Alex Onoufriou, managing director of G&P Talent, examines the exciting opportunities available to young engineers considering a future in quality management, highlighting the sought-after skills needed to build a highly rewarding career.
Manufacturing forms the backbone of modern life, underpinning everything from transport and infrastructure to the devices we depend on every day. In 2023, the manufacturing sector contributed £217 billion in output to the UK economy and supported 2.6 million jobs.1
One aspect that’s critical for strengthening manufacturing is a process which often lies in the background, yet is fundamental to the sector’s growth: quality. If a product fails, the supply chain is disrupted or regulations tighten, good quality management stands at the vanguard, offering a frontline response to help contain developing issues before they escalate.
At a time when manufacturers across the UK struggle to fill roles, and when product safety concerns are critical, a career in quality control offers young engineers unmatched opportunity. Graduates who choose to start their careers ensuring robustness, preventing defects and working across diverse industries can progress rapidly, wield broad influence and enjoy high levels of international mobility.
Quality management is a key discipline for all areas of manufacturing, whether the end-product is an electric vehicle (EV), a jet engine, an excavator or a washing machine. Among the many industries where young quality professionals can make their mark, aerospace and defence are particularly compelling. These sectors are experiencing exceptional growth, with recent data revealing they collectively added £42.2 billion to the UK economy in 2024 (a 64% increase over the past decade), and with turnover now topping £100 billion.2
Manufacturing figures for early 2025 reinforce this trend, with output for aerospace, spacecraft and related machinery up 17% year-on-year. For quality experts, this means entering a sector brimming with opportunity, where ensuring precision, safety and reliability is not only critical to national capability, but also a ticket to long-term career growth.
What does quality management entail?
Quality management goes far beyond checking for dents and deformities. It encompasses a whole range of activities, from failure mode analysis and supplier audits to containment strategies and real-time inspection reporting. Quality engineers design robust control systems in early product stages, mitigate variability through statistical tools, liaise with regulators, manage recalls and drive performance improvement across the entire supply chain. Far from policing, quality is proactive, system-wide and central to the efficient roll out of new technologies and products across multiple sectors.
In automotive, for example, quality engineers are central to safeguarding performance, safety and brand reputation in an industry where even a minor defect can trigger recalls affecting millions of vehicles. Early-career roles may involve working alongside design teams to embed quality into prototypes, implementing production part approval processes (PPAP), advanced product quality planning (APQP) and coordinating with suppliers to ensure parts meet specifications before they ever reach the production line. Once in series production, quality specialists use tools like statistical process control (SPC) and root-cause analysis to keep manufacturing stable and responsive to customer demands.
In aerospace, on the other hand, the demands on quality are even more stringent. Every component must meet strict regulatory standards, with rigorous documentation and traceability requirements. Quality engineers here oversee first-article inspections, manage supplier audits against AS9100 standards - internationally recognised quality management system (QMS) for aerospace and defence - and work to reduce variability in processes where precision is measured in microns.
Defence projects typically operate under military quality assurance frameworks such as the Allied Quality Assurance Publications (AQAP), a series of standards developed by NATO which define quality assurance requirements for defence contracts, requiring zero-defect ambitions, strict configuration control and lifelong traceability of components. Quality professionals coordinate with design, logistics and field service teams to ensure that complex systems perform flawlessly in the most demanding environments.
An exciting career proposition
A career in quality control satisfies both ambition and impact. Young engineers can often see the immediate results of their work: defect rates fall, suppliers improve, production stabilises and waste can be reduced significantly. Quality roles train whole-systems thinking, enabling graduates to work across design, procurement, manufacturing, regulation and logistics across a vast range of sectors.
Salaries in quality roles in the UK compare favourably with traditional engineering streams, and certifications, such as ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management), IATF 16949 (automotive); as well as memberships like Chartered Quality Institute (CQI); are highly transferable, spanning multiple sectors and highly sought the world-over.
Looking towards the future…
For young engineers mapping out their career pathway, quality deserves serious consideration. It offers the chance to make an immediate impact, to work across functions and sectors and to build a skillset that is both highly transferable and increasingly in demand. Unlike some roles that may narrow into specialisms, quality equips engineers with systems thinking, problem-solving ability and leadership exposure from the outset.
The next step is simple: seek out placements or graduate schemes that include quality responsibilities. Look for role titles including “quality engineer” or “continuous improvement engineer,” and consider joining the CQI to begin a recognised professional pathway. By choosing quality, you choose a career that blends technical rigour with influence, and one that underpins the profitability, safety, reliability and reputation of everything the UK manufactures.
Joe Clark, Trainee UK Quality Manager at G&P
Joe Clark joined G&P after completing a master’s in mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield. Joe had always enjoyed maths, physics, art and design technology at school, and mechanical engineering offered perfect amalgamation of logic and creativity.
Now a Trainee UK Quality Manager, Joe enjoys a huge variety in his day-to-day. Alongside responsibilities including process conformance, auditing and data analysis, Joe played a key role spearheading G&P’s adoption of cutting-edge, AI-driven vision inspection technology.
Since joining the team, Joe has had the opportunity to undergo a variety of internal and external training, including lead auditor qualifications for ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) and ISO 14001 (Environmental Management Systems); Make UK Risk Assessment; and IOSH Managing Safely.
Having nearly completed his first year in the role, Joe says the best part about his job is having the ability to flex his problem-solving skills and use his creativity to help drive product improvements and contribute to technological and process innovation.
Offering advice for young engineers considering a career in quality, Joe said, “Start asking the question of why processes are designed the way they are. An important part of working in Quality is understanding that things need to be done correctly for a reason. If something can go wrong, it will go wrong – it’s Murphy’s Law.”