Lead Avionics Manufacturing Engineer Verified today

About Northwood Space

Northwood is a space infrastructure company building a global network of phased array ground stations for satellite communications in national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. The company designs, builds, and deploys vertically integrated systems that power next-generation space missions.

The Role

You will lead the manufacturing engineering team responsible for avionics production processes. Your ownership spans SMT assembly, post-SMT processing, board acceptance testing, thermal cycling, and electromechanical box build. You will develop manufacturing standards, processes, equipment, and controls to build reliable hardware at increasing production volumes, working closely with Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production.

Responsibilities

• Lead the manufacturing engineering team for avionics production across all stages.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing standards, processes, design guidelines, and best practices.
• Own development, qualification, and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes.
• Establish process controls, acceptance criteria, workmanship standards, and manufacturing documentation.
• Lead selection, implementation, qualification, and improvement of avionics manufacturing equipment and tooling.
• Partner with design engineering to improve manufacturability, testability, reliability, and production scalability.
• Drive new product introduction from prototypes into controlled production processes.
• Identify production risks and recurring issues; drive them to root cause and corrective action.
• Define and track manufacturing metrics: yield, defect rates, rework, cycle time, and process capability.
• Develop process validation and qualification strategies for new equipment, materials, and methods.
• Work with Quality Engineering to establish inspection, control, traceability, and nonconformance practices for aerospace hardware.
• Mentor and develop manufacturing engineers and technicians; establish strong engineering ownership on the production floor.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, manufacturing engineering, or related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience in electronics or avionics manufacturing engineering.
• Basic understanding of SMT manufacturing processes: stencil printing, pick-and-place, reflow, inspection, and troubleshooting.
• Experience developing and improving manufacturing processes for PCBAs and electronic assemblies.
• Experience supporting products through multiple manufacturing stages, from PCBA fabrication through integration.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex manufacturing problems from investigation through corrective action implementation.
• Experience creating manufacturing documentation, process specifications, work instructions, and production controls.
• Ability to work directly with engineering and production teams in a fast-paced hardware development environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading manufacturing engineers or owning a significant electronics manufacturing area.
• Experience in aerospace, defense, automotive, medical device, or other high-reliability electronics manufacturing.
• Strong knowledge of IPC workmanship and electronics manufacturing standards.
• Experience with automated optical inspection, X-ray inspection, rework, cleaning, conformal coating, or other PCBA processes.
• Experience developing board-level acceptance test processes and production test equipment.
• Experience with environmental screening processes such as thermal cycling.
• Experience with electromechanical assembly and avionics box build.
• Experience implementing manufacturing processes within an MES and developing production traceability systems.
• Experience with PFMEAs, control plans, statistical process control, process capability, and structured root-cause methodologies.
• Familiarity with AS9100 or similar aerospace quality management systems.
• Experience bringing electronics manufacturing processes in-house or scaling a new production operation.

Employment Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.