Manufacturing Engineer

Job Descriptions:

GENERAL JOB SUMMARY:

The Manufacturing / Process Engineer is responsible for developing, improving, controlling, and supporting manufacturing and assembly processes used to produce TDI turbine engines, engine accessories, subassemblies, and related aerospace products.

This role provides direct technical support to production personnel and serves as a primary problem-solving resource for manufacturing, quality, supplier, tooling, equipment, and process-related issues. The Manufacturing / Process Engineer is expected to work primarily where the work is performed, rapidly contain production issues, determine root cause, implement sustainable corrective actions, and verify that improvements are effective.

The position works cross-functionally with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Configuration Management, Program Management, Test, and suppliers to ensure manufacturing processes are safe, repeatable, capable, properly documented, and aligned with customer, engineering, quality, cost, and delivery requirements.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Manufacturing Process Development

• Develop, document, implement, and maintain manufacturing, assembly, inspection, test, and material-handling processes.

• Convert engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material, and customer requirements into practical and repeatable manufacturing processes.

• Develop and maintain manufacturing work instructions, routers, travelers, visual aids, standard work, process flow diagrams, and supporting documentation.

• Establish the proper sequence of operations, tooling requirements, inspection points, labor content, process controls, and acceptance criteria.

• Support the transition of new products from engineering development and prototype builds into controlled production.

• Participate in manufacturing readiness, producibility, design-for-manufacturability, and design-for-assembly reviews.

• Identify special processes, critical characteristics, key characteristics, and required process controls.

• Ensure processes are released and controlled through applicable configuration management, Engineering Change Order, and Change Control Board processes.

Structured Problem Solving

• Lead and facilitate structured problem-solving activities involving manufacturing, assembly, test, inspection, equipment, tooling, supplier, and product-performance issues.

• Respond quickly to production disruptions and establish immediate containment actions to protect employees, customers, product quality, and delivery commitments.

• Apply structured problem-solving methods and tools such as:

• 5 Why analysis

• 8D problem solving

• DMAIC

• Lean

• DFSS

• Shainin RedX

• Statistical analysis

• Designed of experiments

• Is/Is Not analysis

• Pareto analysis

• Process mapping

• Fault-tree analysis

• Cause-and-effect analysis

• Separate symptoms from verified root causes and avoid implementing unsupported or temporary solutions as permanent corrective actions.

• Develop corrective and preventive actions with clearly assigned owners, completion dates, success criteria, and effectiveness-verification plans.

• Support and participate in nonconformance reports, corrective action requests, failure investigations, material review activities, and root-cause corrective-action reviews.

• Use factual evidence, process data, inspection results, test results, and direct observation to validate conclusions.

• Document lessons learned and ensure improvements are incorporated into procedures, travelers, training, tooling, drawings, PFMEAs, control plans, and standard work.

Production Support

• Provide responsive, hands-on engineering support to technicians, inspectors, test personnel, and production leadership.

• Evaluate production issues at the point of occurrence and help determine whether work should continue, stop, be contained, or be escalated.

• Support engine assembly, subassembly, machining, balancing, inspection, test, teardown, repair, and rework activities.

• Develop technically sound repair and rework instructions in coordination with Engineering, Quality, and Configuration Management.

• Identify production constraints, process bottlenecks, excessive queue time, rework, scrap, and other barriers to flow.

• Support daily production meetings, shop-floor reviews, manufacturing readiness reviews, and schedule-recovery activities.

• Assist with work-center layout, material presentation, kitting, point-of-use tooling, workstation design, and ergonomic improvements.

• Provide technical guidance while respecting approved engineering, quality, customer, and configuration requirements.

Continuous Improvement and Process Capability

• Lead continuous-improvement activities focused on safety, quality, delivery, cost, productivity, and employee effectiveness.

• Establish process baselines and measure performance using appropriate operational and quality metrics.

• Improve process capability, repeatability, flow, first-pass yield, cycle time, labor efficiency, throughput, and equipment utilization.

• Conduct time studies and establish realistic process times, labor standards, staffing assumptions, and capacity requirements.

• Support line balancing, takt-time analysis, standard work combination, workload distribution, and capacity planning.

• Apply Lean manufacturing principles, including:

• Standard work

• Workplace organization and 6S

• Visual management

• Waste reduction

• Error proofing

• Setup reduction

• Cellular flow

• Pull systems

• Point-of-use material

• Use statistical process control and capability analysis when appropriate to identify variation and maintain process control.

