Quality Improvement & Capability Manager

Job Description

Reporting directly to our UK Head of Excellence, you’ll act as a strategic architect for product integrity across our engineering and manufacturing functions. This is a high-visibility role for a mentor who can bridge the gap between design intent and world-class production, ensuring mission-critical technology is "designed for excellence" long before it reaches the shop floor!

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.
• Private Medical Insurance: Eligible employees are enrolled as standard into the company funded Private Medical Insurance benefit.

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 sophisticated challenges, using FMEA and DMAIC methodologies to empower our teams and ensure zero-defect excellence across our entire product portfolio. It’s a genuinely exciting chance for a determined individual to drive real change while pursuing their own career growth.

We are seeking a time-served Quality professional to 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: Support the quality and engineering functions through APQP toolsets. Facilitate workshops and coach teams on DFMEA and PFMEA best practices (based on relevant standards and industry best practices) to ensure risks are identified and "designed out" early in the project lifecycle.
• Design to Production Link: Guide the transfer of "Special Characteristics" and Severity ratings from design intent into practical Control Plans. Partner with manufacturing to ensure that risks identified in FMEAs are managed with realistic measurement methods and robust control plans, ensuring operational readiness for the production team.
• Process Stability & Coaching: Support continuous improvement by mentoring teams through DMAIC cycles to stabilise production and improve yields. Support others to use data to monitor performance and reduce variation from the launch phase throughout the entire product lifecycle.
• Problem Solving & Lessons Learned: Lead and coach the Root Cause Analysis process when quality issues arise. You will ensure that teams know how to feed findings back into their FMEAs and Control Plans, maintaining them as "living documents" that prevent the recurrence of failures.
• Standards & Audit Support: Act as the subject matter expert for risk-related audits, ensuring our risk management meets EN9100 / ISO 9001 standards. Utilise Action Priority logic to help the team prioritise engineering changes and validation testing for high-risk items.

What we're looking for from you:

• Professional Experience: 5+ years in a mission critical, regulated environment (Defence, Aerospace, or Automotive). Experience in leading teams and mentoring staff on quality principles is essential.
• Technical Background: An engineering background (HNC/HND or higher) with expertise in electronics, manufacturing and design.
• Standards: Excellent knowledge of EN9100 / ISO 9001. Competent in the AIAG & VDA FMEA Handbook or SAE J1739 methodologies.
• Product Risk: Proven track record in managing product risk through DFMEA, DFx (Design for Excellence), PFMEA, and the development of robust Control Plans.
• Problem-Solving & Tools: Highly Proficient in Root Cause Analysis (8D, 5-Why) and experience using FMEA software (e.g., APIS IQ-FMEA, Relyence, or similar).
• Lean Six Sigma, Certified Black Belt: A proactive approach — the ability to identify and mitigate risks early to prevent field failures. Experience with DMAIC cycles is preferred.
• Influencing & Facilitation: A strong influencer and skilled facilitator, bridging the gap between design and shop-floor teams through coaching and mentoring to drive 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.

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