Space industry work
Quality & Mission Assurance
Measured from 436 distinct posted rates, across 58 employers, each as a year's pay (an hourly rate × 2,080 hours). 366 of the 805 listings open here post no pay at all.
Live quality roles
Updated 30 Oct 2026, 20:04 UTC
$85,000–$135,000/yr- $85,000–$135,000/yr
Spaceflight Safety and Mission Assurance Manager (opens the job details)
Lunar Outpost · Golden, Colorado· 4mo agoDetails
Manager, Configuration Management (opens the job details)
CesiumAstro · Austin, TX· 3w agoDetails
Manager, Configuration Management (opens the job details)
CesiumAstro · Westminster, CO, United States· 3w agoDetails
$133,000–$161000/yr
Spacecraft System Safety Manager (opens the job details)
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory · JPL Campus· 4mo agoDetails
$212,264–$264,992/yr
$125,000–$170,000/yr
Compliance Manager (opens the job details)
AST SpaceMobile · Midland, Texas, United States· 1mo agoDetails
Manager, Quality Control (opens the job details)
AeroVironment (AV) · Simi Valley, CA, United States· 1mo agoDetails
$117,500–$179,250/yr
Make sure the hardware is right before it flies: quality engineering and inspection, mission and product assurance, reliability, nondestructive testing, supplier quality, and environment, health and safety on sites that handle propellants and high-energy systems.
Quality alerts
Quality openings, sent to your inbox
Once a week, the Quality openings that appeared across every space company we follow, each with its posted salary. No cost, and one click stops it.
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In short
Quality & Mission Assurance. Make sure the hardware is right before it flies: quality engineering and inspection, mission and product assurance, reliability, nondestructive testing, supplier quality, and environment, health and safety on sites that handle propellants and high-energy systems. The usual range is $91.5k–$215k/yr and the median $127k/yr, both taken from rates printed on postings that are live today. 24 employers hire for it, including Loft Federal, Skylo, Capella Space.
Who hires for quality work
Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.
Our grading rules for pay figures
Weighing employers against each other? Line up quality pay at each employer using the pay explorer.
Experienced in Quality & Mission Assurance?
Space employers come to us looking for a particular skill, location or credential. Leave your details one time, at no cost, and we put you forward when a role matches, never without your yes.
What our research measures about quality work
Read from the open postings on 2026-10-29 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.
- Who is hiring471 open roles (5.8% of the space roles we read) at 30 employers, 111 of them posted in the last 30 days.
- Where the jobs are1.7% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
- Who can apply72.7% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 12.2% name a security clearance.
- Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Lean or Six Sigma (23%), GD&T (ASME Y14.5) (20%) and Excel (20%).
- Degrees and experience19.2% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 18.3% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 3 years of experience at the least.
- Pay transparency45.9% of the postings state their pay, at a median $113,000 a year.
- Internships and entry level18 open roles are for someone starting out (3.8% of its open roles).
- Shifts, weekends and travel43.9% of the postings ask for weekend work, 42.6% for overtime or extended hours, and 8.1% name an evening, night or rotating shift.
- What applications askThe application forms for this work ask your citizenship or U.S. person status (90.9% of them), about a security clearance (56.2% of them), your GPA (33.0% of them), SAT, ACT or GRE scores (32.7% of them), your salary expectations (27.7% of them) and whether you have worked or interviewed at the company before (55.4% of them).
From the forum
Ask the people doing Quality work what only they can tell you.