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MBDA

Quality Improvement & Capability Manager

Salary:  £60,000 per annum
Location:  Stevenage | United Kingdom
Location flexibility:  1 office day / week, 2 office days / week, 3 office days / week – 2-3 days at home (some exceptions), 4 office days / week
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Job Description

A Quality Improvement and Capability Manager (APQP Focus) is needed to drive a proactive, "right-first-time" culture, bridging the gap between design and manufacturing in a leading defence organisation.


Salary: Circa £60,000 depending on experience
Dynamic (hybrid) working: 3 days per week on-site due to workload classification
Security Clearance: British Citizen or a Dual UK national with British citizenship.
Restrictions and/or limitations relating to nationality and/or rights to work may apply. As a minimum and after offer stage, all successful candidates will need to undergo HMG Basic Personnel Security Standard checks (BPSS), which are managed by the MBDA Personnel Security Team.

What we can offer you:

  • Company Bonus: Bonus of up to 21% of base salary
  • Pension: maximum total (employer and employee) contribution of up to 14%
  • Flexible working: We welcome applicants who are looking for flexible working arrangements
  • Enhanced parental leave: offers up to 26 weeks for maternity, adoption and shared parental leave -enhancements are available for paternity leave, neonatal leave and fertility testing and treatments
  • Facilities: Fantastic site facilities including subsidised meals, free car parking and much more…
  • Healthcare Cash Plan: The Healthcare Cash Plan benefit provides the option to claim cash back on everyday healthcare expenses such as optical, dental, health and wellbeing and more.

The opportunity:

Operating within the Quality Excellence function, you will lead the shift toward a proactive, "right-first-time" culture. We are looking for a coach and facilitator to tackle complex challenges, using FMEA and DMAIC methodologies to empower our teams and ensure zero-defect excellence across our entire product portfolio. This is a genuinely exciting chance for a determined individual to drive real change while pursuing their own career growth.

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#1 BEST WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Working at MBDA

1 office day / week 2 office days / week 3 office days / week – 2-3 days at home (some exceptions) 4 office days / week

A little flex time – high flexibility for most roles

Company benefits

25 days annual leave + bank holidays
Adoption leave – up to 26 weeks
Annual bonus – all employee bonuses paid in Feb/March
Annual pay rises – performance (+ inflation) increases each year
Bike parking – secure parking at all sites
Buddy scheme – buddies when onboarding
Buy or sell annual leave – buy up to 5 extra days
Carer’s leave
Cinema discounts
Coffee discounts – discounted on site cafes and canteens
Collaboration spaces
Company shutdown periods – Christmas closures and bank holidays
Compassionate leave
Cycle to work scheme
Dental coverage – salary sacrifice options
Electric Car Salary Sacrifice – MyCarScheme - including electric vehicles
Electric vehicle charging unit loan – electric charging points at all UK sites
Employee assistance programme
Employee discounts
Enhanced maternity leave – up to 26 weeks
Enhanced paternity leave – available after 26 weeks service
Enhanced pension match/contribution
Enhanced sick pay – increases with length of service
Faith rooms
Family health insurance – salary sacrifice options
Fertility treatment leave
Gym membership – Discounted gym on site in Stevenage, or discounts for local gyms across UK
Health insurance – salary sacrifice options
In house training – In house L&D team
L&D budget
Language lessons
Learning platform – access to multiple learning resources
Meditation space
Menopause support
Mental health first aiders
Mentoring – available to all employees. Includes women in leadership options
Modern office
Neonatal leave – up to 12 weeks
On-site barista
On-site catering
On-site gym
On-site shower
On-site wellness room – reflection rooms available to employees
Open to compressed hours
Open to job sharing
Open to part time work for some roles
Open to part-time employees
Optional unpaid leave
Personal development budgets – up to £150 towards non-work training courses
Pregnancy loss leave
Pregnancy support
Private booths
Professional subscriptions – full membership funding available
Referral bonus – up to £3,000 for a successful referral
Reservist leave – up to 3 weeks off for training (2 weeks on full pay)
Restaurant discounts – discount/cashback employee platform
Salary sacrifice
Secure on-site parking
Share options
Shared parental leave – up to 26 weeks
Teambuilding days
Technology Loan – salary sacrifice options available
Time off in-lieu
Travel loan – season ticket loans for public transport
Volunteer days – up to 2 days a year for team-based volunteering
Wellbeing allowance
Will writing

