NPI Engineer Principal - Mfg Eng

BAE Systems•Austin, TX

2d•$118,095 - $200,762•Onsite

About The Position

At BAE Systems, we deliver a full range of products and services for air, land, and naval forces as well as advanced electronics, security, information technology solutions, and customer support services. We are seeking an experienced, highly motivated NPI Manufacturing Engineer to join our team. As an NPI Manufacturing Engineer, the candidate would primarily support the NPI builds and tests of products in our SMT and Circuit Card Assembly (CCA) factory but will also have the opportunity so support our Final Assembly factory, from sub-assemblies to box-level end-items. In this role, the candidate must demonstrate a strong technical aptitude, a focus on quality, good communication skills, and be able to work cross-functionally within the operations organization and with other disciplines/functions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline (ABET‑accredited preferred).
6‑8 years of manufacturing/process engineering experience; at least 3 years in new‑product introduction (P2L/NPE).
Proven track record with tooling/fixture design, NRE budgeting, pilot‑line build support, and cross‑functional change‑control (CAB/QR).
Experience creating work instructions, training production staff, and supporting quoting/bidding for pilot builds.
DFM/DFA, process‑flow mapping, GD&T, tolerance analysis.
Tooling/fixture design (SolidWorks/Creo, CNC programming).
NRE identification & cost estimating (advanced Excel/VBA, ERP).
SPC, DOE, yield analysis (Minitab/JMP), PowerBI/Tableau reporting.
Work‑instruction authoring, TTP checklist facilitation, pilot‑line quoting support.
RCCA/8D, project‑management tools (MS Project, Smartsheet, JIRA).
Excellent verbal & written communication; ability to influence cross‑functional teams.
Strong facilitation and stakeholder‑management capabilities.
Proven problem‑solving and root‑cause analysis expertise.
Demonstrated coaching/training ability for production personnel.
High organizational agility and customer‑focused mindset.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or professional certifications (CMfgE, Six‑Sigma Green Belt, PMP) are a plus.
Experience in regulated industries and ERP/PLM integration

Responsibilities

Collaborate with Product-to-Launch (P2L) and New Product Engineering (NPE) to review designs and provide producibility feedback.
Determine optimal process flow for new product builds.
Identify Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) requirements for manufacturing (fixtures, tooling, programming, etc.).
Collaborate with Product Engineers and Methods Writers to develop comprehensive work instructions.
Participate on team for the Transition to Production (TTP) Checklist.
Support Pilot Assembly and Inspection teams during build activities.
Train Production Teams on build processes prior to TTP completion.
Collaborate with internal tool and die teams and external vendors on fixture/tool/stencil designs.
Develop and qualify new factory processes as required.
Drive timely resolution of build-related issues.
Support Pilot Line quoting and bidding activities.
Collaborate with P2L and NPE to communicate systemic design issues and RCCA results (Pilot Line QR/CAB).
Work with MFG line and Product engineering to ensure proper HPU and Yield predictions are tracked and improvements identified to meet production goals.