Senior Electronics Cost Estimator

Flex-N-Gate is a leading manufacturer and supplier of components for the automotive industry, recently ranked 10th of the 150 Top North American Suppliers in “Automotive News.” A growing and vital company, Flex-N-Gate provides a great opportunity for hard-working and skilled individuals. Position Summary The Senior Electronics Cost Estimating Engineer is the corporate subject matter expert for electronics cost estimating, design-to-cost architecture, and competitive electronics benchmarking. This role leads the electronics technical and cost-estimating activities associated with new customer RFQs, engineering changes, awarded programs, competitive teardowns, and reverse-engineering studies. The engineer reviews customer RFQ packages, identifies and interprets applicable electronics requirements, and works with assigned Electronics and Systems Engineers to develop the lowest-cost compliant electronic architecture, preliminary schematic, and costed electronic Bill of Materials (eBOM). The position requires a senior-level electronics engineer who can move between requirements analysis, system architecture, circuit design, component selection, Altium schematic/eBOM development, component costing, PCB/PCBA manufacturing cost analysis, supplier engagement, reverse engineering, and management-level cost communication. The engineer serves as the primary Electronics Engineering interface between Engineering, Purchasing, global manufacturing teams, and the electronics supplier base for cost and quotation activities. This engineer is expected to lead estimating workstreams, guide supporting engineers, challenge unnecessary cost and architecture complexity, apply lessons learned from teardown activities, and provide technically defensible cost estimates - often under aggressive RFQ timing, including occasional turnaround requirements of less than 24 hours. Primary Accountability Translate customer requirements into the lowest-cost practical electronics architecture, schematic, and eBOM. Own component, PCB, PCBA, manufacturing, and total electronics cost estimates; align engineering estimates with hard quotes. 3. Program Cost Management Maintain current costed eBOMs, perform design-vintage cost walks, identify cost drivers, and lead cost-reduction recommendations. Reverse engineer benchmark designs, estimate their cost, identify architecture lessons learned, and feed findings into future designs. Essential Duties and Responsibilities Customer RFQ Requirements & Architecture Review customer RFQ packages, specifications, drawings, interface documents, network files, validation requirements, and customer technical requirements to determine the electronics content required for quotation. Identify and interpret quote-driving electronics requirements including power and transients, connector and pinout requirements, LED performance and derating, driver architecture, CAN/CAN FD/LIN communications, diagnostics, EMC/EMI/ESD, microcontroller and software needs, thermal requirements, PCB/PCBA construction, customer-directed components, functional safety/cybersecurity considerations, programming, end-of-line testing, and validation requirements. Translate customer requirements into a practical electronic architecture suitable for preliminary schematic development and cost estimation. Identify missing, conflicting, or ambiguous customer requirements and coordinate technical clarification with the appropriate internal or customer-facing teams. Lead architecture decisions with a focus on achieving all applicable customer requirements at the lowest practical recurring and non-recurring cost. Electronics Design & eBOM Development Develop or lead the development of preliminary electronics schematics for new RFQs and design studies. Work directly with assigned Electronics Engineers and Systems Engineers to create quote-level circuits and architectures. Use Altium Designer to develop, review, and modify electronic schematics and generate eBOMs. Review major functional blocks including power input/protection, voltage regulation and conversion, LED drivers, microcontrollers, vehicle communication interfaces, diagnostics, thermal monitoring, connectors, EMC/ESD protection, LEDs, and supporting passive components. Review architectures for unnecessary component count, excess capability, underutilized channels, oversized PCB requirements, avoidable interconnects, and other design-to-cost opportunities. Guide supporting engineers toward standardized, reusable, and cost-efficient architecture solutions where appropriate. Own the development and publication of internal electronics cost estimates for new RFQs, design studies, and major engineering changes. Assign accurate component pricing to engineer-generated eBOMs using direct supplier quotations, Purchasing-negotiated pricing, approved internal pricing, distributor/market pricing, and appropriate volume-based assumptions. Maintain traceability of pricing source, quantity or annual-volume assumptions, manufacturer part number, and quotation basis. Evaluate costs for major electronics commodities including LEDs, MCUs, LED drivers, power ICs, regulators, transceivers, MOSFETs, protection devices, connectors, magnetics, capacitors, resistors, and related components. Evaluate PCB cost drivers including dimensions, layer count, copper weight, material technology, Tg, board thickness, thermal requirements, and manufacturing constraints. Understand PCBA manufacturing cost drivers including SMT, through-hole and back-end processing, labor, programming, test, passivation/coating, packaging, and other manufacturing processes. Produce clear cost-per-PCBA, cost-per-lamp, and cost-per-vehicle estimates as required, with documented assumptions, exclusions, open issues, and quote risks. Competitive Benchmarking, Teardown & Reverse Engineering Lead or support reverse engineering and competitive teardown activities for customer, competitor, benchmark, and existing production electronic designs. Analyze electronic assemblies, PCBAs, component selections, PCB construction, interconnect strategies, thermal solutions, and system architectures to understand