reliability, manufacturability, and mission effectiveness.

The Principal Quality Engineer partners closely with Design Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Flight Test, and Program Management to identify technical risks, drive root cause investigations, improve product reliability, and ensure quality is designed into the product from inception through production readiness.

As the most senior individual contributor within the quality organization, this role provides technical leadership across development programs and serves as a key advisor to engineering and executive leadership on quality and reliability matters.

What you'll do:

Development Quality Leadership

• Serve as the lead quality engineering representative on a major aerospace development program.
• Establish quality engineering strategies and methodologies throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Ensure quality requirements are incorporated into system architecture, design, verification, validation, and production planning activities.
• Drive quality integration within cross-functional engineering teams.
• Provide technical leadership for complex quality and reliability challenges.

Design Quality & Product Development

• Participate in system requirements reviews, design reviews, and technical readiness reviews.
• Assess product designs for quality, manufacturability, inspectability, maintainability, and reliability.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks associated with design maturity and product performance.
• Evaluate engineering changes and configuration modifications for quality impact.
• Champion Design for Quality (DFQ), Design for Manufacturability (DFM), and Design for Reliability (DFR) principles.

Failure Analysis & Root Cause Investigation

• Lead investigations of the program's most complex failures and quality escapes.
• Apply advanced root cause methodologies to identify systemic causes of defects and failures.
• Facilitate cross-functional corrective action teams.
• Drive closure and effectiveness verification of corrective actions.
• Mentor engineering teams in structured problem-solving techniques.

Reliability & Risk Management

• Develop reliability growth strategies and quality metrics for development programs.
• Support implementation and execution of FRACAS processes.
• Analyze failure trends, test results, field data, and operational performance.
• Identify emerging risks before they impact program objectives.
• Recommend design, process, or operational improvements to improve product robustness.

Verification, Validation & Test Quality

• Develop quality engineering approaches for laboratory, environmental, ground, and flight testing.
• Ensure test anomalies, failures, and nonconformances are properly evaluated and resolved.
• Support qualification and certification efforts.
• Evaluate test readiness and production readiness criteria.
• Ensure lessons learned are captured and incorporated into future designs.

Manufacturing & Production Readiness

• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering to develop scalable production processes.
• Support development of inspection strategies, acceptance criteria, and process controls.
• Evaluate manufacturing capability and production risks during product maturation.
• Ensure development lessons learned are translated into production controls.
• Support transition from prototype builds to low-rate and full-rate production.

Supplier & Component Quality

• Support supplier quality planning for critical components and technologies.
• Evaluate supplier quality risks associated with development hardware.
• Participate in supplier investigations and corrective actions when required.
• Drive quality improvements across the supply base supporting the program.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as a mentor and technical coach to Quality Engineers and cross-functional engineering teams.
• Develop quality engineering standards, tools, and best practices.
• Influence program decisions through technical expertise and data-driven analysis.
• Lead special projects involving advanced quality engineering methodologies.
• Act as a trusted advisor to engineering and executive leadership.

Required qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related technical discipline.
• 12+ years of experience in aerospace, defense, aviation, space, or similarly complex engineered products.
• Extensive experience supporting new product development programs.
• Deep understanding of quality engineering principles and development lifecycles.
• Demonstrated success leading complex technical investigations and root cause analyses.
• Experience with reliability engineering, failure analysis, and risk management.
• Strong understanding of aerospace manufacturing processes and production transitions.
• Working knowledge of AS9100 quality systems and aerospace regulatory requirements.
• Excellent communication and technical leadership skills.

Preferred qualifications:

• Advanced degree in Engineering, Systems Engineering, Reliability Engineering, or related field.
• Experience with UAVs, autonomous systems, aircraft development, or defense technologies.
• Experience supporting flight test programs and developmental testing.
• Expertise in FRACAS, FMEA, reliability growth, and statistical analysis techniques.
• ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) or equivalent certification.
• Experience supporting military or government aerospace programs.