Lead Avionics Manufacturing Engineer

Role

Northwood Space is looking for a Lead Avionics Manufacturing Engineer to lead the manufacturing engineering team responsible for our avionics production processes. This role will own the manufacturing engineering strategy and execution from SMT assembly through board-level acceptance testing, environmental screening, and final box build.

You will be responsible for developing the manufacturing standards, processes, equipment, and controls required to build reliable avionics hardware at increasing production volumes. You will work closely with Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production to transition designs into repeatable manufacturing processes and continuously improve those processes as our products and production systems mature.

Responsibilities

• Lead the manufacturing engineering team responsible for avionics production, including SMT, post-SMT processing, board acceptance testing, thermal cycling, and electromechanical box build.

• Develop and maintain Northwood’s avionics manufacturing standards, processes, design guidelines, and best practices.

• Own the development, qualification, and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes across the avionics production flow.

• Establish process controls, acceptance criteria, workmanship standards, and manufacturing documentation required to consistently produce high-quality hardware.

• Lead the selection, implementation, qualification, and improvement of avionics manufacturing equipment and tooling.

• Partner with design engineering to improve manufacturability, testability, reliability, and production scalability of new avionics designs.

• Drive new product introduction from engineering prototypes into controlled production processes.

• Identify production risks and recurring manufacturing issues and drive them to root cause and corrective action.

• Define and track key manufacturing metrics such as yield, defect rates, rework, cycle time, and process capability.

• Develop process validation and qualification strategies for new equipment, materials, and manufacturing methods.

• Work with Quality Engineering to establish inspection, process control, traceability, and nonconformance practices appropriate for aerospace hardware.

• Mentor and develop manufacturing engineers and technicians while establishing strong engineering ownership on the production floor.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, or a related technical field.

• 5+ years of experience in electronics or avionics manufacturing engineering.

• Basic understanding of SMT manufacturing processes, including stencil printing, pick-and-place, reflow, inspection, and process troubleshooting.

• Experience developing and improving manufacturing processes for PCBAs and electronic assemblies.

• Experience supporting products through multiple stages of manufacturing, from PCBA fabrication through integration into higher-level assemblies.

• Demonstrated ability to lead complex manufacturing problems from initial investigation through implementation of corrective actions.

• Experience creating manufacturing documentation, process specifications, work instructions, and production controls.

• Ability to work directly with engineering and production teams in a fast-paced hardware development and manufacturing environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading manufacturing engineers or owning a significant electronics manufacturing area.

• Experience with aerospace, defense, automotive, medical device, or other high-reliability electronics manufacturing.

• Strong knowledge of IPC workmanship and electronics manufacturing standards.

• Experience with automated optical inspection, X-ray inspection, rework, cleaning, conformal coating, or other PCBA manufacturing processes.

• Experience developing board-level acceptance test processes and production test equipment.

• Experience with environmental screening processes such as thermal cycling.

• Experience with electromechanical assembly and avionics box build.

• Experience implementing manufacturing processes within an MES and developing production traceability systems.

• Experience with PFMEAs, control plans, statistical process control, process capability, and structured root-cause methodologies.

• Familiarity with AS9100 or similar aerospace quality management systems.

• Experience bringing electronics manufacturing processes in-house or scaling a new production operation.