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.

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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…