• Establish measurable performance expectations and verify that improvements are sustained after implementation.

Tooling, Equipment, and Facility Support

• Define technical requirements for production tooling, fixtures, gauges, equipment, and manufacturing systems.

• Design or coordinate the design of fixtures, assembly aids, error-proofing devices, test equipment, and material-handling solutions.

• Develop equipment and tooling specifications, business justifications, cost estimates, and implementation plans.

• Support supplier selection, equipment acceptance, installation, commissioning, qualification, and operator training.

• Establish preventive-maintenance, calibration, inspection, and verification requirements for manufacturing equipment and tooling.

• Investigate equipment-related failures and coordinate repairs, upgrades, or replacement actions.

• Ensure equipment and tooling changes are documented and approved before production use.

Quality and Compliance

• Support compliance with AS9100, customer requirements, engineering specifications, internal procedures, and applicable regulatory requirements.

• Participate in PFMEA development and maintenance, control-plan creation, inspection-planning, and process risk assessments.

• Support First Article Inspection, production part approval, source inspection, and customer-readiness activities as required.

• Assist Quality with nonconformance disposition, defect prevention, inspection planning, measurement-system analysis, and corrective action.

• Help establish clear in-process and final inspection criteria.

• Ensure manufacturing documentation accurately reflects the approved process and current engineering configuration.

• Support internal, customer, and regulatory audits by providing objective evidence of process control and corrective-action effectiveness.

• Promote strict adherence to product traceability, foreign-object-debris prevention, material control, ESD controls, and configuration requirements.

New Product Introduction and Production Readiness

• Support new-product introduction from design concept through prototype, qualification, low-rate production, and full-rate production.

• Participate in design reviews, manufacturing-readiness assessments, build-readiness reviews, and launch planning.

• Identify manufacturing risks before release to production and develop mitigation plans.

• Confirm that tooling, equipment, work instructions, training, materials, inspection methods, capacity, and quality controls are available before scheduled builds.

• Support prototype and first-build activities by documenting issues, decisions, process changes, and lessons learned.

• Develop production-readiness plans with defined actions, owners, due dates, dependencies, and completion evidence.

• Help ensure that prototype methods are converted into controlled and scalable production processes.

Supplier and Cross-Functional Support

• Work with Supply Chain and Supplier Quality to address supplier-related manufacturing, quality, capacity, and delivery concerns.

• Participate in supplier technical reviews, process assessments, corrective actions, and production-readiness activities.

• Support make-versus-buy analysis and supplier process-development decisions.

• Collaborate with Design Engineering to improve producibility without compromising product performance or customer requirements.

• Coordinate with Program Management and the Master Scheduler to communicate manufacturing constraints, recovery actions, and realistic completion dates.

• Clearly communicate technical risks, decisions, assumptions, and recommendations to employees and leadership.

ADDITIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Train technicians, inspectors, engineers, and support personnel on new or revised manufacturing processes.

• Provide technical coaching on problem solving, process control, standard work, and continuous improvement.

• Support employee qualification and competency-verification requirements for assigned processes.

• Maintain organized engineering records, analysis, calculations, and supporting evidence.

• Participate in capital-planning, budgeting, cost-reduction, and capacity-expansion activities.

• Support multiple programs and shifting priorities in a fast-paced prototype and production environment.

• Perform other duties as assigned in support of company and customer objectives.

Required Experience:

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related technical discipline.

• Three or more years of manufacturing, process engineering, production engineering, or related industrial experience.

• Demonstrated experience solving complex manufacturing or product-quality problems using structured problem-solving methods.

• Experience developing manufacturing processes, work instructions, standard work, routers, travelers, or equivalent production documentation.

• Experience working directly with production personnel in a hands-on manufacturing environment.

• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, tolerances, and bills of material.

• Working knowledge of manufacturing process controls, root-cause analysis, corrective action, and continuous improvement.

Preferred

• Five or more years of experience in aerospace, defense, automotive, turbine-engine, precision-machining, or other highly regulated manufacturing.

• Experience supporting prototype, low-volume/high-mix, and production-ramp environments.

• Experience with turbine-engine assembly, rotating components, balancing, machining, inspection, test, or related manufacturing processes.

• Knowledge of AS9100, AS9102 First Article Inspection, and aerospace configuration-control requirements.

• Experience developing PFMEAs, control plans, process flows, inspection plans, and manufacturing-readiness assessments.

• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.

