Principal Engineer Manufacturing/ Sr. Principal Engineer Manufacturing

An organization within Northrop Grumman’s Payload and Ground Systems (PGS) division, Mission Enabling Products is a leading designer, producer, and supplier of spacecraft components that power and enable satellites of all classes. Products include spacecraft panels, bus structures, precision optical structures, deployable structural systems and mechanisms, solar arrays, and antenna reflectors. Our products are on virtually every U.S. satellite built in the last 20 years.  

The Integrated Thermal Systems (ITS) Operating Unit is the world leader in two-phase thermal management of spacecraft and has more than 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing space-qualified products for various government, military, civil and commercial customers (Legacy Swales Aerospace).

ITS has the broadest portfolio of thermal solutions in the business and more flight heritage than any of our competitors.  We tackle the industry’s most challenging spacecraft thermal control problems and have the market differentiating capability of taking systems from concept, through design, thermal component fabrication, integration into honeycomb composite structure and through system level testing all on-site with no subcontractors.

Our business is growing.  We currently operate out of a stand-alone facility in Beltsville, Maryland with plans to move to a new state of the art facility (currently under construction) in Hanover, Maryland in mid 2025. 

Job Duties:

• Designs manufacturing processes, procedures and production layouts for assemblies, equipment installation, processing, machining and material handling.

• Designs arrangement of machines within plant facilities to ensure most efficient and productive layout.

• Designs sequence of operations and specifies procedures for the fabrication of tools and equipment and other functions that affect product performance.

• Adapts machine or equipment design to factory and production conditions.

• May incorporate inspection and test requirements into the production plan. Inspects performance of machinery, equipment, and tools to verify their efficiency, and investigates and initiates corrective action of problems and deficiencies to ensure product quality.

• Develops manufacturing processes that are applicable to statistical process control, and may develop those techniques.

• Provides guidance to engineering regarding design concepts and specification requirements to best utilize equipment and manufacturing techniques.

• Ensures processes and procedures are in compliance with regulations.

Level 3 Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum 5 years of related manufacturing engineering experience is required with a bachelor’s degree. 3 years of related manufacturing engineering experience is required with a master's degree.

• Experience within a manufacturing environment.

• Proven multi-tasker and self-starter with excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Experience in writing technical specifications or manufacturing work instructions.

• Proficient in reading engineering drawings and a good understand of GD&T (Geometric Design and Tolerancing)

• Proficiency with MS Office required; MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint

• Must be a US Citizen

Level 4 Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum 9 years of related manufacturing engineering experience is required with a bachelor’s degree. 7 years of related manufacturing engineering experience is required with a master's degree.

• Experience within a manufacturing environment.

• Proven multi-tasker and self-starter with excellent verbal and written communication skills

• Experience in writing technical specifications or manufacturing work instructions.

• Proficient in reading engineering drawings and a good understand of GD&T (Geometric Design and Tolerancing)

• Proficiency with MS Office required; MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint

• Must be a US Citizen

​Preferred Qualifications:

• Understanding of 5S and Lean Manufacturing experience a plus.

• Engineering experience in an ISO 9001 compliant manufacturing/fabrication work environment.

• Familiarity with 2-phase thermal systems, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics.

• Working knowledge of GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) and CNC (Computer Numeric Controlled) machining operations.

• Proficiency with CAD software (CREO Parametric).

• Experience within an aerospace manufacturing environment is preferred.

Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.