how benchmark designs achieve their functional requirements. Reverse engineer designs sufficiently to identify major circuit functions, power-supply and power-conversion strategies, microcontroller and communications architecture, LED-driver topology, diagnostics/protection strategies, PCB technology and construction, connector strategy, key components, and manufacturing approach. Develop costed reverse-engineered eBOMs using identified components, equivalent components, supplier information, distributor pricing, internal pricing, and manufacturing assumptions. Estimate total electronics and PCBA cost of benchmark designs, including component, PCB, assembly, programming, testing, and manufacturing costs. Compare reverse-engineered designs against FNG designs to identify differences in component count, architecture complexity, PCB size/construction, LED and driver utilization, power-conversion strategy, MCU/communications strategy, interconnect approach, manufacturing complexity, and overall cost. Identify design-to-cost lessons learned from teardown and benchmarking activities and translate them into actionable recommendations for current and future programs. Propose architecture simplifications, component substitutions, circuit consolidation, PCB reductions, manufacturing improvements, and other optimization opportunities based on benchmark findings. Maintain and communicate benchmark findings and lessons learned so effective concepts can be considered in future RFQs and product development while respecting customer requirements, reliability, validation, intellectual-property considerations, and FNG engineering standards. Global Manufacturing & Hard-Quote Coordination Serve as the primary Electronics Engineering estimating interface with the Treviso, Italy PCBA manufacturing team. Alert Treviso to upcoming RFQs and anticipated PCBA quotation requirements, and maintain approximately bi-weekly quotation synchronization meetings. Coordinate preliminary engineering estimates with Treviso's official manufacturing/hard-quote process and investigate significant deltas between engineering and manufacturing quotations. Coordinate with the Reynosa manufacturing organization and other global FNG manufacturing teams when required. Ensure manufacturing-location, process, labor, and other quote assumptions are applied consistently and accurately. Awarded Programs, Engineering Changes & Cost Walks Support awarded programs by maintaining current electronics costs as designs mature and by generating updated costed eBOMs as designs change. Perform detailed design-vintage-to-design-vintage cost walks and clearly explain the reasons for cost increases and decreases. Separate cost changes into meaningful drivers such as PCB construction/area, component additions or removals, LED quantity/type, driver architecture, MCU/software architecture, communications/diagnostics, connector/interconnect strategy, manufacturing process or labor, customer-directed requirements, and applicable commercial adders. Reconcile schematic, Altium eBOM, engineering-change documentation, and quote assumptions before releasing cost information. Identify and propose cost-reduction opportunities while maintaining customer requirements, engineering robustness, quality, and validation capability. Support customer and management cost walks with clear technical explanations of architecture changes and their financial impact. Serve as the Electronics Engineering subject matter expert for electronic component cost and cost-efficient architecture. Maintain strong familiarity with major automotive semiconductor, LED, and component manufacturers and their product portfolios. Meet with suppliers to understand new technologies, lower-cost alternatives, product road maps, lifecycle status, automotive qualification, availability, and pricing opportunities; share relevant findings with the broader EE team. Act as the primary liaison between Electronics Engineering and Purchasing for component pricing and electronics cost activities. Work with the Electronics Engineering team to maintain accurate component-cost information within Altium Vault / the approved Altium component library and cost database. Help establish consistent component-pricing practices and prevent the use of obsolete, unsupported, or inaccurate cost data. Technical Leadership, Delegation & Communication Function as the electronics design architect for cost optimization during new quotations and major cost studies. Provide technical direction to Electronics Engineers supporting RFQ and cost-estimating activities and delegate requirements review, schematic development, component selection, eBOM development, and supporting analysis as needed. Review supporting engineers' outputs for technical completeness, requirements compliance, cost efficiency, and consistency with quote assumptions. Serve as the primary point of contact within Electronics Engineering for component-cost and architecture-cost questions. Attend applicable RFQ meetings, internal quote reviews, Tech Review presentations, supplier meetings, and program meetings; present electronics architectures, cost estimates, assumptions, risks, and cost-reduction opportunities when required. Prepare and distribute concise published electronics cost-estimate summaries to Engineering, Purchasing, Sales, Program Management, Manufacturing, and other stakeholders. Communicate complex design and cost information effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences. ASPICE, Process Improvement & AI-Assisted Engineering Apply working knowledge of Automotive SPICE (ASPICE) processes to support disciplined requirements elicitation, system requirements analysis, architecture definition, traceability, and development handoffs. Continuously improve cost-estimating processes, templates, component-cost databases, estimating accuracy, and engineering workflows. Identify repetitive estimating activities that can be standardized or automated. Use approved AI tools, where beneficial, to accelerate RFQ document review, requirements extraction/classification, traceability, eBOM comparison, cost-delta analysis, supplier/component research, teardown analysis, and engineering summary generation. Technically review and validate AI-assisted outputs before incorporating them into official engineering or quotation deliverables. Required Qualifications Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) or closely related electronics engineering discipline. 