Lead Avionics Manufacturing Engineer Verified today

About Northwood

Northwood is a space infrastructure company building a global network of phased array ground stations for satellite communications. We design, build, and deploy scalable systems for national security, global connectivity, and disaster response missions.

The Role

Lead the manufacturing engineering team responsible for avionics production processes. You will own manufacturing engineering strategy and execution from SMT assembly through board-level acceptance testing, environmental screening, and final box build. Work with Electrical, Mechanical, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production teams to transition designs into repeatable manufacturing processes and continuously improve them as production volumes grow.

Your Responsibilities

• Lead the manufacturing engineering team across SMT, post-SMT processing, board acceptance testing, thermal cycling, and electromechanical box build
• Develop and maintain avionics manufacturing standards, processes, design guidelines, and best practices
• Own development, qualification, and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes across the avionics production flow
• 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 to root cause and corrective action
• Define and track manufacturing metrics such as 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 on inspection, process control, traceability, and nonconformance practices for aerospace hardware
• Mentor and develop manufacturing engineers and technicians while establishing strong engineering ownership on the production floor

Required 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 including 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 stages of manufacturing, from PCBA fabrication through integration into higher-level assemblies
• 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 and manufacturing environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading manufacturing engineers or owning a significant electronics manufacturing area
• Experience with 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 manufacturing 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 ITAR, you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.