Harness Manufacturing Engineer

Planet•San Francisco, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Planet is seeking a Harness Manufacturing Engineer to establish and manage its in-house harness production line. This role is part of the New Product Introduction (NPI) team, responsible for scaling assembly, integration, and test operations for next-generation satellites. The engineer will collaborate with Electrical Engineering, production technicians, quality, and supply chain to transition harnesses from initial design to qualified, repeatable flight production. This position is ideal for individuals who enjoy building manufacturing capabilities from the ground up and working hands-on with hardware. The role is a full-time, in-office position based at Planet's San Francisco HQ, requiring 5 days per week in the office.

Requirements

4+ years of manufacturing development experience, including direct experience with wire harness or cable assembly manufacturing.
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
Hands-on knowledge of harness fabrication, including wire preparation, crimping, solder cup termination, shield termination, backshell installation, and potting.
Working knowledge of IPC/WHMA-A-620 Class 3 workmanship requirements.
Experience reading and creating harness drawings, wiring diagrams, and pinout tables.
Experience with harness design and routing CAD such as RapidHarness or SolidWorks Electrical.
SolidWorks skills sufficient to develop tooling and fixturing, verify routing and bend radius clearance in vehicle assemblies, and extract useful views for work instructions.
Hands-on experience with hardware assembly, integration, and test.
Excellent attention to detail and technical writing skills for documenting assembly and test processes.

Nice To Haves

Experience standing up a new manufacturing cell or bringing outsourced assembly processes in-house.
Familiarity with space flight interconnect standards (e.g., MIL-DTL-83513, MIL-DTL-22520, NASA workmanship standards, NASA Level 2 screening).
Experience programming and operating automated test systems (CAMI, Cirris) and specialized processing/crimp tooling (DMC, Schleuniger).
Active IPC/WHMA-A-620 certification or Certified IPC Trainer (CIT).
Experience with MES/PLM software and executing continuous improvement initiatives in cleanroom environments.

Responsibilities

Own manufacturing engineering and production operations for Planet’s in-house wire harness cell across all satellite programs.
Develop and document harness assembly procedures, process flows, work instructions, and cleanroom/ESD protocols.
Scope, design, and deploy tooling, fixtures, workstations, and verification programs (continuity, HiPot, pull-tests) for the harness cell.
Partner with Electrical Engineering to provide DFM/DFA feedback on new harness designs prior to release.
Support vehicle subsystem integration, troubleshoot build issues, and drive nonconformances to resolution.
Manage the make versus buy transition, including qualifying external vendors and phasing production in-house.
Participate in hiring and training production technicians to transition builds from prototype to flight production.
Monitor production metrics and recommend facility or capital equipment improvements to scale capacity.