5-10+ years of relevant electronics engineering experience, with demonstrated senior-level responsibility in hardware design, system architecture, or electronic product development. Strong hands-on experience designing automotive or similarly high-reliability electronic hardware. Demonstrated ability to read complex customer specifications and translate system-level requirements into electronic architectures and circuit requirements. Strong schematic design and circuit-analysis capability, including the ability to independently create or critique quote-level architectures. Experience with Altium Designer, including schematic capture, component libraries, and eBOM generation. Experience selecting and applying automotive electronic components including MCUs, LED drivers, voltage regulators, transceivers, protection devices, and passive components. Strong knowledge of electronic component cost and the technical factors that influence component selection and price. Working knowledge of PCB and PCBA cost drivers, manufacturing processes, programming, and test. Demonstrated ability to reverse engineer electronic hardware from physical PCBAs, schematics, photographs, component markings, datasheets, and other available technical information. Ability to identify major components, infer circuit functionality and architecture, reconstruct or estimate eBOM content, and develop technically defensible teardown cost estimates. Experience comparing technical alternatives and developing cost-optimized architectures. Experience working cross-functionally with Engineering, Purchasing, Manufacturing, suppliers, and global teams. Strong analytical skills and ability to explain cost differences from one design vintage or architecture to another. Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to manage multiple RFQs and engineering changes under aggressive deadlines. Ability to lead technical activities and coordinate/delegate work in a matrix engineering organization. Preferred Qualifications Automotive exterior lighting electronics experience. Experience with LED lamp electronics, LED drivers, power electronics, and automotive communication networks. Familiarity with major automotive semiconductor and LED manufacturers such as Texas Instruments, Infineon, NXP, STMicroelectronics, onsemi, ROHM, ams OSRAM, Nichia, Seoul Semiconductor, and similar suppliers. Experience with global PCBA manufacturing and quotation processes, including coordination across North America, Mexico, and Europe. Knowledge of Automotive SPICE (ASPICE), particularly Requirements Elicitation (RE), System Requirements Analysis (SRA), architecture development, and requirements traceability. Familiarity with ISO 26262 functional safety, automotive cybersecurity, EMC/ESD, and automotive electrical-transient requirements sufficient to understand their architecture and cost impact. Experience with Altium component-library / Vault cost management. Experience preparing executive-level or customer-facing cost walks and design-to-cost presentations. Experience using AI-assisted engineering, requirements-analysis, or engineering-productivity tools. Design-to-Cost RFQ Requirements Analysis Hardware Design Costed eBOM Development Electronic Component Costing Supplier / Market Knowledge PCB/PCBA Manufacturing Measures of Success New RFQs receive timely, traceable, and technically credible electronics cost estimates. Quoted architectures meet customer requirements while minimizing avoidable component, PCB, software, and manufacturing cost. Engineering estimates are well aligned with global manufacturing hard quotes and significant differences are understood and reconciled. Costed eBOMs and Altium cost data remain current, consistent, and defensible. Design-vintage cost changes are clearly explained with actionable cost-driver detail. Competitive teardown and reverse-engineering findings are converted into reusable lessons learned and measurable design-to-cost improvements. The role becomes the trusted go-to resource for electronics cost, benchmark insight, and cost-efficient architecture decisions across the organization. Working Relationships This role works closely with Electronics Engineers, Systems Engineers, Purchasing, Acquisitions/RFQ, Sales, Program Management, suppliers, and global FNG manufacturing/engineering teams. Particular coordination is expected with the Treviso, Italy PCBA quoting/manufacturing team and the Reynosa manufacturing team, with regular communication to keep upcoming quotes, assumptions, hard quotes, and cost updates aligned. Role Profile Senior hardware + systems engineering capability; able to architect and critique designs. Strong understanding of component, PCB, PCBA, and global manufacturing costs. Speed Capable of producing high-quality preliminary estimates on compressed RFQ schedules. Leadership Leads through technical authority, delegation, design reviews, and cross-functional coordination. Uses teardowns and reverse engineering to learn, quantify, and improve future designs. Communication Able to present architecture and cost conclusions clearly to technical and non-technical audiences. What We Offer Medical, dental, prescription, vision, life and disability insurance; and a flexible spending account 401(k) retirement savings plan with company match Extensive safety training, new hire orientation, continuous learning and development programs and tuition reimbursement Paid holidays and vacation time What do our employees have to say?

• It engages you professionally, and provides learning opportunities.”
• Lots of growth opportunity.”
• The company’s young enough to be exciting, but old enough to be stable.”

Not just a job—a great place to work! Flex-N-Gate is an equal opportunity employer. EEO/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled. #J-18808-Ljbffr Flex-N-Gate LLC.