Mission Brief

As PA Engineer - Additive Manufacturing, you provide hands-on product assurance for additively manufactured flight hardware during production, inspection and acceptance. You ensure that approved manufacturing processes, parameters and controls are consistently followed on the shop floor and that objective evidence supports compliance with mission, customer and regulatory requirements.

This role is responsible for ensuring the highest quality in the additive manufacturing process through direct production oversight. It verifies that qualified processes, materials, work instructions, inspection steps and acceptance criteria are correctly applied. You will work closely with Manufacturing, Manufacturing Engineering, NDT, Materials Laboratory, Supplier Quality and Configuration Management to keep additive production controlled, traceable and suitable for flight use.

Your Role in Our Space Mission:

Perform hands-on product assurance activities for additively manufactured flight hardware during production, inspection and acceptance.
Provide assurance input to manufacturing readiness reviews, production reviews and acceptance boards, with a focus on executable and compliant shop-floor processes.
Monitor additive manufacturing risks including material variability, build preparation, parameter control, post-processing, inspection and part-to-part repeatability.
Ensure critical characteristics, acceptance criteria and verification evidence are defined and traceable to product requirements.
Verify that approved material, machine, process and part qualification requirements are correctly implemented in production.
Verify the integrity of the complete digital and physical process chain, including configuration-controlled build files, machine parameters, powder or feedstock batches, build records and post-processing routes.
Review supplier and internal manufacturing capabilities, qualification status and readiness for critical additive parts.
Ensure required witness specimens, material testing, dimensional inspection, CT, NDT and destructive evaluation are completed in accordance with the approved production and inspection plan.
Provide product assurance oversight of changes to machines, parameters, materials, software, suppliers, facilities and post-processing routes.
Lead or support the risk-based disposition of additive manufacturing non-conformances, deviations and concessions.
Monitor production and supplier performance, identify recurring risks and drive preventive actions and lessons learned.
Ensure additive manufacturing evidence is complete, coherent and available to support product acceptance, certification and mission readiness.
Maintain alignment between Product Assurance and Manufacturing Assurance while preserving independent assurance authority.

Qualification Checklist

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Materials Science, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering or a related discipline.
Experience in product assurance, quality engineering, materials engineering or additive manufacturing within aerospace, space, defence or another highly regulated environment.
Strong understanding of metal additive manufacturing processes, preferably laser powder bed fusion, and their associated failure modes and controls.
Knowledge of additive design principles, material behaviour, powder or feedstock control, build preparation, heat treatment, machining and surface finishing.
Experience with process qualification, material qualification, First Article Inspection and production acceptance activities.
Understanding of CT, NDT, metallography, mechanical testing, dimensional inspection and statistical process control for additive parts.
Ability to review technical drawings, specifications, build records, qualification reports and inspection evidence.
Working knowledge of configuration management, traceability, change control, non-conformance management and risk-based decision making.
Familiarity with aerospace quality and product assurance frameworks such as EN 9100, ECSS or equivalent requirements is advantageous.