Forward Deployed Engineer (NPI)

This role sits between customer engineering teams and the FactoryHQ floor. Most programs arrive close, but not yet buildable. The work is to find the last constraints, turn CAD and BOMs into runnable sequences, decide what starts manual, teleoperated, or autonomous, and keep the customer's intent intact as the build moves through suppliers, operators, robotics, and software. It is forward-deployed engineering for manufacturing: technical judgment, customer trust, and ownership of the first build. It is how new products enter The Everything Factory. The Work Run DFM, DFA, and design-for-supply-chain reviews on incoming customer designs, then turn the findings into a clear change list for the customer team. Translate CAD, BOMs, and rough build notes into cell operations: what starts by hand, what is teleoperated, and what is ready for the cell. Maintain work instructions that operators and cells can actually run, and update them as each build reveals more about the product. Coordinate supplier qualification, BOM scrubs, incoming inspection, first-article work, and pilot builds with operations and hardware. Serve as the technical steward for customer programs across quoting, scoping, change control, and escalations. Useful Background 7+ years in NPI or manufacturing engineering for high-consequence hardware. Deep instincts for DFM, DFA, and design for supply chain, including the ability to read CAD and BOMs and see where a build is likely to fail. Mechanical or electrical depth, ideally with enough range to read both mechanical and electrical drawings and reason across the full electromechanical product. Experience carrying deadline-bound builds through ambiguity, tradeoffs, and late design changes. Enough customer trust and technical clarity to say when a design has to change, and to explain why without drama. #J-18808-Ljbffr