Principal Quality Engineer

BAE Systems; Preston; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a pioneering team focused on innovative quality engineering solutions within a leading defense company. This role offers the chance to drive significant quality improvements, utilizing industry best practices and cutting-edge tools. You'll collaborate with manufacturing teams to ensure high standards and proactively identify defect prevention opportunities. With a strong emphasis on personal and professional development, this position provides pathways to leadership roles and the opportunity to make a real impact in a supportive and inclusive environment. If you're passionate about quality and continuous improvement, this is the perfect opportunity for you.

Benefits

Competitive pension scheme

Enhanced annual leave allowance

Company contributed Share Incentive Plan

Flexible working

Employee assistance programme

Cycle2work

Employee discounts

Annual incentive eligibility

Qualifications

• Experience in driving quality improvements with proven results.
• Knowledge of quality tools including FMEA and Root Cause Analysis.

Responsibilities

• Leading major quality improvement projects.
• Working directly with manufacturing teams to enhance quality.

Skills

Problem identification and resolution

Driving improvements to completion

Knowledge of FMEA

Knowledge of Root Cause Analysis

Knowledge of Six Sigma

Knowledge of 8D investigations

Education

Degree in Engineering or Manufacturing

Tools

Six Sigma

Job description

Job Title: Principal Quality Engineer

Location: Barrow-in-Furness –on site

Salary: From £40,748 – depending on skills and experience

What you’ll be doing:

• Leading and supporting major quality improvement projects
• Developing new and innovative solutions to long-standing issues
• Working directly with manufacture and build teams to deliver quality improvement
• Using industry recognised toolsets such as Six Sigma (training provided)
• Identifying opportunities for pro-active defect prevention
• Key interface with customer and partners, building customer confidence

Your skills and experiences:

• Experience in driving improvements to completion with proven results
• Proven problem identification and resolution skills in fast-paced environment
• Knowledge of quality tools including FMEA, Root Cause Analysis, Six Sigma, 8D (investigations)
• Degree within Engineering or Manufacturing field or equivalent experience

Benefits:

You’ll receive benefits including a competitive pension scheme, enhanced annual leave allowance and a Company contributed Share Incentive Plan. You’ll also have access to additional benefits such as flexible working, an employee assistance programme, Cycle2work and employee discounts – you may also be eligible for an annual incentive.

The Quality Engineering team:

This role will pioneer a new and exciting approach to Quality, using industry best practice and cutting-edge tools and techniques, to engineering quality into the heart of our programmes.

As part of this role, you will be driving Quality considerations into the consciousness of others and ensuring high standards of outputs are attained and maintained.

Driving performance through learning and improvement on processes that are of integral importance to product operation and safety is a key part of the quality engineer’s responsibility and therefore there will be opportunity for further training and development in key quality engineering techniques. The team has a solid focus on personal and professional development with opportunities to develop into leadership roles.

We offer relocation support packages across all Submarines roles, subject to meeting eligibility criteria.

Why BAE Systems?

This is a place where you’ll be able to make a real difference. You’ll be part of an inclusive culture that values diversity, rewards integrity, and merit, and where you’ll be empowered to fulfil your potential. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and particularly from sections of the community who are currently underrepresented within our industry, including women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ individuals. We also want to make sure that our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. If you have a disability or health condition (for example dyslexia, autism, an anxiety disorder etc.) that may affect your performance in certain assessment types, please speak to your recruiter about potential reasonable adjustments.

Please be aware that many roles at BAE Systems are subject to both security and export control restrictions. These restrictions mean that factors such as your nationality, any nationalities you may have previously held, and your place of birth can restrict the roles you are eligible to perform within the organisation. All applicants must as a minimum achieve Baseline Personnel Security Standard. Many roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting where applicants must typically have 5 to 10 years of continuous residency in the UK depending on the vetting level required for the role, to allow for meaningful security vetting checks.

Closing Date:28th April 2025

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

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