• Experience with MRP, ERP, MES, QMS, PLM, or electronic work-instruction systems.

• Experience with statistical process control, measurement-system analysis, process-capability studies, and designed experiments.

• Experience with CAD software, fixture design, and manufacturing-equipment implementation.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving capability.

• Ability to independently investigate complex technical problems and reach evidence-based conclusions.

• Ability to work effectively under pressure when production, quality, or customer commitments are at risk.

• Strong mechanical aptitude and understanding of manufacturing and assembly processes.

• Ability to distinguish immediate containment, root cause, corrective action, and preventive action.

• Ability to develop practical solutions that can be consistently executed by production personnel.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to write clear, concise, and executable manufacturing instructions.

• Ability to communicate effectively with technicians, engineers, managers, customers, and suppliers.

• Strong organization, prioritization, and follow-through.

• Ability to manage multiple technical assignments with competing deadlines.

• Ability to challenge assumptions professionally and escalate risks when adequate evidence or process control is not present.

• Ability to build trust with production employees by listening, observing the work, and involving the people closest to the process.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Project or equivalent planning tools.

• Ability to maintain confidentiality and comply with export-control, customer, and security requirements.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Structured problem solving

• Root-cause analysis

• Manufacturing process development

• Production-floor engagement

• Technical judgment

• Data-based decision making

• Process discipline

• Continuous improvement

• Bias for action

• Ownership and accountability

• Cross-functional collaboration

• Clear communication

• Customer focus

• Attention to detail

• Change management

SUCCESS MEASURES

Performance in this role may be evaluated using measures such as:

• Reduction in manufacturing defects, scrap, rework, and repeat nonconformances

• Improvement in first-pass yield and process capability

• Corrective-action effectiveness and recurrence prevention

• Manufacturing issue response and closure time

• Accuracy and completeness of work instructions and manufacturing documentation

• Achievement of planned cycle time, throughput, and labor expectations

• Reduction of production constraints and unplanned downtime

• Successful completion of manufacturing-readiness actions

• On-time support of prototype, qualification, and production builds

• Technician training and process-compliance performance

• Sustainable cost, quality, delivery, and productivity improvements

PHYSICAL AND WORK ENVIRONMENT REQUIREMENTS

• Ability to work in both office and manufacturing environments.

• Ability to spend extended periods on the production floor.

• Ability to stand, walk, bend, reach, and inspect equipment and products in manufacturing work areas.

• Ability to lift and move items consistent with company safety requirements, with assistance when necessary.

• Ability to wear required personal protective equipment.

• Occasional travel to suppliers, customers, test facilities, or other company locations may be required.

• Additional hours may occasionally be required to support critical production, test, investigation, or customer activities.

POSITION EXPECTATIONS

The Manufacturing / Process Engineer is expected to be a visible, hands-on engineering presence in the manufacturing operation. Success requires more than identifying problems or recommending changes. The individual must help contain the issue, establish the facts, determine the root cause, implement the solution, update the applicable process documentation, train affected personnel, and verify that the problem does not recur.

This position does not have the authority to bypass approved engineering, quality, safety, configuration, or customer requirements in order to meet schedule commitments.

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

• 0–15% as required to support customer engagements, test activities, or other Kratos locations

THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ARE INTENDED TO DESCRIBE THE GENERAL NATURE AND LEVEL OF WORK BEING PERFORMED BY INDIVIDUALS ASSIGNED TO THIS CLASSIFICATION. THEY ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE CONSTRUED AS AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST OF ALL RESPONSIBILITIES, DUTIES AND SKILLS REQUIRED OF PERSONNEL SO CLASSIFIED.

A REVIEW OF THIS CLASSIFICATION HAS EXCLUDED THE MARGINAL FUNCTIONS OF THE CLASSIFICATION THAT ARE INCIDENTAL TO THE PERFORMANCE OF FUNDAMENTAL JOB JUTIES. ALL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ARE ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS AND REQUIREMENTS AND ARE SUBJECT TO POSSIBLE MODIFICATION TO REASONABLY ACCOMMODATE INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES TO PERFORM THIS JOB PROFICIENTLY. THE REQUIREMENTS LISTED IN THIS DOCUMENT ARE THE MINIMUM LEVELS OF KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS OR ABILITIES.

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Keyword: manufacturing engineering, process development, root cause, 8D, DMAIC, SPC, DOE, PFMEA, continuous improvement, tooling, fixtures, AS9100, aerospace, turbine engines, production support

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From: Kratos Defense