Product Quality Engineer - Barracuda

Anduril Industries; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 112,000 - 149,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa, CA seeks a Product Quality Engineer to drive quality for missile programs. You will define and execute processes to meet quality requirements, engage with design teams, and ensure product health throughout development and production.

Ideal candidates have missile or high-velocity vehicle experience, strong data analysis skills, and knowledge of APQP/PPAP elements. Security clearance (TS/SCI) is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or similar technical field.
• Experience in Engineering, Manufacturing, or Quality on missiles or high velocity vehicle systems.
• Knowledge of missile systems, PCBA, harnessing, avionics, and propulsion systems.
• Experience driving quality requirements to test and measurement system development.
• Experience collaborating with reliability, engineering, manufacturing, and customer teams.
• FMEA, APQP, PPAP elements like MSA, and GD&T knowledge.
• Experience with manufacturing processes and industry standards.
• Strong ownership mindset to drive projects to completion.
• Analytical data mining, data quality, metrics, and statistical tools.

Responsibilities

• Drive product quality for missile programs with APQP-based planning and inspections.
• Resolve production ambiguities related to maturity, process stability, and field performance.
• Lead transition to high-rate manufacturing, supply chain, and deployment support.
• Own elimination of product risks to improve reliability over the lifecycle.
• Ensure execution of product and process requirements and improve them.
• Lead RCCA, MRB activities, and review effectiveness of corrective actions.
• Lead product health data analysis and define quality metrics.
• Support continuous improvement of the Quality Management System.

Skills

Quality engineering

Root cause analysis

APQP

FMEA

GD&T

Data analysis

Statistical analysis tools

Product development collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or similar technical field

Master’s degree in a technical field

Tools

MatLab

JMP

MiniTab

Teamcenter

SolidWorks/NX

Jira

Foundry

Job description

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

About the Team

As a Product Quality Engineer at Anduril, supporting our Barracuda autonomous air vehicle programs in Costa Mesa, CA, you will work inside & outside the organization to define, develop, and execute processes that deliver high quality missile programs. This role focuses on collaborating and driving early engagement with our design teams and partner to meet our quality requirements the first time and to evaluate the product health & performance. The right person for this role has knowledge of missile product performance, sub-system performance criteria, metrology, and continuous improvement. An ideal candidate for this role has experiences in missile manufacturing, product development, test/system performance criteria, metrology, and quality planning. If you are someone who loves to build world-class quality processes and missile products, work hands-on with engineering, and be accountable for results of a small team, then this role is for you.

What You’ll Do

• Drive product development and production for missile programs using processes such as drawing and work instruction reviews, quality planning, inspection, acceptance test performance management, end-of-line metrics, verification, validation, and qualification of processes and parts, sub-assemblies, and the vehicle, itself.
• Drive clarity & resolution for production ambiguities associated with product maturity, process stability, and field performance.
• Champion the transition from new product introduction (NPI) to a sustainable & predictable, high rate manufacturing process, supply chain, and deployment support.
• Own the elimination of product risk to improve reliability across the product lifecycle.
• Ensure the execution of product and process requirements. Define and improve such requirements.
• Lead Root Cause and Corrective Action (RCCA), Material Review Board (MRB) activities, and inspection process performance. Review the effectiveness of actions and share lessons learned across the product team.
• Lead product health data analysis and improvement activities. Establish metrics for measuring quality and the factors that predict quality performance.
• Support the continuous improvement of the Quality Management System. Define and improve required documentation and activities.
• Develop an overall quality plan (similar to APQP) for various missile projects. Leverage resources and direct reports to delivery quality through the development cycle. Design, development, and leverage elements of the Anduril QMS to build confidence and containment for missile customers quality expectations. Set expectations for qualification of internal and external manufacturing processes including measurement methods, PPAP/FAI, inspection methods & test protocol & acceptance test plans for missile programs. Lead the transition from engineering qualification to manufacturing variance testing for product quality coverage.
• Lead product health data analysis and improvement activities for the missile projects.
• Matrix lead supplier quality engineers who are supporting the design and development activities with the suppliers for Missile programs.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or similar technical field
• Experience in Engineering, Manufacturing, or Quality on previous Missiles or high velocity vehicle systems.
• Working knowledge of design review and quality management of missile systems, PCBA, harnessing, avionics, systems integration, composites/control surfaces, propulsion systems, and lethality systems.
• Experience driving product quality and performance requirements to test and measurement system development and optimization. Knowledgeable of missile storage and maintenance processes.
• Experience partnering with Reliability Engineering, chief engineers, architects, manufacturing engineering, and customer facing team members to deliver to customer requirements.
• Working knowledge of product development methodologies such as Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP), Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) elements such as Measurement Systems Analysis (MSA), and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).
• Working knowledge of mechanical and/or electrical manufacturing processes. Application of industry standards and best practices
• A strong ownership mindset with demonstrated capability to drive projects from start to completion.
• Analytical skills and experiences for data mining, data quality, metrics generation, issue management systems, and statistical analysis tools (MatLab, JMP, MiniTab, etc)
• Must be able to obtain and hold a U.S. TS/SCI security clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a technical field
• 3-5 years of experience with developing quality systems for low volume, high complex manufacturing environments and suppliers. Working knowledge of AS9100/ AS6500 / ISO 9001-based Quality Management System requirements.
• Experience with IPC standards and general workmanship standards.
• Experience with government contracts and MIL standard requirements commonly applied to quality requirements for aerial vehicles. Experience with Teamcenter, SolidWorks/NX, Jira, Foundry, and manufacturing execution

US Salary Range

$112,000—$149,000 USD

Benefits

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:

At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next.

For more information, Explore Our Benefits.