Quality Engineer III

Mercury Systems•Phoenix, AZ

About The Position

The Quality Engineer III is a technical leader responsible for driving yield performance, process capability, and production readiness across complex manufacturing operations. The role leads strategic initiatives to improve First Pass Yield (FPY) and Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY), using advanced quality engineering methods to identify systemic issues and deliver sustainable process improvements. The Quality Engineer ensures new and modified parts meet design, specification, and capability requirements before release. The position partners with Manufacturing, Engineering, and Supply Chain to validate production readiness, strengthen process controls, and support stable, predictable high-volume execution. Success requires strong analytical skills, mastery of root-cause methodologies, and the ability to influence cross-functional teams toward measurable, lasting quality outcomes. The position requires or may require obtaining a government security clearance, which may only be granted to U.S. citizens.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science degree in a technical discipline.
Typically 4 or more years of experience in a quality or process engineering position for complex aerospace programs and systems.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships across departments and the company to support organizational strategies.
Ability to maintain the professional competence, knowledge, and skills necessary to perform assigned responsibilities.
Knowledge of relevant quality standards, methods, and practices.
Knowledge of fault trees and statistical process control.
Experience working in a matrix organization supporting multiple products and projects.
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
Proven initiative and problem-solving ability, including recognizing and implementing improvements.
Ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance as required by program or customer needs; security clearances may only be granted to U.S. citizens.

Nice To Haves

PCBA or related product experience.
Contract manufacturer experience, particularly PCBA-type work, or similar experience.
Experience with Agile PLM or similar software, Oracle, Solidworks, Jira, and Jama.

Responsibilities

Develop, maintain, and deploy advanced quality tools, including PFMEAs, control plans, capability studies, and measurement system analysis, to sustain predictable, high-yield processes.
Establish and monitor key yield and quality performance indicators, providing data-driven insights and improvement roadmaps to leadership.
Lead First Pass Yield (FPY) improvement initiatives by analyzing defect data, identifying systemic issues, and driving corrective and preventive actions.
Own Rolled Throughput Yield (RTY) methodologies, including mapping end-to-end process performance, calculating stage-level yield losses, and implementing improvement plans.
Facilitate cross-functional production-readiness reviews, including validation of process controls, capability metrics, tooling, equipment qualification, and operator readiness before full-rate manufacturing.
Partner with Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Engineering to identify waste, reduce variation, and improve process robustness using Lean and Six Sigma methods.
Lead structured problem-solving activities using methodologies such as 8D, DMAIC, and A3, and ensure actions are implemented, verified, and sustained.
Support material review, disposition, and defect-reduction activities through analytics and trend identification.
Provide mentoring and technical guidance to junior engineers and production teams on quality systems, root-cause analysis, and process control.
Execute processes for non-conforming material and manage MRB efficiently.
Prevent defects through process, supplier, manufacturing, and quality controls.
Drive failure analysis and responsive customer communication.
Interface and communicate regularly with customers, providing quality status as required.
Promote adherence to the AS9100 Quality Management System and drive improvements.
Participate in internal and external audits and provide results.
Develop and maintain visible quality KPIs and associated actions, including COPQ, FPY, and DPPM.
Facilitate and oversee First Article Inspection (FAI) activities, verify design, specification, and process requirements against applicable standards and internal procedures, and drive timely closure of gaps before production release.