Manufacturing Quality Engineer in Cowes

Fantastic challenges. Amazing opportunities. GKN Aerospace is reimagining air travel: going further, faster and greener! Fuelled by great people whose expertise and creativity sets the standards in our industry, we’re inspired by the opportunities to innovate and break boundaries. We’re proud to play a part in protecting the world’s democracies. And we’re committed to putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do, opening up and protecting our planet. With over 16,000 employees across 33 manufacturing sites in 12 countries we serve over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and achieved sales of £3.35 bn in 2023. There are no limits to where you can take your career.

Based in our East Cowes facilities here on the Isle of Wight, and reporting into the Chief Manufacturing Engineer, the Quality Engineer will be the main customer point of contact for quality, providing quality assurance support to all aspects of the business processes and procedures across both our Defence and Civil aerospace business lines. This position is open to both experienced candidates and also candidates looking to move into, and develop in, Quality Engineering / Manufacturing Engineering Quality. Training, education and mentoring all available as required for the successful candidate.

You will be responsible for the identification and documenting of customer and regulatory product and process requirements, ensuring that procedures, plans and processes are established and maintained, in order to meet those requirements consistently without deviation. The successful candidate will need to be flexible for ad-hoc national and international travel on a potential quarterly basis depending on customer needs.

Job Responsibilities

• Work in accordance with any health, safety and environmental policies and procedures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all personnel and visitors is maintained at the highest level.
• Along with Manufacturing Engineers, develop the strategy and the metrics for the functional performance of the products and manufacturing processes.
• Create and/or support the creation of comprehensive quality plans.
• Provide advice and guidance on quality issues/matters to all areas of the business.
• Support the implementation of corrective and preventative actions and the development of both lean and continual improvement activities.
• Review and evaluate quality data to identify process improvement opportunities within the company processes and procedures creating corrective/preventive action plans to address failures.
• Support regular meetings with customers and representatives from appropriate departments to establish action plans for improving build quality.

Job Qualifications

Essential:

• Demonstrable experience within either Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, or any other relevant disciplines gained within an aerospace (or similar) production environment;
• Willing and able to be customer-facing;
• Demonstrable experience in driving quality and/or process improvements;
• Willingness and ability for national and potentially international travel (when required).

Desirable:

• Experience in performing audits.
• An understanding of APQP tools (advanced product quality planning) – AS9145.
• A HNC qualification or equivalent.
• Previous experience using a MRP or ERP System.
• Experience working with AS9100 Lead Auditor standard.
• Green Belt Certified.

We are looking for people who want to make a difference, talented members with the drive and passions to become the best of the future in what they do. The Quality Engineer will be a data driven individual with a strong ability to work with key stakeholders across all levels of the business. The successful candidate will have strong communication, problem solving and presentation skills, or be working towards these through development, with an ability to work to tight deadlines and drive continuous improvement.

We’ll offer you fantastic challenges and amazing opportunities. This is your chance to be part of an organisation that has proven itself to be at the cutting edge of our industry; and is committed to pushing the boundaries even further. And with some of the best training on offer in the industry, who knows how far you can go?

A Great Place to work needs a Great Way of Working. Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN. We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment. Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute. It’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’. By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work. We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process, so if you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process please get in touch and let us know. We are the place where human dreams, plus human endeavour, shape the future of aerospace innovation and technology.