Quality Manager
Horsham, West Sussex
£65,000 – £70,000
A leading UK design and manufacturing organisation is seeking a driven and influential Quality Manager to own and elevate its Quality function. Working across multiple sites and high‑performance products for defence and surveillance applications, you will shape, lead and continuously improve the quality framework, ensuring policies, processes and standards not only meet but exceed customer, regulatory and business expectations.
The Role
You will:
Lead the ongoing development and optimisation of the Quality Management System to ensure full compliance with BS EN ISO 9001:2025.
Produce clear, customer‑focused Quality Management Plans that set the benchmark for project delivery.
Lead QA and QC activities across the full contract lifecycle, identifying issues early and driving timely resolution.
Own NCR creation, analysis and closure for manufacturing and in‑service issues.
Champion robust corrective and preventive actions, eliminating root causes and embedding sustainable improvements.
Tackle supplier quality problems, resolve non‑compliant parts and drive supplier performance.
Enforce strong configuration control, product identification and traceability across all operations.
Strengthen engineering document control, coaching teams on process adherence and best practice.
Lead the internal audit programme, ensuring audits are completed on time and actions closed.
Conduct supplier and subcontractor assessments and approvals.
Review customer contracts to ensure all quality obligations are understood and delivered.
Perform detailed fault analysis and produce clear reports for customer RMA cases.
Approve finished goods and sub‑assemblies and sign Certificates of Conformance.
Represent the business during formal customer test and acceptance activities.
Directly manage a team of around 10 quality professionals across three UK sites.About You
You will have:
Extensive Quality Management experience in complex engineering/manufacturing environments (ideally defence, aerospace or automotive).
Senior‑level proficiency in ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems, including hands‑on experience implementing, transitioning and optimising systems to ISO 9001:2025.
A strong engineering foundation (degree or equivalent technical qualification) and the ability to engage credibly with design, manufacturing and test engineering teams.
Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to work with technical and non‑technical stakeholders, drive supplier performance and represent quality with authority to customers.
Practical experience of risk‑based quality management, including FMEA, control plans, capability studies, structured product testing and data‑driven decision‑making to improve process capability and product reliability.You should also be confident applying:
Core methods: PDCA, Root Cause Analysis (5 Whys, Fishbone), Lean principles, Six Sigma (DMAIC), and risk‑based thinking.
Tools: FMEA (design and process), SIPOC mapping, process capability (Cp/Cpk), 8D problem solving, configuration management, First Article Inspection (AS9102), special process control (welding, heat treatment, coatings) and supplier quality assurance in regulated environments.To find out more please contact Max Sinclair (url removed)