Quality Engineer

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Quality Engineer who wants to influence quality across the full product lifecycle, helping ensure technology used to protect people and critical assets performs as it should.

This opportunity would suit someone with experience in engineering or manufacturing who enjoys investigating problems, working closely with technical teams and turning findings into practical improvements. You’ll bring attention to detail, a proactive approach and the confidence to help colleagues and suppliers maintain high standards as the business grows.

Working collaboratively with the wider Quality team, you’ll support quality from design and development through to production and final testing, ensuring our products meet internal and customer requirements.

Who We Are

OpenWorks is a rapidly growing business operating globally with a passion for exceptional engineering and building on a legacy of defence innovation in the North East of England.

Our products provide ultra-high performance, real-time detection, tracking, identification and targeting of dynamic aerial threats. They have been deployed internationally to protect high profile military and civilian assets, and contribute towards the defeat of nuisance, misguided and maliciously deployed drones during operations.

We are very proud to have supported a wide range of law enforcement and military operators, protecting many of the most high profile sites and individuals around the world.

The amazing things we do are only possible because of a dedicated and passionate team.

Security Vetting Information

OpenWorks Engineering operates within the defence sector. As part of our recruitment and onboarding processes, we collect information that may be required to support future security vetting and clearance requirements, should these become necessary during employment.

Why You’ll Love Working With Us

Join a high-energy, collaborative team where great ideas thrive, challenges are embraced, and people genuinely love what they do.

Here’s what our benefits have to offer

Rewarding Success - Competitive salary, starting from £42,000, plus a discretionary annual bonus of up to 25% of salary alongside a structured pay progression framework.

Enhanced Pension – Up to 8% employer-matched contributions to help you plan for the future.

More Time to Recharge – 25 days’ holiday plus public holidays, long-service rewards, and the option to buy up to 5 extra days.

Breakfast & Lunch on Us – Enjoy team breakfasts and freshly prepared lunches every day courtesy of Chef Mark and his team.

Health & Wellbeing – Private healthcare and life assurance for added peace of mind.

Sustainable Travel – Salary sacrifice schemes, including EV car and Cycle to Work options.

Team Socials – Regular events, from quiz nights and football to board games and more.

Learning & Growth – A culture that empowers you to challenge, grow and make an impact, plus a £250 annual learning budget to invest in the development that matters most to you.

What you’ll be doing

• Maintain quality standards: Support the development and maintenance of our Quality Management System in line with ISO 9001 and other relevant standards.
• Investigate and resolve issues: Carry out root cause analysis and implement corrective and preventive actions to reduce recurring problems.
• Support audits: Help prepare for and deliver internal, external, customer and regulatory audits.
• Verify product quality: Inspect and test components and finished products against specifications, maintaining accurate inspection, non-conformance and calibration records.
• Improve processes: Work with Engineering and Production to strengthen design and manufacturing processes.
• Support new products: Lead or contribute to FMEA, control plans and quality planning for new product introductions.
• Work with suppliers: Help ensure components and raw materials meet our quality requirements and work with suppliers to address issues.
• Turn insight into improvement: Analyse customer feedback, prepare quality reports and share quality tools and best practice through training and support.

What we’re looking for

Essential

• Relevant qualifications and experience: A degree or HND in Engineering, Quality or a related discipline, alongside experience in a quality-related engineering or manufacturing role.
• Quality standards knowledge: Familiarity with ISO 9001 and quality auditing practices.
• Problem-solving and accuracy: Strong analytical skills, excellent attention to detail and the ability to investigate issues and maintain clear, accurate documentation.
• Communication and collaboration: Confidence working across different teams, explaining quality requirements and supporting practical improvements.

Desirable

• Sector experience: Experience within defence, aerospace or security.
• Auditing and wider standards: ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor certification and/or knowledge of AS9100, ISO 14001 or ISO 45001.
• Quality tools and systems: Experience using tools such as 8D, DMAIC, FMEA and SPC, alongside ERP or quality management software.

More about us

Vision

Help protect the territory and airspace of NATO countries and their allies.

Mission

Be a world-leading provider of autonomous technology for Surveillance applications and Defence

Values

Be a Good Egg: Earn respect, have mutual trust and be honest

Do cool stuff: We develop cool tech with an awesome team, and we get stuff done

Be empowered: We are autonomous, reliable and take personal responsibility

We are one team: Look out for each other and the team

Things go wrong: Fail fast, learn and move on

Have fun: We’re doing amazing things with passionate people

We Get It Done: Focus on what matters and work with energy to bring ideas to life