Awards & Accreditations

Best Work-Life Balance

Top 5 - Best Work-Life Balance

Flexa awards 2026
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As a time-served Quality professional, you will bridge the gap between product design and world-class manufacturing. You will own the Product Risk Mitigation strategy—utilising DFMEA to 'design out' failures, PFMEAs/Control Plans to ensure operational excellence, and DMAIC cycles to drive continuous improvement in production yields. Your goal is simple: zero-defect product launches built on a foundation of proactive quality and robust process controls.

Day to day focus:

  • Risk Mitigation: Facilitate workshops and coach cross-functional teams on DFMEA and PFMEA best practices to ensure design and process risks are identified and eliminated early in the project lifecycle.
  • Design-to-Production Link: Guide the seamless transfer of "Special Characteristics" and Severity ratings from design intent into practical, robust manufacturing Control Plans and realistic measurement methods.
  • Process Stability & Coaching: Mentor teams through DMAIC cycles to stabilise production, improve yields, and reduce variation from the launch phase throughout the entire product lifecycle using MSA and SPC.
  • Problem Solving & Lessons Learned: Lead advanced problem-solving frameworks (FRACAS, 8D) and coach teams to feed root-cause findings back into FMEAs and Control Plans, maintaining them as "living documents."
  • Standards & Audit Compliance: Act as the Quality Excellence subject matter expert for risk-related audits, ensuring strict compliance with EN9100, ISO 9001, AS9145 (APQP/PPAP), and applicable Defence/Military standards (Def Stan / MIL-STD).
  • Engineering Prioritisation: Utilise Action Priority (AP) logic to help engineering teams objectively prioritise engineering changes, risk mitigations, and validation testing for high-risk items.

What we are looking for:

  • Professional Experience: Proven experience in a mission-critical, regulated sector (Defence, Aerospace, or Automotive) with a proven track record of leading cross-functional teams and mentoring staff through phase-gate deployment.
  • Technical Background: Solid engineering background (HNC/HND or higher) with core expertise spanning electronics, manufacturing, assembly, and product design.
  • Standards & Frameworks: Expert knowledge of AS9145 (APQP/PPAP for Aerospace & Defence), EN9100, ISO 9001, and IATF 16949.
  • Process & Launch Risk: Proven experience qualifying products and processes through the full APQP lifecycle. Subject matter expertise in DFMEA, DFM/DFA, PFMEA, and transitioning from Prototype to Production Control Plans.
  • Project Governance & Software: Highly proficient in managing Phase-Gate APQP/AS9145 milestones and deploying enterprise APQP/PPAP tracking software (e.g., Net-Inspect, Siemens Teamcenter Quality, CAQ.Net, or similar).
  • Data Analysis & Core Tools: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt preferred. Strong capability in DMAIC cycles, process capability studies (Cpk/Ppk), and proactive risk mitigation alongside core AIAG tools (MSA, SPC).
  • Influencing & Facilitation: Skilled facilitator with a proven ability to bridge the gap between design, manufacturing, and supply chain teams while embedding a "Quality First" culture.

Our company: Peace is not a given, Freedom is not a given, Sovereignty is not a given

MBDA is a leading defence organisation. We are proud of the role we play in supporting the Armed Forces who protect our nations. We partner with governments to work together towards a common goal, defending our freedom.

We are proud of our employee-led networks, examples include: Gender Equality, Pride, Menopause Matters, Parents and Carers, Armed Forces, Ethnic Diversity, Neurodiversity, Disability and more…

We recognise that everyone is unique, and we encourage you to speak to us should you require any advice, support or adjustments throughout our recruitment process.

Follow us on LinkedIn (MBDA), X (@MBDA_UK), Instagram (MBDA_UK) and Glassdoor or visit our MBDA Careers website for more information.

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Company employees:

7000

Gender diversity (m:f):

74:26

Hiring in countries

United Kingdom

Office Locations