Lead Manufacturing Engineer, Space Vehicle Integration

Your responsibilities span the entire vehicle integration value chain, including Design for Manufacturability, advanced manufacturing process development, tooling design & selection, supplier technical management, quality system implementation, and comprehensive work documentation. You will lead cross-functional initiatives, mentor junior engineers, and drive integration excellence across vehicle structures, mechanisms, harness installation, and final close-out. The ideal candidate demonstrates proven leadership in solving complex technical challenges with innovative, practical solutions in fast-paced, resource-constrained environments. You have successfully scaled manufacturing processes from prototype through production and have a track record of delivering high-reliability hardware on aggressive timelines. WHAT YOU'LL DO Own the vehicle-level build flow for both production vehicle lines: define assembly and integration sequence, station and zone content, takt, and the work instructions and travelers that execute it for each vehicle line. Own the post-environmental close-out stations — weight and balance, mass properties verification, sealing, final mechanical close-out and ship preparation. These stations are the throughput bottleneck in every flow we have modeled; making them faster is the single highest-value thing this role does. Develop and qualify vehicle integration processes: precision fastening and torque control, bonded and shimmed joints, mechanism and propulsion module installation, harness routing and installation, and alignment to metrology-defined datums. Drive Design for Manufacturability and Assembly into vehicle-level designs before CDR — access, fastener reach, tool clearance, integration order, and testability of the assembled vehicle — partnering directly with structures, mechanisms and systems design engineers. Act as a principal stakeholder in deploying Anduril's Manufacturing Development Process (MDP) on this program. The Manager and Senior Manager of Manufacturing Engineering are the full process owners; every manufacturing engineer is an owner and an evangelist. You will be expected to carry MDP into design forums rather than wait for it to be handed to you. Mature manufacturing readiness artifacts concurrently with design readiness milestones — producibility assessments, process and tooling plans, build flow definition and manufacturing readiness evidence timed to PDR and CDR rather than assembled after them. Adopt and master our manufacturing execution and product lifecycle toolchain — Foundry and Teamcenter — and use it as the system of record for build definition, work instruction authoring, as-built records and production data. Fluency here is a requirement of the role, not a training objective. Specify and deploy mechanical ground support equipment and tooling: handling and lift fixtures, rotation and transport fixtures, integration stands, alignment tooling and torque tooling, including custom design in CAD. Partner with Supply Chain and Quality to define, deploy and monitor manufacturing best practices at the vendors and outside partners who deliver finished vehicle assemblies into our production facility — workmanship and process requirements, first article and source inspection expectations, and the as-built and nonconformance records that must arrive with the hardware. Incoming assemblies that are not integration-ready stop this line, so this interface is yours to own, not to inherit. Hire, mentor and lead the integration engineers who will each own a single vehicle line, while retaining cross-line ownership of integration process, tooling and workmanship standards; provide hands-on technical leadership to integration technicians on the floor. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Aerospace, Mechanical, Manufacturing or Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline. 8+ years of manufacturing engineering experience in aerospace, space, defense or another high-reliability industry, including 4+ years on final assembly and integration of complete vehicles, spacecraft or comparably complex electromechanical systems. Personally owned the build flow for at least one vehicle-level or major-assembly integration line — sequence definition, station content, work instructions and travelers — and can walk through how you built it and what you changed after first article. Hands-on depth in mechanical integration: precision fastening and torque control, bonded or shimmed joints, mechanism installation, harness routing and installation, and alignment to metrology-defined datums (laser tracker, CMM or photogrammetry). Experience with weight and balance or mass properties verification and final close-out operations on flight or comparably high-consequence hardware. Cleanroom manufacturing experience with contamination control and FOD prevention discipline (ISO 7 or cleaner). A quantified cycle-time, yield or throughput improvement on an assembly or integration line that you can explain mechanically — for example a 20% or greater reduction in station or flow time. Hands-on fluency with a manufacturing execution system and a PLM system as the system of record — build definition, work instruction or work order authoring, as-built records and production data. Teamcenter, Palantir Foundry, SAP, Manufacturo, Windchill or equivalent. Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance Willingness to travel up to 25% PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS Direct experience integrating satellites, spacecraft or space-based instruments (flight hardware), including support to environmental test campaigns (TVAC, vibration, shock, acoustics) and launch site integration. Familiarity with space workmanship and process standards — NASA-STD-8739 series, IPC-620 for harness and cable, ECSS equivalents — and with mechanism and fastener standards for flight hardware. Stood up an assembly or integration line in a new facility: layout, st