Manufacturing Engineer (Early Careers)

Manufacturing Engineer (Early Careers)

Date: Oct 5, 2026

Location:Tallassee, AL, US

Company: GKN Aerospace Careers

Fantastic challenges. Amazing opportunities.

GKN Aerospace is reimagining air travel: going further, faster and greener! Fuelled by great people whose expertise and creativity sets the standards in our industry, we’re inspired by the opportunities to innovate and break boundaries. We’re proud to play a part in protecting the world’s democracies. And we’re committed to putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do, opening up and protecting our planet. With over 16,000 employees across 32 manufacturing sites in 12 countries we serve over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and achieved sales of £3.6bn in 2025. There are no limits to where you can take your career.

Job Summary

As a Manufacturing Engineer, you will support both production and development programs by ensuring manufacturing execution through strong process design, practical problem solving, and continuous improvement. This role involves applying competent working knowledge of composite materials and processes while implementing advanced manufacturing methods across material handling, tooling, fabrication, and assembly.

Job Responsibilities

• Develop, validate, and sustain manufacturing processes for prepreg layup, autoclave cure, bonding, NDI and NDT, machining, and assembly of composite components.
• Create manufacturing plans, ply books, process specifications, and tooling requirements for complex composite structures.Lead root cause and corrective action activities using structured problem solving methods.
• Evaluate and introduce new composite materials, tooling concepts, and cure technologies to improve capability, quality, and cost.
• Collaborate with design engineering on design for manufacturing, materials selection, laminate definition, and configuration control.
• Support proposals by preparing labor estimates, tooling strategies, and plans for process development.
• Drive continuous improvement projects that reduce scrap, rework, cycle time, and process variability.

Job Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Materials Science, or a related field.
• 6+ months of experience in aerospace composite manufacturing, including fabrication, tooling, or autoclave/oven-cure processes.
• Working knowledge of composite materials and production methods such as layup, bonding, and cure.
• Must be a U.S. Person per ITAR regulations to comply with export compliance requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency with PFMEA, control plans, SPC, or other process‑control tools.

• Experience with NDI/NDT techniques (ultrasonic, X‑ray, tap test).Familiarity with composite machining, trimming, secondary bonding, or assembly.

• Leadership or mentoring experience in a manufacturing environment.Lean, Six Sigma, or related continuous‑improvement training.

We’ll offer you fantastic challenges and amazing opportunities. This is your chance to be part of an organisation that has proven itself to be at the cutting edge of our industry; and is committed to pushing the boundaries even further.  And with some of the best training on offer in the industry, who knows how far you can go?

A Great Place to work needs a Great Way of Working

Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN.  We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment. Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute.  It’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’.  By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.

We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process, so if you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process please get in touch and let us know.

We are the place where human dreams, plus human endeavour, shape the future of aerospace innovation and technology.​
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