The Role: Quality Specialist

The Challenge:

The Satellite Applications Catapult is at the forefront of the burgeoning UK Space Industry and focused on driving the sector’s commercial growth. Our work is organised around three missions – Autonomous and Connected Earth (ACE), Sustainable Earth, and Beyond Earth – that concentrate our activities on the areas where we can deliver greatest impact.  We help businesses realise their potential, those developing and providing space infrastructure, and those developing applications that rely on it.

The Catapult has a twin role, operating as a neutral convener bringing projects, programmes and commercial opportunities to companies in the space sector and bringing space companies and capabilities to the attention of funders and commercial partners. We also use our expertise to deliver key programmes where we see a clear role for us to play.  

The Quality Specialist is responsible for supporting, operating and maintaining the organisation’s Quality Management System (QMS) in line with ISO 9001 requirements within an innovation environment. Alongside day-to-day quality activities, such as documentation management, undertaking audits, managing non-conformance reports (NCRs), this role plays a key part in ensuring compliance, driving continuous improvement, and embedding quality principles across the organisation.

Reporting to the Head of Effectiveness, the role is a highly networked role that promotes a culture of accountability, learning, and improvement.

The role is based at our Harwell office with occasional attendance at our offices in Westcott also required. There is an expectation to be in the office at least two days per week in line with our hybrid working arrangement.

Key Responsibilities:

Quality Management System Operation & Governance

• Maintain and operate the ISO 9001 QMS, ensuring policies, procedures, and work instructions are current, approved, and consistently applied

• Act as a quality advisor to teams, promoting a culture of accountability, compliance, and continuous improvement

• Monitor compliance with internal policies, contractual obligations, and applicable regulatory requirements

• Maintain ISO 9001 accreditation by ensuring ongoing compliance with standards and certification requirements

Audits & Assurance

• Plan, coordinate, and conduct internal audits in accordance with the audit schedule

• Support and coordinate external audits, including preparation, execution, and follow-up activities

• Ensure audit findings are formally recorded, tracked, and reported through governance channels

• Assist in preparation for external audits and certification activities, providing evidence and reporting as required

Non-Conformance & Corrective Action Management

• Oversee NCRs end-to-end, including logging, investigation support, follow-up, and closure

• Analyse trends in NCRs, audit findings, and non-compliance to provide insights to identify recurring issues and improvement opportunities, and to inform decision-making

• Facilitate root cause analysis and the implementation of corrective and preventive actions

• Support corrective action implementation and monitor the effectiveness of controls and recommended improvements

• Escalate overdue, high-risk, or repeated non-conformances 

Document & Change Control

• Maintain document control processes, including reviews, approvals, version control, distribution, and archiving of controlled documents in line with organisational governance, legal, and compliance standards

• Maintain records and evidence required for audits and compliance reporting, ensuring traceability and accountability for approvals and revisions

• Oversee change control processes within the quality management system to ensure changes are reviewed, approved, and communicated appropriately

Continuous Improvement & Risk Support

• Identify areas for continuous improvement within processes, systems, and workflows

• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by analysing audit results, NCR trends, and process performance

• Support and, where appropriate lead, quality improvement projects and initiatives

• Promote a culture of quality and continuous improvement across teams

• Identify quality-related risks and escalate to management through appropriate channels

• Support the Security and Risk Manager on recording and reporting of risks

Reporting

• Prepare quality performance and compliance reports for management and review meetings

• Provide insights and recommendations to leadership based on data and trend analysis

• Report on quality and compliance KPIs aligned to organisational objectives

• Provide evidence-based assurance reporting to senior leaders

• Support and deliver training and awareness related to quality systems and procedures

Skills & Experience required:

• Practical experience working with ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems

• Experience coordinating and conducting internal audits

• Strong understanding of document control, NCR management, and corrective action processes

• Ability to analyse trends, identify improvement opportunities, and support implementation

• Effective written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills

• Strong attention to detail and organisational skills

• Ability to work independently and collaboratively across departments

About us & how we work: 

We strive to create a high trust, high performance and inclusive environment that enables team members to bring their whole selves to work.  This helps to create the foundations of an innovation culture. Our shared values are critical to this: 

• We care - for our people, our partners, and our planet

• We connect - and engage with people and ideas

• We learn - and grow, as people and as an industry

Underpinning this is our belief in great teams.  Our combined efforts will always deliver outcomes beyond that of any individual, providing we are honest through debate, experiment and reflect, and create shared resolutions in support of our purpose. Live these values, work to our principles, take ownership to deliver, and we are certain you will thrive with us. 

This job description set outs the skills and experience we think are needed to be able to perform in this job.  If you believe you can deliver in this role then we want to hear from you.

We offer a hybrid policy which is designed around collaboration, one 'anchor' day per week working with your direct team and another flexible day per week to be spent collaborating or working with other colleagues.

Important notice for applicants: We use tools to detect plagiarism and the use of AI or chatbots for applicant answers. If plagiarism, AI use (such as ChatGPT) or similar software are found to have been used in your application you will not be considered for this or future roles within the Satellite Applications Catapult.

At Satellite Applications Catapult, we're committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workforce. We welcome candidates from all corners of the globe, but due to legal and logistical considerations, we want to be transparent about the potential visa-related challenges that could arise. Our ability to offer sponsorship will depend on the level of interest for our roles and salary level.

If you need any additional support during the application process, please do reach out and connect. We also invite you to share feedback via Applied.

Please note that we offer study support (at our discretion) and on the job training will be provided.