Principal Engineer Mission Assurance

Northrop Grumman•Sunnyvale, CA

1d•$114,000 - $171,000•Onsite

About The Position

This position will support an established production program within Marine Systems’ Machinery Systems Operating Unit. The successful candidate will serve as a key Quality and Mission Assurance partner to Program Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Global Supply Chain, Supplier Quality, subcontractors, suppliers, and the customer. The role is focused on disciplined production execution, product and process quality, program performance, contractual compliance, corrective action, customer acceptance, risk reduction, and continuous improvement. The Mission Assurance Engineer will work independently and across multidisciplinary teams to define and monitor mission-assurance processes; identify and resolve quality issues; assess program risks and opportunities; provide objective evidence of product conformity; and help ensure contractual, technical, quality, safety, reliability, maintainability, and customer requirements are met. The position requires the ability to travel up to 25%.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM related field and a minimum of 5 years of experience in quality, mission assurance, manufacturing, engineering, program execution, or a related environment: Master's Degree with 3 years of experience.
Experience applying quality engineering principles and practices in an established production environment.
Program quality experience, including direct support to program execution and coordination with Program Management and cross-functional organizations.
Demonstrated experience interfacing directly with Program Management to communicate quality status, performance, risks, issues, opportunities, and recovery actions.
Experience reviewing and verifying requirements and contractual flow-downs in contracts, specifications, drawings, work instructions, supplier documentation, or other technical documentation.
Experience with Quality Management Systems such as AS9100 or ISO 9001.
Experience with interpreting technical drawings and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T).
Ability to obtain and maintain Secret Clearance.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrated ability to operate independently, prioritize competing demands, and deliver results with limited oversight in a production environment.
Strong quality engineering, program quality, program execution, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to lead multidisciplinary teams through complex quality issues and drive timely, sustainable corrective and preventive actions.
Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to present quality status, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions to customers and program and executive leadership.
Strong business acumen and the ability to connect quality performance with program cost, schedule, technical, contractual, and delivery objectives.
Ability to interpret complex technical and contractual requirements and establish practical, evidence-based compliance approaches.
Ability to build effective working relationships across Program Management, Engineering, Manufacturing, Global Supply Chain, Supplier Quality, suppliers, customers, and government representatives.
Experience preparing for and leading program Corrective Action Boards (CABs), including issue prioritization, action ownership, closure tracking, trend review, and verification of corrective-action effectiveness.
Experience supporting program business execution in an Earned Value Management System (EVMS) environment, including CEAC or EAC development, variance analysis, forecasts, risks, opportunities, and corrective-action planning.
Experience supporting proposals and capture activities, including development of Quality or Mission Assurance approaches, schedules, risks, staffing estimates, and Basis of Estimate documentation.
Experience supporting Customer Source Inspection and Government Source Inspection, including readiness, objective evidence, product presentation, issue resolution, and closure of findings or open actions.
Experience serving as a Quality or Mission Assurance lead for production of complex machinery, structures, propulsion, electrical-generation, or electromechanical systems.
Experience applying quality assurance, risk-management, APQP, process FMEA, control-plan, Critical-to-Quality, process-capability, and structured root cause and corrective action methodologies in a production environment.
Experience performing or reviewing First Article Inspections and working with suppliers and Supplier Quality to resolve supply-chain quality issues and verify effective corrective-action closure.
Experience supporting technical and production reviews, requirements verification and traceability, contract reviews, and development of compliance evidence or assurance work products.
Experience developing and presenting program quality metrics, variance and trend analyses, risk assessments, and improvement or recovery plans to customers and program leadership.
Experience supporting internal audits, customer audits, government reviews, or Quality Management System surveillances.
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification.
Active Secret Clearance.

Responsibilities

Serve as a Quality and Mission Assurance focal point for an established production program, partnering with Program Management and functional organizations to support cost, schedule, technical, quality, and delivery commitments.
Define and monitor mission-assurance plans, processes, metrics, and work products that support disciplined production execution and program success.
Apply quality engineering and program quality practices to production planning, hardware execution, inspection, acceptance, and delivery.
Identify product and process nonconformances; lead root cause and corrective action activities; analyze trends; and drive effective preventive actions.
Develop and communicate quality and program-performance metrics, variances, trends, risks, opportunities, and recovery actions to Program Management, functional leadership, and customers.
Assess program risks and opportunities using quantitative and predictive analysis, provide data-driven input to resource decisions, and elevate risk-acceptance concerns.
Review contractual and technical requirements, establish compliance pathways, verify requirements and flow-downs, and support contract and customer reviews.
Verify that measurement, inspection, and test methods satisfy drawing, specification, contractual, and acceptance criteria.
Participate in applicable technical, production-readiness, test-readiness, and customer reviews to assess requirement compliance, producibility, design maturity, and production risk.
Support hardware design changes and production execution by coordinating Engineering, Manufacturing, Global Supply Chain, Supplier Quality, inspection personnel, subcontractors, and suppliers.
Apply Quality Management System principles and applicable engineering and manufacturing tools to resolve quality-system questions and support audits, surveillances, and compliance assessments.
Support program planning, estimates, source inspections, corrective-action governance, and other Quality and Mission Assurance activities needed to meet program commitments.
Travel to customer, supplier, and other company locations as required, up to 25%.