Project Product/Quality Assurance (PA/QA) Engineer

The Project PA/QA Engineer reports hierarchically to the Director of Quality and functionally to the Project Manager and to the Head of PA/QA Support to Projects.

He/she is responsible for consistently establishing, managing and implementing PA/QA arrangements within software development projects, mainly for ground segment and flight systems. This responsibility includes that of ensuring the application and follow-up of the corporate procedures and guidelines provided by our Corporate Management System (CMS) in the projects under his/her responsibility.

The Project PA/QA Engineer will join a highly international team of experience engineers (UK, Spain, Portugal, Romania).

The Project PA/QA Engineer will be based in the UK office and will have the opportunity to work on projects across the Space sector involving, Earth Observation satellites, launchers, UAV, ground sensors. In particular the selected candidates will be expected to help Deimos develop its new generation Earth Observation platform with state-of-the-art Image Processing and Flight Systems.

Main Duties:

The Project PA/QA Engineer is expected to deal with regular project Product Assurance/Quality Assurance activities in the frame of software development and engineering projects:

• Definition, documentation, maintenance and implementation of a programme of project PA/QA activities capable to fulfil project quality objectives from both customer and DEIMOS.
• Preparation of a Product Assurance Plan (PAP) and monitoring and control of this plan throughout the project lifecycle.
• Help the Project Manager with the CMS Tailoring preparation and follow-up.
• Review of all project documentation and customer deliveries to ensure that quality objectives and full traceability along the lifecycle project outputs is met.
• Gather and monitor project KPIs as per the metrics defined for the project.
• Prepare PA Reports and interface with the customer’s PA Manager.
• Interface with subcontractors to ensure that PA requirements are derived to them, they establish a PA Programme, fulfil them and deliver quality products.
• Follow up of configuration activities, especially the configuration baseline, and perform/support the functional and physical configuration verification.
• Interface with Verification and Validation function to ensure that quality objectives are met.
• Attend all boards in the projects needed to achieve the PA/QA objectives (Milestone and Progress Review, Configuration, Non-Conformance, Test Review, etc.) and specifically support Risk Management.
• Perform project quality audits, internal and on subcontractors, when required, and to support external project audits.
• Perform audits to suppliers.
• Participate in the elaboration of commercial proposals from the PA point of view.

• At corporate level, quality related activities will include:
• Support the operation and continual improvement of the CMS according to the certified standards, contributing with suggestions and improvement proposals.
• Coaching/Supervision of projects, ensuring that the project processes are following the corporate procedures and guidelines as per the CMS.
• Provide support and consultancy to staff, solving requests and managing improvements suggestions and change proposals.
• Preparation and delivery of local internal CMS training programmes on the CMS processes, methods and procedures.
• Monitor and control corporate KPIs and their associated targets.
• Gather and follow-up of customers’ satisfaction feedback.
• Conducting internal audits according to the certified standard requirements.
• Preparation of inputs for the Management Review (MR) and Quality Committee meetings.
• Definition, implementation and follow-up of corrective actions coming from internal/external audits, MRs, KPIs… and assessment of their effectiveness.
• Support third-party certification and surveillance external audits.
• Additional tasks and authority maybe delegated to him/her depending on specific project, divisional/departmental or company needs.

Education:

University degree in an engineering, technical or scientific discipline.

Professional Experience:

A minimum of five years of professional experience in the fields of PA/QA and space engineering.

Experience in PA/QA for on-board and flight systems, over the full development to qualification lifecycle, would be a distinct advantage.

Technical Requirements:

The Project PA/QA Engineer is required to have extensive knowledge and practice of the following standards: ISO 9001 & CMMI.

The Project PA/QA Engineer is required to demonstrate very good skills in reviewing technical-related documentation, SW deliverables and HW deliverables.

Knowledge of state-of-the-art QMS requirements processes within major actors of the space industry (Airbus, Thales Alenia, ESA, etc..) and for space systems (e.g. ECSS, ISO 19683, etc…) will be an advantage.

Additionally, knowledge of any of the following will be an advantage: Software QA for Onboard Operational/Critical SW; Onboard system PA/QA for AIT and System Qualification; Aerospace systems verification and quality assurance, as per ECSS or equivalent standards; PQ/QA for COTS in Space systems.

Knowledge in the use of issue tracking tools (JIRA, Redmine), requirements management tools (e.g. Rational DOORS) and SW CM tools (SVN, GIT) would be an advantage.

Language Skills:

Fluency in both oral and written English (the official project language is English).

Must be able to communicate effectively with very strong verbal and written skills.

Personal Skills:

• Strong sense of ownership, commitment to service excellence, leadership and responsibility.
• Self-motivation, positive and proactive attitude, determination and perseverance.
• Good interpersonal capabilities and a proven ability to apply these to the interactions within a project team and between the different layers of the organization.
• Good analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to understand and synthesise complex issues.
• Strong managerial perspective to both the organization’s processes and business operations.

HRRECRUIT- 682