WHAT DOES A DESIGN ASSURANCE ENGINEER DO?

Published: October 14, 2024 - The Design Assurance Engineer consults on deployment test plans and diagnostic tools to minimize field outages and ensure seamless customer operations. Actively uses predictive algorithms to assess potential SW defects and deployment risks, contributing to SW release readiness. Collaborates across teams to review quality processes and provide proactive risk identification to support successful system testing and deployment.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Design Assurance Engineer

1. Design Assurance Engineer Duties

  • Risk Management: Responsible for establishing, communicating, and mitigating risk throughout the product development and manufacturing process including but not limited to (Risk Management Planning, UFMEAs, DFMEAs, EV, DV, MSAs and PFMEAs, Process Verification & Validation, and Supplier Quality).
  • Design Review & Compliance: Review, assess, and approve product design milestones and deliverables throughout the product development cycle to ensure compliance with customer and regulatory requirements.
  • Quality Strategy Development: Establish quality strategies in line with client needs and regulatory requirements as a project contributor or internal reviewer for smaller programs.
  • Mentorship & Team Support: Support growth and provide mentorship to junior design assurance team members.
  • Quality Systems Guidance: Provide Quality Systems and Design Control guidance to cross-functional development team(s) in approach to verification and documentation tasks.
  • Test Coordination: Create, manage, and/or execute test objectives, test plans, and schedules – coordinate test resources for verification and validation testing.
  • Supplier Qualification: Coordinate and support execution of supplier qualification activities.
  • Manufacturing Quality Support: Support quality in manufacturing.
  • Design Participation: Participate in design reviews.
  • QMS Documentation: Review and revise Quality Management System documentation to keep current with industry standards.
  • Audit Support: Support internal and external audit activities.

2. Design Assurance Engineer Details

  • Design Assurance: Responsible for design assurance activities of development projects in service and solution environment, to ensure they are compliant with applicable regulatory, standards, and corporate requirements.
  • Quality Governance: Align with sponsor and internal stakeholders on quality governance model for Service & Solution development projects.
  • Quality Plan Development: Designing Quality plans for Service & Solution development per applicable QMS by project level tailoring of Product Development Launch and Maintenance processes and deliverables.
  • Quality Plan Execution: Overseeing the execution of Quality Plans for Service & Solution development.
  • Process Guidance: Provide guidance to project team members on processes & template requirements, and reviewing Service & Solution development design deliverables.
  • Risk Identification & Mitigation: Identifying project quality risks & process gaps and driving mitigation.
  • Performance Metrics Analysis: Setting up, monitoring, and analyzing quality performance metrics of projects and converting them into actionable plans to drive project quality improvement.
  • Root Cause Analysis: Leading root cause analysis on project’s key quality, compliance, and process issues in the CAPA process.
  • QMS Deployment: Responsible for the deployment of Product Development Launch and Maintenance for Service & Solution from corporate to local QMS.
  • Quality Support: Supports organization’s Q&R processes, including quality training, internal & external audit, CAPA, and Quality Management Review.
  • Regulatory Guidance: Give guidance and actively contributes to other aspects related to quality, applicable regulatory requirements, and corporate policies and procedures.

3. Design Assurance Engineer Responsibilities

  • Report Standardization: Promote consistency and standardization amongst the various types of reports and databases.
  • Design Assurance: Working as part of a design team, provides all design assurance deliverables required in the development process at each phase with minimum level of coaching.
  • SW Deployment Evaluation: Evaluation of SW deployment aspects for SW Solutions and SW as a Service in cloud networking environments.
  • SW Health Monitoring: Advising design engineering on the best practices for SW services health monitoring.
  • Test Methodologies: Recommending design of internal test methods for SW deployment methodologies.
  • SW Product Reliability: Review procedures for achieving required levels of SW product reliability in customer environments.
  • Field Readiness: Develop Field Readiness Review Checklist for SW as a Service world-class deployment capability.
  • SaaS Deployment Feedback: Provide feedback from the SaaS deployment process to engineering with recommendations on design requirements for deployment.
  • Configuration Improvement: Recommend methodologies for improving configuration issues.
  • Automation and AI: Work with team on automation and AI of the SW Solution configuration process.
  • Managed Services Design Feedback: Provide feedback in the development of improved design for managed services.
  • SW System Reliability: Consult in determining the reliability of SW system-level functioning and performance.

4. Design Assurance Engineer Accountabilities

  • Test Plan Consulting: Consult in the creation and analysis of deployment test plans and managed services Field Readiness Review checklists
  • Diagnostic Tool Specification: Specify or consult in the specification of diagnostic tools to isolate field outages quickly with minimum impact on customer production networks
  • Predictive Algorithm Assessment: Use predictive algorithms and other methods to assess the potential for undiscovered SW defects or deployment problems during the setup, testing, and shake-out process in the customer environment
  • Market Requirement Application: Actively review, understand, and apply the Market Requirements relative to the SW Solution deliverables
  • Engineering Specification Documentation: Document Engineering Specifications to quantify metrics and acceptable criteria for SW Release Readiness and Field Readiness Release as part of the approval process in keeping with SW Quality Standards
  • Quality Assurance Support: May be responsible for quality activities to support the initiatives of the core development team, program manager, or product line management deliverables
  • Risk Identification: Use experience and knowledge to proactively identify risks to the project and contribute beyond personal scope of deliverables
  • Field Readiness Review Leadership: Conduct Field Readiness Reviews with the entire releasing project team, including Professional Services, SW Engineering, Program Management, Customer Success Team, and the Managed Services team 

5. Design Assurance Engineer Functions

  • SW Quality Assessment: Highlight SW quality shortcomings, managed services shortcomings, and deployment shortcomings and withhold Field Readiness approval
  • Quality Reviews: Conduct periodic SW and Field Readiness Quality Reviews
  • Root Cause Analysis: Assist project team in understanding technical issues and non-technical issues, suggest testing or other approaches to determining root cause and corrective action
  • Independent Problem Solving: Act independently to apply knowledge to resolve novel issues or concerns about design approach and conformance to standards
  • SW Change Approval: Analyze and approve SW Solutions update (or micro services) changes to production products
  • Innovation: Contribute to innovation efforts by participating actively in brainstorming activities and actively benchmarking externally with other organizations on best practices in design assurance for deployment and non-technical offer quality aspects of SW Solutions
  • Special Projects Participation: Participate in special projects as a representative of the DAE team or support process improvement activities within the broader function
  • Gap Analysis: Determine gaps and specify requirements for mitigation of gaps
  • Risk Assessment: Actively participate in program risk assessment, highlighting key quality issues from a customer-focused perspective
  • Service Level Operations: Achieve targeted Service Level Operation for company, customer, and any governmental agency reliability objectives using SW tools and defect predictive means to assess reliability of SW