Senior Manufacturing Engineer

Davis Machine•Euless, TX

2d•$80,000 - $120,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Manufacturing Engineer leads manufacturing planning from quoting through production release. This role uses hands-on machine shop experience and knowledge of equipment capabilities to estimate machining requirements, develop efficient production plans, and identify potential challenges before work reaches the shop floor. Responsibilities include reviewing drawings and specifications, resolving technical issues during pre-production, and coordinating with internal teams and customers to ensure requirements are understood and projects stay on track. Strong organization, attention to detail, and clear communication are essential to managing multiple projects and supporting a smooth transition to production. After production release, Operations takes responsibility for the job, while the Senior Manufacturing Engineer continues to provide engineering support and help resolve technical questions. This position focuses primarily on planning and pre-production engineering, drawing on practical machining knowledge to support successful shop-floor execution.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, Aerospace, or Industrial Engineering, or a closely related engineering or engineering technology discipline. An equivalent combination of a technical associate's degree and additional directly related aerospace manufacturing engineering experience will be considered.
Five or more years in aerospace manufacturing engineering, with direct experience of machined structural or hard-material components
Fluent in engineering drawings, 3D models, GD&T, and PMI/MBD; able to identify critical features and process requirements from the drawing without a programmer's help
Working knowledge of multi-axis machining, workholding, and cutting tools sufficient to build a plan with programmers and challenge it
Demonstrated record of running customer engineering meetings and technical correspondence with prime or tier-1 engineering
Experience with nonconformance disposition in an AS9100 environment
Familiar with process documentation, travelers, and job release in a job-shop ERP
US person as defined under ITAR/EAR

Nice To Haves

Prime or tier-1 experience (Lockheed, Bell, Parker, etc.)
CAM exposure (Mastercam, CATIA, Esprit) or machinist/setup background
Tool library systems (Wintool or similar)
Interest in progression to Engineering Manager

Responsibilities

Drawing review and investigation. Reads model, drawing, specifications, and flowdowns on every new and rerun part; identifies required processes, critical features, and risks; identifies post-processing, assembly, and CMM operations; writes the OSP and process notes that carry into the quote and the plan. Brings the findings to the programmers; the plan for manufacture is built as a team, then documented and established. Fixtures are conceptualized as a team.
Setup documentation review. Reviews setup documentation for floor consideration, adjusts notes, and confirms they match the established plan.
Plan and traveler review. Reviews the (planner built) job packet for completeness and accuracy against the drawing, flowdowns, and setup documents.
Release gate. Confirms revision matched to the last build, drawing/model/flowdown current, program at revision, tooling on hand, reviews above passed. The floor does not start a job that has not cleared this gate.
First call for Operations. When the Operations Manager has a problem that engineering needs to resolve on a running job, the Manufacturing Engineer is the point of contact: takes it, routes it to the programmer or the EM, and closes it back to Operations. Requests come through the Operations Manager or Supervisor, not walk-ups. Does not run the job.
Change control. Writes proposed process, tooling, and software changes to the standard template (problem, intended outcome, scope, customer-requirement check) for Engineering Manager approval, including changes that come back from prove-out or the floor.
Customer engineering communication. Prepares and runs the regular customer engineering meetings and the technical correspondence between them; keeps discussions organized and moving; closes actions. Engineering Manager attends as needed for authority, escalation, and broader direction.
Nonconformance. Drafts the technical disposition with Quality and carries it to the customer, with the Engineering Manager as escalation.