Principal / SR. Principal Manufacturing Process Engineer

Northrop Grumman•Baltimore, MD

4d•$98,900 - $185,000•Onsite

About The Position

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is seeking a Manufacturing Process Engineer for the Advanced Interconnects and Multilayer Solutions (AIMS) manufacturing cell. AIMS is committed to the rapid development, manufacture and delivery of leading-edge discriminating products, utilizing advances in organic materials, technology and processing to meet or exceed customer expectations. The Manufacturing Process Engineer will provide manufacturing technical expertise and direction to fabricate printed wiring boards, manifolds, and backplanes for next generation RF hardware. This position will be responsible for multiple imaging/chemical/wet processes in AIMS.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or related STEM area with a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience (or minimum of 3 years with a MS or 1 year with a PhD); Candidates with a High School diploma/GED and minimum of 9 years of relevant experience or a minimum of 7 years with an Associate's degree will also be considered.
Process Engineering experience.
Experience with Design of Experiment (DOE), Statistical Process Control (SPC), 6 sigma concepts for process development, and control
Experience with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T)
Fluency in MS Office software applications
The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret clearance is required.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Experience working with high-end PWB imaging and chemical processing to include photolithography, developing, etching, stripping, electroless copper and electrolytic copper plating, electroless nickel gold plating, tin and tin/lead plating, blind, through and microvias
Experience with IPC Class 3 substrate fabrication requirements
Experience using TrueChem analysis software
Experience with the following plating processes: Electrolytic Gold Plating (cyanide based), Electrolytic Sulfamate Nickel Plating, Electrolytic Tin/Lead Plating, Matte Tin, 90-10 Tin Lead, 95-5 Tin Lead, and 63/37 Eutectic Tin Lead, Electrolytic Silver Plating (cyanide based), Aluminum Pretreatment for Electroless Nickel Plating on Aluminum, Degreasing, Nitric Acid strip, Desmutting, Etching (ammonium bifluoride nitric acid/HF), Zincate, Electroless Nickel Plating, Electroless Copper Plating, ENIG, Electrolytic Copper Plating, Electrocleaning (Copper substrates), General pretreatment of metals (Iron, Stainless Steel Grades, Copper, Brass, Aluminum, Copper-Molybdenum-Copper, Beryllium-Copper), Post plating Qualification Testing for Iron, Stainless Steel Grades, Copper, Brass, Aluminum, Copper-Molybdenum-Copper, Beryllium-Copper substrates
Experience with Plating Specs, particularly: ASTM B488, AMS QQ-N-290, AMS 2404, AMS 2403
Experience with trouble shooting plating defect root causes (nodules, spongy plating, “burnt” plating, skip plating, shadow plating etc.)
Experience with tank maintenance for plating processes
Pump replacement, troubleshooting low temperature/ high temperature issues, interlock failures, rectifier performance issues, Experience with general plumbing is a plus.
Experience with reading drawing requirements and developing plating recipes to meet said requirements for required plating stack-ups that are called out.
Experience with wet chemical titration methods, particularly, iodemetry and potentiometric titrations.
Experience with chemical analysis of plating chemistries by UV-vis, ICP, TOC, and CVS.
Experience with troubleshooting CVS, ICP and UV-vis instrumentation.
Experience with developing new methods for ICP, TOC and UV-vis analysis
Experience with troubleshooting redox titration endpoints and experience finding alternative methods/reagents due to supply chain issues restricting the availability of certain reagents.
Experience with calibration procedures for Eppendorf pipettes and be able to justify statistically whether an out of tolerance condition is significant to chemical analysis and has an impact to product or not.
Experience with XRF calibration, measurements, and method/product creation for new metal stack ups.
Experience with automated particle count measurements for EGW and PAO coolants

Responsibilities

Developing new and maintaining or improving existing manufacturing processes with a focus on affordability
Creating and managing to project plans (tasks, resources, schedules) for process development activities
Providing ROI justification for process improvements
Specifying, identifying and procuring new manufacturing equipment for production readiness and preparing equipment for production
Developing and optimizing process parameters
Developing/revising process documentation and work instruction
Monitoring process yields, cost, and process stability and capability
Recommending and implementing quality improvements based on the above metrics
Creating, validating and maintaining automatic equipment programs
Solving of manufacturing problems (related to materials, designs, equipment, people) in a timely manner
Assisting with the training of new personnel and participating in the design of operator training materials
Supporting factory maintenance personnel with the troubleshooting and repair of process equipment
Recommending product design improvements required to produce advanced microelectronics products
Documenting state-of-the-art process capabilities and guidelines for product designers
Participating in design producibility reviews for new products

Benefits

Relocation assistance may be available
health insurance coverage
life and disability insurance
savings plan
Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business
overtime
shift differential
discretionary bonus
Annual bonuses
Long Term Incentives (for VP or Director positions)