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Northwood Space is a modern space infrastructure company building a global network of phased array ground stations for satellite communications supporting national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. The company designs, builds, and rapidly deploys vertically integrated systems with real-world impact.
You will lead the manufacturing engineering team responsible for avionics production processes, owning the manufacturing engineering strategy and execution from SMT assembly through board-level acceptance testing, environmental screening, and final box build. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will develop manufacturing standards, processes, equipment, and controls required to build reliable avionics hardware at increasing production volumes.
Key responsibilities include:
- Leading the manufacturing engineering team across SMT, post-SMT processing, board acceptance testing, thermal cycling, and electromechanical box build
- Developing and maintaining avionics manufacturing standards, processes, design guidelines, and best practices
- Owning development, qualification, and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes across the avionics production flow
- Establishing process controls, acceptance criteria, workmanship standards, and manufacturing documentation
- Leading selection, implementation, qualification, and improvement of avionics manufacturing equipment and tooling
- Partnering with design engineering to improve manufacturability, testability, reliability, and production scalability
- Driving new product introduction from engineering prototypes into controlled production processes
- Identifying production risks and recurring manufacturing issues, driving them to root cause and corrective action
- Defining and tracking key manufacturing metrics (yield, defect rates, rework, cycle time, process capability)
- Developing process validation and qualification strategies for new equipment, materials, and manufacturing methods
- Working with Quality Engineering to establish inspection, process control, traceability, and nonconformance practices for aerospace hardware
- Mentoring and developing manufacturing engineers and technicians while establishing strong engineering ownership on the production floor
You will work closely with Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production to transition designs into repeatable manufacturing processes and continuously improve those processes as products and production systems mature.
REQUIREMENTS:
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, process 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 initial investigation through implementation of corrective actions
- 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
Note: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations (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.
