Quality Engineer in Leighton Buzzard

At Collins Aerospace, an RTX business, we are helping to shape the future of aerospace and defence through intelligent, high-performing solutions that support customers around the world. We are now looking for a Quality Engineer to join our team in Leighton Buzzard. This is a hands-on quality leadership role where you will support day-to-day quality operations, help maintain audit readiness, drive corrective actions, and ensure our products, processes and people continue to meet the high standards expected in aerospace.

This role would suit someone with a strong quality or aerospace manufacturing background who enjoys problem-solving, working with cross-functional teams, and helping others perform at their best.

What You Will Do

• Maintain continual audit preparedness across your area of responsibility and direct reports
• Review, create and update quality control documents linked to your area
• Support investigations into nonconformances, corrective actions, customer complaints and customer escapes
• Facilitate and manage the returns process within the Regional Distribution Centre
• Provide metrics and KPI reporting to help track quality performance and identify improvement opportunities
• Support the local Quality Management System and ensure processes remain aligned to regulatory, customer and company requirements
• Participate in daily MRB meetings and quality clinics
• Maintain training records for direct reports and keep the area training matrix up to date
• Work closely with Manufacturing, Engineering, Operations, Supply Chain and other support functions
• Help build a culture of continuous improvement, accountability and quality ownership
• Support coaching, work scheduling, prioritisation and process execution within the team

What You Will Learn

In this role, you will continue to develop your experience in a highly regulated aerospace environment while gaining exposure to wider operational quality activity across a busy site. You will build knowledge in:

• Aerospace quality systems and customer requirements
• Audit readiness and compliance processes
• Root cause analysis and corrective action management
• Customer escape investigations
• Quality metrics, reporting and performance improvement
• Cross-functional problem-solving across manufacturing, engineering and operations
• Continuous improvement and 5S practices in a production environment

Qualifications You Must Have

We are looking for someone with a strong quality mindset and practical experience within manufacturing, aerospace or another regulated technical environment. You will bring:

• Experience in a quality and/or aerospace manufacturing environment, ideally within medium to high-volume manufacturing
• Experience using handheld measuring equipment such as Verniers, height gauges and micrometers
• Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, including drawing requirements and geometrical tolerances
• A continuous improvement and 5S mindset
• Ability to read, understand and interpret technical and engineering information
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Confidence working independently and as part of a wider team
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office: Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Access
• An understanding of basic management approaches, including work scheduling, prioritising, coaching and process execution

Qualifications We Prefer

It would be beneficial if you also have:

• ONC / HNC or equivalent qualification in Engineering, Quality, Manufacturing or a related technical discipline
• Experience working within an aerospace, defence or highly regulated manufacturing environment
• Experience supporting audits, MRB activity, corrective actions or customer quality investigations
• Previous experience leading, supervising or coaching a team
• Knowledge of Quality Management Systems and continuous improvement tools

Why Join Us?

At Collins Aerospace, your work matters. You will be part of a team that supports products and systems used across the aerospace and defence industry, where quality is not just a process, it is essential to safety, reliability and customer trust. You will join a business that offers real opportunity to learn, grow and contribute to meaningful work in a global organisation, while being part of a local team with a strong focus on collaboration, improvement and delivery.

Role Type

This role is classified as Onsite. Employees in onsite roles work primarily at the Collins Aerospace site. For this position, regular onsite presence is required due to the hands-on nature of the work and the close interaction with production, quality and operational teams. Commuting to and from the assigned site is the employee’s personal responsibility.

Ready to help drive quality performance in a world-class aerospace environment? Apply now and join Collins Aerospace in Leighton Buzzard, where your quality expertise can help keep our operations moving, our standards high and our customers confident.