Quality Assurance Manager in Newtownabbey

Location: Belfast, United Kingdom

Thales people architect solutions that are relied upon to deliver operational advantage at every decisive moment throughout the mission. Defence and armed forces customers rely on us to deliver the full range of defensive systems for land, sea, and air. From early warning to threat neutralisation, our platforms cover all levels from very short-range systems to extended protection across the entire battle-space including Airspace Mobility Solutions, Vehicles and Tactical Systems, Missile Defence, Optronics, and Radar.

We offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security, and Space.

Your health and well-being matters to us, and that's why we offer you the flexibility to do what's important to you; whether that's part-time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Are you an inquisitive individual that has a passion for Quality Assurance? Are you looking for your next challenge with the opportunity to work within a highly regarded team that will support your learning and development? Then look no further. We have a fantastic opportunity for an impactful Quality Assurance Engineer / Quality Assurance Manager to join our Integrated Air Systems (IAS) team. Within IAS, our high-tech solutions enable us to monitor and detect threats from multiple sources in near real time.

What the role has to offer:

• Work for an expanding domain in growth mode
• Experience working on design and development of products which are geographically unique
• Working on projects at the forefront of defence technology

Key responsibilities:

• Performing all aspects of Quality Assurance on our major contracts, supporting state-of-the-art maritime solutions and providing our customers with capabilities to operate within the underwater environment.
• Planning and performing project audits and surveillance activities in accordance with the Project Quality Plans and audit strategy.
• Acting as the customer's representative inside the project or bid team and looking to maximise customer satisfaction and support any actions.
• Managing and analysing reports to continually improve quality within the project, ensuring the quality performance is managed and reported to meet project time-scales.
• Encouraging and developing best practice, promoting a quality culture and environment of continuous improvement.
• Generating monthly QA Advices for allocated Project and Bid Reviews in accordance with the Guidance provided and Reference system.
• Leading project QA activities to ensure that Quality tasks are carried out in accordance with agreed Work Packages.
• Effective generation, assurance, and management of non-conformances, with realistic stage target dates and actions agreed with NCR owners.
• Timely raising of Alerts when appropriate with escalation, as required, in order to reduce risks to the business.
• Supporting Customer Surveys and working with functions to establish any necessary improvements plans, resulting from customer feedback.

About you:

• Have proven experience working as a Quality Engineer OR Quality Assurance Manager in a manufacturing or engineering environment.
• Have a detailed knowledge of current quality and related working practices and standards, preferably AS9100.
• Be a qualified auditor or have similar experience.
• Possess excellent communication and influencing skills to promote quality within the wider operations team.
• Have experience of working within a project structure and experience of managing work packages - desirable.
• Be a member of, or working towards membership of the Chartered Quality Institute - desirable.

Benefits at Thales:

We strive to create an environment where you can prioritise your wellbeing and have designed our benefits to give you the flexibility and power to do so. Our core benefits include a pension plan, private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, as well as an employee assistance programme. In addition, our flexible benefits platform gives you the power to customise your benefits to suit your needs. You can choose to add a number of optional benefits including healthcare cash plan, health assessments, family cover private medical insurance, buying/selling annual leave, gym membership discounts, and much more.

You can also enjoy exclusive access to our discount site! Alongside a competitive base salary, we offer a variable compensation plan bonus, 27 days annual leave + 1 company day + UK public holidays, a Friday lunchtime finish, as well as the opportunity to volunteer up to 3 days to support local charities/communities in which we work.

Thales is an equal opportunities employer and diversity and inclusion are integral to our success.

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK, and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries, our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!