2026 Associate Engineer Quality/ Engineer Quality - Rolling Meadows IL

This position is located at our Mission Systems Sector in Rolling Meadows, IL and requires up to 10% travel. U.S. citizenship is required to obtain a Secret U.S. Government security clearance.

About the role

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage, and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way.

This role is part of Northrop Grumman’s Multidomain Sensing, Targeting and Survivability Division, Electronic Warfare Targeting Business Unit. The qualified candidate will develop, modify, apply, and maintain quality evaluation, control systems, and protocols for processing materials into semi-finished or finished products. You will partner with engineering and manufacturing to establish and uphold quality standards, design and implement inspection and testing processes, and conduct quality assurance tests.

Responsibilities

• Design, analyze, and implement inspection and testing processes and equipment.
• Conduct quality assurance tests and perform statistical analyses to determine cost and responsibility for non-conforming parts.
• Audit quality systems, identify deficiencies, and drive corrective actions that meet reliability standards and documentation requirements.
• Review contracts, SOWs, and drawings to evaluate, interpret, and apply company policies, ISO 9000, AS9102, MIL, IPC, and other applicable standards.
• Identify and remove barriers to quality improvement through root-cause analysis and corrective-action planning.
• Interface with production-floor roles (inspection, assembly, operations) and communicate clearly with all stakeholders.
• Define, classify, and control quality characteristics for products, processes, and services; develop and validate control plans and work-instruction updates.
• Manage nonconformances across the facility and lead cross-functional containments to ensure product compliance.
• Use and interpret quality-control tools (flowcharts, Pareto, control charts) and apply benchmarking to drive system-wide improvements.
• Interpret technical drawings and specifications, including GD&T symbols, to verify compliance with design requirements.
• Facilitate team collaboration using brainstorming, conflict-resolution, and other facilitation techniques.
• May specialize in design, incoming material, production control, product evaluation, reliability, inventory control, or R&D as they apply to product or process quality.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field or a Master’s Degree in a STEM field.
• Associate Quality Engineer: 0 years of engineering experience in Quality Assurance (including investigating failures and identifying root causes) or in Manufacturing, Process, Electrical, or Mechanical Engineering performing technical job functions.
• Quality Engineer: Minimum of 2 years of engineering experience in Quality Assurance (including investigating failures and identifying root causes) or in Manufacturing, Process, Electrical, or Mechanical Engineering performing technical job functions.
• Ability to obtain a U.S. Government security clearance (Secret) and Special Access Program clearance as determined by business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Overall cumulative GPA of 3.0/4.0 or higher.
• Lean Six Sigma certification.
• Certified IPC Specialist (CIS) – IPC-A-610 or IPC/WHMA-A-620.
• Strong familiarity with quality standards and engineering methodologies.
• Experience with product and process quality systems.
• Proficiency in data and statistical analysis.
• Ability to read and interpret technical drawings and specifications.
• SAP experience.
• Experience with CADSTAR and/or MPLM drawings.
• Experience with Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA).
• Certified auditor or SPC experience.
• Experience with standards such as IPC, J-Std, or MIL-STD.
• Active DoD Secret Clearance.
• Experience using Microsoft Excel, Minitab, or equivalent tools for statistical analysis.
• Knowledge of modern skillsets such as Artificial Intelligence, SQL, or Power BI for data analysis and visualization.

Pay

• Bachelor’s degree: $66,200.00 to $99,200.00
• Master’s degree: $79,600.00 to $119,400.00