About the position
Project Kuiper is an initiative to increase global broadband access through a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Its mission is to bring fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world. Project Kuiper will help close the digital divide by delivering fast, affordable broadband to a wide range of customers, including consumers, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations operating in places without reliable connectivity. We're looking for a Senior Optical Manufacturing Engineer to Lead Optical Head Assembly production development. As the lead Manufacturing Engineer for a Line Replaceable unit at Project Kuiper, you will be directly responsible for the production process development, introduction, improvement, & maintenance of a key module on our next generation spacecraft. You'll be the leading technical voice for a team of manufacturing engineers working on the product, solving challenging technical problems associated with delivering an ultra-high-performing optical, electrical, and mechatronic module to space. You will serve as a key lynchpin connection design/development, factory operations, quality engineering, program management, and more as you drive the manufacturing processes, we use from initial production introduction to full rate production. You will leverage your expertise in optical systems design to partner with development on the design of future iterations of the Optical Head Assembly and our associated production test systems & tooling. You'll solve complex industrial challenges associated with balancing production velocity, exceptional quality, and cost competitive production concepts while ensuring smooth technical execution of current production operations. You'll be a key animating force in the increase in production capacity through vision & execution of capital investment for production scaling & automation.
Responsibilities
- Conceptualize, design, develop, and improve production processes (assembly, integration, test processes) through collaboration/leadership of a team of manufacturing engineers.
- Serve as primary technical interface to development team for Optical Head Assembly, participating as the lead technical voice from the factory in Design Reviews, key technical escalations, and new product development activities.
- Support operations team directly by being a high solving power engineer, capable of bringing multiple diverging technical perspectives together in high pressure escalation moments such as quality containments.
- Own the capacity increase roadmap for production including defining the relevant capital equipment required for rate increase and helping to lead the design, procurement, install, and qualification of new rate enabling equipment.
Requirements
- Experience in developing functional specifications, design verification plans and functional test procedures.
- Degree in one of the following areas OR related field OR equivalent work experience: Mechanical Engineering, Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Optics/Optical Sciences.
- Demonstrated experience with Opto-mechanical systems, including optical bonding, fiber optic assembly, laser systems fabrication, optical metrology, and mechatronic systems.
- Exposure to Space Flight Hardware Production.
- Familiarity with Low-Rate Manufacturing Environments & New Product Introduction.
- Knowledge of Lean manufacturing practices & principles.
- Experience with Root Cause Analysis Techniques such as Fishbone, Fault Tree, DMAIC, or related technologies/processes.
Nice-to-haves
- Experience working with interdisciplinary teams to execute product design from concept to production.
- Experience with the project management of technical projects.
- Experience with SAP or similar ERP software.
- Experience with NX Unigraphics of similar CAD software.
- Experience with Industrial Analysis such as Motion Studies.
- Experience with Statistical Analysis Software such as Minitab.
- Exceptional analytical skills.
- Exceptional communication and writing skills.
Benefits
- Medical, financial, and/or other benefits.
- Equity, sign-on payments, and other forms of compensation may be provided as part of a total compensation package.
