Sr Principal Engineer Manufacturing Systems

About the position

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history. At the heart of Defining Possible is our commitment to missions. In rapidly changing global security environments, Northrop Grumman brings informed insights and software-secure technology to enable strategic planning. We’re looking for innovators who can help us keep building on our wide portfolio of secure, affordable, integrated, and multi-domain systems and technologies that fuel those missions. By joining in our shared mission, we’ll support yours of expanding your personal network and developing skills, whether you are new to the field, or an industry thought leader. At Northrop Grumman, you’ll have the resources, support, and team to do some of the best work of your career. The role is an onsite-based position in the Baltimore, MD area. The area of work for this position concentrates in the Systems Engineering aspects to drive early collaboration between Manufacturing, Global Supply Chain, and Engineering organizations to streamline strategies for the Operations (Manufacturing and Test) organization to enable successful product launches into Manufacturing.

Responsibilities

• Developing Manufacturing and Test plans to support product development.
• Partnering with the Engineering / Design organization to improve producibility and testability of manufacturing products.
• Supporting cost trade analyses and trade studies for make/buy decisions, that affect your Global Supply Chain sourcing strategy.
• Providing Manufacturing Readiness Assessment support to evaluate assembly and test capability maturity.
• Identifying risks associated with manufacturability and testability and developing mitigation strategies.
• Recommending product design improvements required to produce advanced microelectronics products with a focus on test strategy integration in a cost-effective manner.
• Ensuring Design for Test (DFT) principles are incorporated early in the development cycle to optimize test coverage, diagnostics, and fault isolation.
• Developing Test Plans, Test Strategies, and Test Architectures for manufacturing, qualification, and acceptance testing.
• Collaborating with Test Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, and Design teams to define test requirements and success criteria at all levels (sub assembly, component, sub-system, and system).
• Supporting ATE (Automated Test Equipment) development and validation for fidelity microelectronics testing, or at least be familiar with automated sequencing for test execution for high volume manufacturing.
• Identifying gaps in test coverage and recommending additional test methods to improve fault detection and isolation.
• Define requirements-based testing to ensure product compliance with J-STD, MIL-STD, IPC Class 3, and other industry standards.
• Assessing the impact of test parameters on cost, schedule, and risk, working with Manufacturing Design (Engineering) and Supply Chain disciplines to ensure test requirements align with production capabilities.
• Defining and supporting Functional, Environmental, and Stress Testing (e.g., thermal cycling, vibration).
• Coordinate with the department head on capital needs for new programs/products, including test equipment investments.
• Collaborate with the Industrial Engineering, Test Engineering, and capital planning department for new test infrastructure investments required for scalability and efficiency.
• Support the selection and acquisition of new test equipment, software, and automation solutions for production and qualification testing.
• Develop business cases for test automation and data analytics tools to improve yield, defect detection, and test cycle time.
• Help business management develop teaming & cost strategies with a focus on test infrastructure costs and optimization.
• Help shape Operations and Test-related requirements in RFPs to ensure testability is considered in contract deliverables.
• Validate the ability to source, produce, test, inspect, deliver & maintain product offerings with a focus on test verification methodologies.
• Identify Operations & Test-related risks/opportunities and define handling (hand-off) strategies.
• Experience in creating BOE and proposal artifacts/deliverables.
• Incorporating culture change to drive new streamlined approaches for early engagement in test planning, design verification, and production testing.

Requirements

• BS degree in STEM or related technical field and at least 9 years of applicable experience; MS Degree and 7 years of applicable experience; PhD Degree and 4+ years of applicable experience.
• US Secret Security Clearance
• US Citizenship is required
• Experience in presenting to cross-functional teams within organizations for different stakeholders
• Expert experience in MS Office software applications.
• Experience leading or managing projects with test and manufacturing considerations.
• Systems Engineering experience, including Verification & Validation (V&V).
• Manufacturing Engineering Experience, with an emphasis on test integration in production environments.
• Excellent knowledge of electronics industry best practices for design for manufacturability.
• Experience in product costing as it relates to manufacturing process selection.
• Experience with lean manufacturing techniques.

Nice-to-haves

• Masters in Systems Engineering experience is a huge plus.
• Familiarity with MRP and PLM/PDM systems
• Experience with electronics assembly processes
• Certified Systems Engineering Professional a huge plus (CSEP, ASEP, ESEP).
• Experience developing Design-to-Cost models using industry-wide cost estimation tools is a big plus.
• Experience in IPC Class 3 electronics design, test, and manufacturing.
• Experience in design qualification, reliability analyses, and environmental stress testing (e.g., MIL-STD-810, RTCA DO-160).
• Experience in Risk and Opportunity Management, particularly in test development risk mitigation.
• Knowledge of requirements management tools (e.g., DOORS or similar).
• Experience with Lean, Six Sigma for Optimizing Manufacturing and Test Processes.
• Familiarity with J-STD and MIL-STD specification requirements for test and inspection.
• Experience in Automated Test Equipment (ATE) programming, data acquisition, and test software development.

Benefits

• Health Plan
• Savings Plan
• Paid Time Off
• Education Assistance
• Training and Development
• 9/80 Work Schedule (where available)