Senior Quality System Engineer
Anduril Industries · Costa Mesa, CA
- Level
- Senior
- Team
- Quality
- Travel
- 20%
- Degree
- Required
- Experience asked
- 5+ years
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- 15 days ago
The role in 30 seconds
A senior quality role at Anduril Industries (aerospace & defense) in Costa Mesa, CA. Develop, lead, and manage the execution of the QMS and its top-level processes.
- They ask for
- 5+ years · degree required
- Tools it names
- Root cause, ISO 9001, IATF 16949, AS9100, ISO 13485, Internal audits
- Day to day
- about 20% travel
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 19, 2026
Quality Engineer roles in California: typical posted base $101k–$149k.
Median of the low and high ends of 84 live postings that list pay, out of 179 quality engineer openings in California, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
California plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 178 other live quality postings in California.
- Base pay
- Not listed in this posting
- Experience asked
- Typical (5+ years)
Typical $100k–$149k, from 82 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- ✓ Root cause 78%
- FMEA 56%
- Supplier quality 49%
- ✓ AS9100 44%
- Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 44%
- ✓ ISO 9001 40%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for SAP, which few similar roles mention. If you have it, lead with it.
At a glance
Pulled from the posting text. If it's not listed here, the posting didn't say.
How to get in at this plant
Five moves over a week or two. The first one takes ten minutes.
- 1
Pick 2–3 people on the Quality team at Anduril Industries
We found 2 people at this company and state: 2 in this kind of role. Engineers who joined in the last year or two reply the most. See them ↓
- 2
Send a short, curious note
One real question about their work. No favors yet. Each person gets a different note, written for this role.
Write to Jonathan → (free) - 3
Turn a reply into a short call
Questions worth asking about this team:
- What does a normal week look like on your team?
- Which standards drive the work here: ISO 13485, IATF 16949, AS9100?
- How much of the job is customer complaints versus prevention?
- The posting says about 20% travel. Between which sites?
- How did you land the job? What stood out in your interviews?
- 4
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If the call went well, ask whether they’d pass your résumé to the hiring manager. Send your résumé link, apply that day, and let them know.
- 5
Bring proof to the interview
One page of before-and-after numbers from projects you led: scrap, OEE, cycle time, cost. Plant managers hire on results.
This plant: Anduril Industries in Costa Mesa
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Full description from Anduril IndustriesAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
What you'll do
- ◆Develop, lead, and manage the execution of the QMS and its top-level processes. Coordinate resources and prioritization of tasks to complete internal and external audits of the QMS.
- ◆Develop, lead, and manage the execution of the QMS software implementation and adoption across our Anduril sites. Coordinate resources and prioritization of tasks to complete implementation, internal and external audits of the QMS.
- ◆Partner with business system team, product quality engineers and manufacturing engineers to help prepare new processes, digital tools, & sites to meet QMS requirements, develop new capabilities to meet existing QMS
requirements
and conduct internal audit before manufacturing readiness review and production readiness review.
- ✓Develop our internal QMS road map for tools and capabilities to match the scaling of the company: to meet customer needs, to enable quality capabilities for our new products, and scale quality processes as we grow the company.
- ✓Become a systems expert for Anduril’s quality tool, processes, and data sets to enable effective QMS execution.
- ✓Communicate with external audit agencies. Support customer audits as necessary.
- ✓Manage the QMS internal auditor process and participate as an internal auditor.
- ✓Identify and implement continuous improvement opportunities that benefit the QMS and product quality.
- ✓Support investigations, initiatives, and projects as needed, at the team or organization level.
- ✓Support developing QMS training modules and packages. Facilitate training records and retention with manager of affected trainees.
- ✓Driving root cause analysis and corrective action with internal findings from audits and customer visits.
Required qualifications
- ✓Bachelor’s degree and 3-5 years of experience in aerospace and/or defense manufacturing
- ✓Expert knowledge of QMS
requirements
and auditing in a complex product environment, in one or more of the following QMS standards: ISO 9001:2015, AS9100D, AS9110C, AS9120B, AS6500, IATF 16949:2016, ISO 13485:2016, TL 9000 R6.3.
- ✓Working knowledge with QMS software solutions which might include Net Inspect, Siemens, SAP, ETQ, One Factory, MasterControl, Compliance Quest, Hexagon, PTC, QT9
- ✓Hands on experience with data analytics platforms, reporting tools, and basic data visualization.
- ✓Demonstrated project management for software system implementation and onboarding suppliers (external users) and internal users.
- ✓Working knowledge of design, development, manufacturing, supply chain, deployment, contracts, and other organizations that are apart of a company wide audit
- ✓Knowledge of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Business Intelligence (BI) systems.
- ✓A strong ownership mindset with demonstrated capability to drive projects from start to completion.
- ✓Proven track record of implementation and success with QMS.
- ✓U.S. Person status is required as this position needs to access export controlled data.
- ✓Expected travel up to 20% of the time.
Preferred qualifications
- ✓Certification as an AS9100 aerospace auditor / lead auditor certification
- ✓One or more American Society for Quality (ASQ) certifications: CQE, CRE, CMQ/OE, CQA
- ✓Experience with low volume, high complex manufacturing.
- ✓Experience working with mergers and acquisition and onboarding teams and managing/supporting remote site QMS
$129,000 — $171,000 USD
Benefits
At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recove
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.
About the team
Anduril’s Quality organization is seeking a Senior Quality System Engineer to join our team and help develop future opportunities for our internal quality management system and digitization efforts. The Quality team works with our customers, internal teams, and suppliers to ensure the deployment of reliable products that meet all mission requirements. We develop cutting-edge Quality processes and methods to secure scalable, long-term business success. We are growing and this role will focus on internal site growth and implementing a world class quality management system software application, supporting our internal manufacturing sites, supplier sites, and our Arsenal 1 facility. The right person for this role has extensive knowledge in Quality Management System (QMS) systems, data analysis, and continuous improvement to help shape our internal systems, tools, procedures and the culture of quality at Anduril. If you are someone who loves to build world-class Quality processes, work hands-on, help others succeed on the quality journey, and be accountable for results, then this role is for you.
