Sr Principal Quality Engineer

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: No relocation assistance available

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 25% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

Bring your experience to Northrop Grumman Defense Systems. We are seeking an experienced Quality Engineer to support the Armament Systems Business Unit for our Weapons Systems Division located in Plymouth, MN.

Responsibilities:

This position will provide Quality Engineering and Mission Assurance support to programs within the Advanced Ammunition Portfolio of the Ammunition Operating Unit.  This may include production line support at multiple locations, supplier inspection and monitoring, identifying contractual Quality requirements, preparing quality program plans, inspection procedures and quality requirements flow-down, supplier process monitoring, application of lean/six-sigma tools, drawing reviews, customer interface/reports/submittals, and reviewing product acceptance data. 

This position may require travel up to 25% time.

**Location**

This position requires on-site support. Selected candidate will need to be within commuting distance to our site in Plymouth, MN. Relocation assistance for non-local candidates may not be available.

Job Duties

• Ensure compliance to contract quality requirements and AS9100 / ISO9001 Quality System processes on development and production programs. 
• Provide expertise and guidance to program teams and suppliers on quality assurance, quality systems, tools, training, problem solving, statistical analysis and continuous improvement. 
• Apply Lean and Six Sigma tools.
• Support and lead investigations between internal functions, suppliers and customers.
• Provide assistance with technical diagnosis of root cause analysis and implementation of corrective actions with resolution of customer complaints or field failures.
• Develop solutions as appropriate to eliminate the recurrence of the issue.
• Work with Operations to initiate effective containment, investigation, and countermeasure activities to prevent defect outflow both in-house and to Customers.
• Plan and implement quality activities including writing product inspection plans, initiating material review board actions, resolving nonconforming material issues, and facilitating corrective actions.
• Perform on-site monitoring of manufacturing lines and supplier production processes.  
• Assess suppliers’ capabilities and conformance to their Quality System
• Review drawings for inspection capability and conformance Geometric Dimensions and Tolerances standards.
• Prepare documentation including quality code requisitions for procuring material, incoming inspection procedures, and Contract Data Requirement List (CDRL) data requirements.  
• Evaluate manufacturing methods and inspection capabilities. 
• Provide quality input to manufacturing processes including inspection and determining key characteristics. 
• Perform statistical analysis on product yield/SPC/key characteristics data.
• Report status on tasks to program management, quality management and customers.
• Review inspection and acceptance data to assess process capability and product compliance.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM discipline plus 8 years of quality engineering experience, or master’s degree plus 6 years of experience
• Must be a US Citizen
• Strong background in inspection equipment, techniques and general knowledge of Metrology and Calibration
• Solid understanding of Drawings and Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T)
• Solid Quality Tools skills (Statistics, DOE, FMEA, MSA)
• Experience in a highly-regulated environment
• Willingness to travel domestically as required (sometimes on short notice)

Desired Qualifications

• Manufacturing background desired, familiarity with metals a