Staff Quality Engineer

As our first Production Quality Engineer, you will be tasked with the unique challenge to create a quality management system and robust processes to implement it. As Astranis scales up production of its satellites, we need to build new business processes, systems, and controls to ensure our hardware meets the highest level of quality and reliability.

This role will be the first dedicated quality person in the company, and will report directly to the head of production and supply chain to build out a quality program in order to create a world-class satellite manufacturing operation. The ideal candidate has extensive quality engineering and management experience working on high-reliability products, is self-driven and autonomous, and has demonstrated ability to build a quality system and processes from scratch.

Role

• Develop business processes and implement systems for manufacturing and product quality functions such as configuration management, change control, nonconformance resolution, first article inspection, root cause analysis, corrective actions, containments, statistical process control, etc.

• Write and maintain quality management system (QMS) command media documents to govern how we design, build, and test hardware.

• Work with design engineering teams to develop standards for part drawings, including identification of key characteristics, dimensioning and GD&T, and first article inspection plans.

• Develop a process validation framework for qualifying new manufacturing processes, and work with production engineering teams to implement.

• Create metrics and tools to monitor the success of products and processes in production, including product yield and statistical process control (SPC).

• Create a system for tracking calibrated metrology in the factory.

• Conduct regular build quality reviews to ensure that design intent is achieved and well-communicated.

• Define electrostatic discharge (ESD) and cleanliness requirements and control processes in the factory.

• Assist production/engineering leadership team by identifying opportunities for risk reduction and removal of complexity in designs and processes to improve manufacturability.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, or equivalent technical degree.

• 12+ years in quality engineering or quality management role.

Bonus

• Familiarity with implementing QMS standards such as AS9100 and ISO9001.

• Hands-on experience qualifying and maintaining manufacturing processes for electronics and/or mechanical assemblies.

• Experience reviewing design documentation and implementing first-article inspection plans.

• Strong SQL and Python skills, and demonstrated ability to manage large data sets and create useful tools/dashboards/reports for others.

• Demonstrated application of process validation and control methods such as PFMEA, design of experiments (DOE), and statistical process control (SPC).

• Ability to use common CAD, PLM, and ERP systems such as Solidworks, Altium, and Arena.

• Excellent communication skills, written and verbal. Ability to produce executive-level reports and presentations to efficiently convey information about large data sets.