Senior Principal Engineer, Engineering Excellence (Onsite)

EngineerThis Engineer plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of the Wheel & Brake business. Through strategic leadership in variation analysis and advanced inspection innovation, this role directly strengthens the reliability, manufacturability, and long-term competitiveness of carbon–carbon products. With high visibility across leadership and key functional groups, the Engineer influences critical decisions, drives transformational improvements, and helps define the next generation of materials and inspection technologies. In this position, you will not only solve today's most pressing challenges, but you will also build lasting capabilities that set the foundation for tomorrow.The Engineer is responsible for driving strategic variation reduction initiatives and advancing inspection capabilities across multiple carbon–carbon brake manufacturing production areas. This role provides hands-on technical leadership in Variation Modes & Effects Analysis (VMEA) to ensure manufacturing consistency, improved product performance, and proactive risk identification across textiles, furnace deck, machine shop, coating, and riveting operations.As a technical lead, the Engineer works closely with senior leadership, Operations, Quality, Engineering, R&D, and external partners to influence major strategic decisions. This position offers significant opportunity to make a lasting impact by addressing critical current needs and shaping the future of carbon–carbon manufacturing and inspection technologies across global sites.What You Will Do:Lead strategic analysis of process and product variation across all carbon–carbon production areas to identify critical trends, risks, and high-impact improvement opportunities.Perform detailed data analysis to determine variation drivers and support VMEA documentation of modes, effects, and risks for leadership and cross-functional teams.Develop new nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods for carbon–carbon materials and brake disk inspection that enable next-generation quality and capability.Meet with external vendors and partners to explore emerging inspection and measurement technologies and influence future technical direction.Write, justify, and submit Capital Acquisition Requests for equipment that delivers step-change improvements in measurement, inspection, and variation control.Collaborate closely with Operations, Quality, EH&S, Engineering, and R&D to align strategic variation insights, corrective actions, and long-term initiatives.Coordinate with carbon–carbon teams at Spokane and Santa Fe Springs to maintain consistency in shared processes, technologies, and best practices.Present key risks, trends, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership using clear, compelling communication.Maintain a strong understanding of manufacturing sequences to interpret complex variation behavior and recommend high-value corrective actions.Proactively develop new measurements, inspection, and variation-control methods that strengthen process capability, enhance product quality, and improve business competitiveness.Qualifications You Must Have:Typically requires a degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) and minimum 10 years prior relevant experience or an Advanced Degree in a related field and minimum 7 years of experienceQualifications We Prefer:Advanced Degree in Chemical Engineering, Materials Science, or related discipline.2–5 years of experience in a chemical or composite manufacturing environment.Aerospace manufacturing experience.Experience with aircraft programs or technical project management.Data mining or advanced statistical modeling experience.Experience in formal technical writing (engineering documentation, capital requests, or leadership presentations).What We Offer:Benefits:Some of our competitive benefits packages include:Medical, dental, and vision insuranceThree weeks of vacation for newly hired employeesGenerous 401(k) plan that includes employer matching funds and separate employer retirement contribution, including a Lifetime Income Strategy optionTuition reimbursement programStudent Loan Repayment ProgramLife insurance and disability coverageOptional coverages you can buy pet insurance, home and auto insurance, additional life and accident insurance,?critical illness?insurance, group legal, and ID theft protectionBirth, adoption, parental leave benefitsAutism Health, fertility, and family planningAdoption AssistanceAutism BenefitEmployee Assistance Plan, including up to 10 free counseling sessionsHealthy You Incentives, wellness rewards programDoctor on Demand, virtual doctor visitsBright Horizons, child and elder care servicesTeladoc Medical Experts, second opinion programAnd more!