Senior SRM Quality Engineer - Energetics
Ursa Major · Berthoud, CO
- Level
- Senior
- Team
- Quality
- Base pay
- $107k–$133k
- Experience asked
- 5+ years
- Industry
- Aerospace & defense
- Posted
- Yesterday
The role in 30 seconds
A senior quality role at Ursa Major (aerospace & defense) in Berthoud, CO.
- They ask for
- 5+ years
- Tools it names
- SPC, FMEA, Control plans, MSA / Gage R&R, Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ), Casting
- Base pay
- $107k–$133k
Read from the posting. The full description is below.
From the plant jobs report · week of October 26, 2026
Quality Engineer roles in Colorado: typical posted base $82k–$120k. This one lists $107k–$133k.
Median of the low and high ends of 23 live postings that list pay, out of 28 quality engineer openings in Colorado, read from manufacturers' own careers sites.
Colorado plant jobs report →Pay by team and state →What moves pay →
How this role compares
Against 27 other live quality postings in Colorado.
- Base pay
- About 22% above similar roles
- Experience asked
- Typical (5+ years)
Typical $79k–$118k, from 19 postings that list pay.
Similar roles usually ask 5+ years.
Skills these teams ask for most
- Root cause 54%
- Six Sigma 36%
- ✓ Validation (IQ/OQ/PQ) 36%
- ISO 9001 36%
- Supplier quality 32%
- ✓ New product launch 32%
✓ = this posting asks for it too. % = share of similar postings that mention it.
Stands out: this posting asks for MSA / Gage R&R, Casting, Plant layout, EHS / safety, 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 Ursa Major
We found 3 people at this company and state: 3 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 Nick → (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?
- 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: Ursa Major in Berthoud
12 other open roles at this site · 3 people we found in quality roles at Ursa Major.
- Business Operations Manager · Production · Manager
- Manufacturing Engineer II · Manufacturing
- Senior Director, Quality · Quality · Director+
- Quality Specialist, Energetics · Quality · Specialist
- Supplier Engineering Technician II · Manufacturing
- Director of Operations · Production · Director+
Full description from Ursa MajorAs posted on their careers site.ShowHide
Responsibilities
Energetics Process Quality
Own the quality of propellant manufacturing processes in close partnership with our design and energetics engineers, who set product and process requirements. Quality's role is to ensure those
requirements
are met, and flag
requirements
that are unclear or can't be verified.
- ✓Apply SPC and data-driven methods to monitor batch-to-batch consistency and detect process drift early.
- ✓Facilitate process FMEAs and control plans with engineering for new and changing energetics processes.
- ✓Lead process qualification and validation with engineering, defining when an energetics process is qualified and frozen, and own change control for qualified processes.
- ✓Own review and release of energetics batch records (weigh-ups, mix parameters, cure profiles) and ensure data integrity.
- ✓Work closely with the SRM-focused supply chain engineer on energetic raw material quality, including incoming acceptance and lot-to-lot variability.
- ✓Ensure test equipment and instrumentation supporting energetics processes (balances, thermocouples, rheometers, particle size analyzers, ovens) are calibrated and fit for use, and lead MSA / gage R&R on critical test methods (e.g., viscosity, particle size, mechanical properties, density).
- ✓Embed quality
requirements
within energetics safety constraints, working closely with EHS and process safety teams.
Radiographic NDT: Optimize and Build Out
Own our radiography capability for SRM inspection, first optimizing the existing system and then standing up new systems as needed.
Responsibilities
are split as follows: the Level 3 NDT technician owns technique development, procedures, and personnel certification; the site Radiation Safety Officer owns radiation safety and licensing; and this engineer owns inspection requirements, acceptance criteria, capital projects, and integration with production.
- ◆Optimize the existing system :
- ◆Assess current X-ray equipment against SRM inspection needs (motor size, defect types such as voids, cracks, and bondline separations, and required sensitivity).
- ◆Drive the improvement roadmap for technique, fixturing, and image quality, and lead capability demonstrations on representative defect standards, with the Level 3 owning technique development and procedure qualification.
- ◆Increase throughput and reliability while the system remains in production use.
- ◆Stand up new systems:
- ◆Define
requirements
for additional radiography systems (e.g., larger-format motors, real-time radiography, or CT) as program needs grow.
- ✓Lead equipment evaluation, facility layout, and installation, and recommend capital investments for new systems. Coordinate with the site Radiation Safety Officer, who owns radiation safety and licensing.
- ✓Qualify each new system and bring it into production use, accounting for explosives safety and siting constraints when imaging loaded motors.
- ✓Across all systems:
- ✓Partner with design engineering as they define radiographic acceptance criteria for propellant grains, bondlines, and case/insulation interfaces, an
Show full description ↓Show less ↑
The future of aerospace and defense starts here.
Ursa Major was founded to revolutionize how America and its allies access and apply high-performance propulsion, from hypersonics to solid rocket motors, satellite maneuvering and launch. We design and deliver propulsion and defense systems that solve the most urgent and critical national security demands.
Overview
The Senior SRM Quality Engineer – Energetics owns product and process quality for solid rocket motor propellant manufacturing: ammonium perchlorate (AP) milling, propellant mixing, casting, and cure. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role embedded with our Manufacturing, Engineering, and Development teams, with a primary mission of ensuring process control and product integrity from raw energetic materials through a cured, inspected motor.
This engineer will also build out our in-house radiographic NDT capability, working alongside a Level 3 NDT technician. That means optimizing our existing X-ray system in the near term, then standing up additional radiography systems as program needs grow, and using radiographic findings to drive improvements back into the propellant processes. While the role supports broader SRM quality (insulation, liners, composites, FOD control) and compliance efforts, energetics process quality and radiography are its core.
This role reports into the Quality organization and is fully integrated with the SRM energetics, product, and manufacturing teams. It works closely with the Level 3 NDT technician, the site Radiation Safety Officer, EHS and process safety, propellant engineering, and the SRM-focused supply chain engineer.
Core
are validated and consistently met in production for
- •AP milling and particle size measurements/morphology: particle size distribution verification, mill parameter control, moisture control, lot traceability, and blend ratios of coarse/fine fractions.
- •Mixing: raw material acceptance and lot control, ingredient weigh-up verification, mix sequence and parameter control (time, temperature, vacuum, shear), and in-process sampling and testing (e.g., viscosity, pot life, end-of-mix properties).
- •Casting: vacuum casting parameter control, pot life management, void prevention, flow and fill verification, and witness/test specimen generation.
- •Cure: cure cycle verification and monitoring against engineering-defined profiles, oven and temperature uniformity verification, data recording and review, and post-cure property testing (e.g., hardness, mechanical properties, density).
Within these processes, the engineer will
- •Work with design and energetics engineers to identify critical process parameters and key characteristics, then implement the sampling plans, inspections, and reaction plans that verify them.
- •Validate that engineering-defined propellant and ingredient acceptance criteria, specifications, and lot release