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Salary: USD 146,000 - 194,000 / annual
Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, is seeking a Senior DFx (Design for Excellence) Manufacturing Engineer to join the Air Dominance & Strike (AD&S) Manufacturing Engineering team. This role focuses on driving design for manufacturability, assembly, and cost across avionics, electronics, wiring, and harnessing subsystems for autonomous aircraft, cruise missiles, and loitering munitions.
You will bring specialty expertise in at least one domain: avionics, wire harnessing, electronics (PCBA), or electrical systems. Your primary responsibilities include executing DFx analysis across subsystems, leading structured DFM/DFA/DFC reviews at key design milestones, and translating manufacturing constraints into actionable design feedback. You will work directly with subject matter expert manufacturing engineers and design engineers to evaluate producibility, negotiate design trades, and drive improvements that balance performance, producibility, and cost.
Key responsibilities include:
- Execute DFx analysis across avionics, electronics, wiring, and harnessing subsystems with focus on manufacturability, assembly, and cost
- Participate in and lead structured DFM/DFA/DFC reviews, applying rigorous scoring to identify risks and drive design changes before production
- Work with SME manufacturing and design engineers to evaluate designs and support design trades
- Support selection and qualification of contract manufacturers for avionics, electronics, and harnessing production
- Participate in supplier manufacturing assessments including facility reviews, process audits, and capability evaluations
- Contribute to should-cost models and cost-driver analyses for electronics and harnessing assemblies
- Develop and maintain DFx standards, guidelines, and scorecards specific to electronics manufacturing processes (SMT, wave/selective solder, conformal coating, potting, wire harness fabrication, box-build assembly)
- Analyze designs across manufacturability, cost structure, specification adherence, process capability, and technology maturity
- Partner with supply chain to align DFx requirements with sourcing strategy
- Collaborate with quality engineering to ensure DFx findings flow into inspection plans and supplier quality requirements
- Close the loop between production floor feedback, supplier performance data, and upstream design improvements
- Contribute to DFx toolkit including templates, scoring rubrics, cost models, and training materials
- Travel to production sites, contract manufacturers, and supplier facilities (~20% depending on business needs)
This is a cross-functional role requiring daily collaboration with supply chain, quality, operations, program teams, manufacturing engineers, and design engineers.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or related field
- 8+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, producibility engineering, or DFx with significant focus on electronics, avionics, wiring, or harnessing — with specialty expertise in at least one of these domains
- Strong working knowledge of electronics and/or harnessing manufacturing processes: SMT placement and reflow, wave and selective soldering, conformal coating, potting and encapsulation, wire harness fabrication (cut/strip/crimp/solder/mold), and electromechanical box-build
- Experience participating in or leading DFM/DFA reviews and translating findings into measurable design improvements that reduce cost and improve producibility
- Experience supporting contract manufacturer evaluations including facility assessments, process capability reviews, or production readiness evaluations
- Understanding of cost drivers in electronics and harnessing production, with exposure to should-cost modeling or cost analysis
- Ability to read and critically evaluate electrical schematics, PCB layouts, harness drawings, and mechanical packaging for producibility and cost impact
- Working knowledge of IPC standards (IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, IPC-620, IPC-6012) and their application to design, process, and supplier qualification decisions
- Proven ability to work cross-functionally across design engineering, manufacturing engineering, supply chain, quality, and operations
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including ability to present DFx and cost findings to engineering teams and drive alignment on design changes
- Comfortable working across multiple programs simultaneously in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
- Personal experience physically building or reworking electronic assemblies or harnesses (hands-on credibility required)
- Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Master's degree in engineering or related field
- Specialty expertise in two or more of: avionics, PCBA/electronics, wire harnessing, electrical systems
- Experience in aerospace or defense electronics production, particularly with qualified or flight-critical hardware
- Familiarity with AS9100/AS9102 quality management systems and First Article Inspection processes
- Experience with PCBA insourcing or standing up electronics manufacturing lines (SMT, test, integration)
- Proficiency in ECAD tools (Altium, KiCad, or similar) sufficient to review designs independently
- Background in Design of Experiments (DOE), statistical process control, or Six Sigma applied to electronics manufacturing
- Experience with value engineering or formal cost reduction programs in a production environment
- Appropriate clearance classification
