Quality Engineer

The Opportunity

We're looking for a proactive and detail-driven Quality Engineer who's passionate about making a real impact and putting quality at the heart of everything you do. This is a fantastic opportunity to play a key role in shaping and maintaining the high standards that define our products - from design and development through to production and final testing.

You'll bring hands-on experience from a quality-related engineering or manufacturing environment, using your knowledge of quality standards and auditing processes to champion best practice, support compliance, and drive continuous improvement across the business.

Who We Are

OpenWorks is a rapidly growing business operating globally, with a passion for exceptional engineering and a legacy of defence innovation in the North East of England.

Our products provide ultra-high-performance, real-time detection, tracking, identification, and targeting of dynamic aerial threats. They are deployed internationally to protect high-profile military and civilian assets and contribute to the defeat of nuisance, misguided, and maliciously deployed drones during operations.

The amazing things we do are only possible because of a dedicated and passionate team.

Why You'll Love Working With Us

Join a high-energy, collaborative team - where great ideas thrive, challenges are embraced, and people genuinely love what they do.

Our benefits include:

• Competitive remuneration package, with performance-related bonuses and clear progression opportunities.
• 25 days' holiday + public holidays, with long-service rewards and the option to buy or sell up to 5 additional days.
• Flexible working options – helping you balance life and work in a way that works best for you.
• Free breakfast and freshly cooked lunches every day, courtesy of Chef Mark and his team.
• Private healthcare through Aviva, keeping you feeling your best.
• Life assurance for peace of mind.
• Salary sacrifice schemes – including EV car and Cycle to Work options for easy, sustainable travel.
• Paid team socials – from quiz nights and football to board games and more; it's important to have fun together.
• Pension plan with employer-matched contributions to help you plan for the future.
• A culture that empowers – we enable change, encourage challenge, and celebrate personal growth.

What You'll Be Doing

Lead, develop, and maintain the Quality Management System, ensuring alignment with ISO 9001 and other relevant standards.

Conduct and support internal, external, customer, and supplier audits, ensuring full coverage of the management system and compliance requirements.

Conduct root cause analysis and drive corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), maintaining quality documentation such as inspection records, non-conformance reports, and calibration logs.

Perform inspection and testing activities on components and finished products, ensuring compliance with specifications, and analyse customer feedback to resolve quality issues.

Collaborate with Engineering, Production, and Suppliers to improve design and manufacturing processes, ensuring all materials and components meet quality expectations.

Lead and support quality planning activities, including FMEA, control plans, new product introduction, training on quality tools, and preparation of detailed quality performance reports.

Travel to supplier sites as required to conduct audits and support quality activities.

What You'll Bring

Qualification: A degree or HND in Engineering, Quality, or a related discipline, OR a relevant technical degree such as biotechnology.

ISO 9001 Expertise: Proven, hands-on experience working with ISO 9001 in an engineering or manufacturing environment — essential.

Auditing Ability: Strong experience supporting, conducting, or leading quality audits across full QMS lifecycle.

Industry Experience: Background in mechanical, electrical, electronics, automotive, machine shop, industrial manufacturing, or similar environments.

Analytical Thinking: Excellent problem-solving skills, with a methodical approach to investigation and root cause analysis.

Documentation Accuracy: High level of precision in recording quality data, maintaining documents, and updating reports.

Collaboration: Confident communicator able to work effectively with multidisciplinary teams and suppliers.

Autonomy: Comfortable working independently, applying clear, black-and-white quality decisions when required.

Desirable: Lead Auditor certification (ISO 9001:2015), experience with AS9100, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, core quality tools (8D, DMAIC, FMEA, SPC), or experience with ERP/QMS software.

More About Us

Vision

Help protect the territory and airspace of NATO countries and their allies.

Mission

Be a world-leading provider of autonomous technology for surveillance applications and defence.

Values

Be a Good Egg: Earn respect, have mutual trust, and be honest.

Do Cool Stuff: We develop incredible tech with an awesome team — and we get things done.

Be Empowered: Take responsibility and act with autonomy.

We Are One Team: Look out for each other.

Things Go Wrong: Fail fast, learn, and move on.

Have Fun: We're doing amazing things with passionate people.