Staff Opto-Mechanical Engineer

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.

AOA Xinetics (AOX), a wholly owned Northrop Grumman Space Systems, Payload and Ground Systems Division Business Venture, is a leading supplier of complex electro-optic and photonic systems and subsystems that control and manipulate light waves for a variety of applications.  Our talented team of engineers, managers and technologists conceive, design, develop and manufacture high precision products in an environment that requires significant collaboration and teamwork among multiple engineering disciplines. 

AOX is an end-to-end engineering company that creates solutions, puts them into practice, and manufactures them. We develop solutions to some of the nation’s hardest technical challenges leveraging advanced technical capabilities in optical, mechanical, software, electronics controls, systems, test and manufacturing engineering to perform applied research, engineering development, and precision manufacturing.

Additionally, AOX excels in a range of applications from adaptive optical systems, deformable mirrors, wavefront sensors, and sub-nanometer precision actuators to photonic systems that acquire and process data in real time for a variety of high-availability applications. AOX’s market offerings include lightweight passive and active CERAFORM™ and CERAPRINT™ silicon carbide (SiC) optics and precision structures as well as large and small precision opto-mechanical systems supporting electronics and sophisticated controls software.

Learn more about AOX at  https://www.northropgrumman.com/who-we-are/business-ventures/

Overview

Reporting to the Manufacturing Engineering Manager, the Senior Principal Opto-Mechanical Process Engineer is the lead technical interface between the product engineering staff and production ensuring on-time program deliverables in the area of precision pointing products, optical telescope/assemblies, deformable and fast-steering mirrors and optical systems, material bonding applications in a highly dynamic technical diverse product work environment. You must be a fast learner, strong problem solver, and exceptional communicator with a proven ability to understand complex problems and requirements as described by customers, product managers, and scientific and engineering staff.

Responsibilities:

• Support design for manufacturing with MIL-STD 810G environmental considerations

• Support inspection/test data needs in accordance with End-Item-Data-Package requirements 

• Manufacturing Work Standards Management – work order issuance and creation of production work packages that define thorough work instructions material and manufacturing flow tailored to process engineering

• Develop manufacturing engineering processes, manufacturing processes that meet technical specifications, high quality standards, and relevant agency compliance requirements

• Collaborate with Quality Management to troubleshoot using root cause analysis methodologies and define, implement and monitor work cell process improvements; propose manufacturing process improvement projects and lead implementation of solutions 

• Drive production and design changes that result in superior products

• Direct Customer point of contact support including presenting during technical Manufacturing Readiness Reviews (MRR) and Production Readiness Reviews (PRR)

• Identify systems and process goals to ensure that work cells and equipment maximize operational performance and identify preventive maintenance recommendations for the Manufacturing Preventive Maintenance Program

• Technical recommendations and oversight of external suppliers that provide manufacturing services

• Collaborates with Product Engineering regarding design concepts and specification requirements to best use work cell capabilities and manufacturing processes to assure “design for manufacturing” products

• Identify automation opportunities to support growth, including specifying equipment, developing processes, qualifying, documenting, and training production personnel:

• Support design for manufacturing with MIL-STD 810G environmental considerations

• Support inspection/test data needs in accordance with End-Item-Data-Package requirements 

• Manufacturing Work Standards Management – work order issuance and creation of production work packages that define thorough work instructions material and manufacturing flow tailored to process engineering

• Develop manufacturing engineering processes, manufacturing processes that meet technical specifications, high quality standards, and relevant agency compliance requirements

• Collaborate with Quality Management to troubleshoot using root cause analysis methodologies and define, implement and monitor work cell process improvements; propose manufacturing process improvement projects and lead implementation of solutions 

• Drive production and design changes that result in superior products

• Direct Customer point of contact support including presenting during technical Manufacturing Readiness Reviews (MRR) and Production Readiness Reviews (PRR)

• Identify systems and process goals to ensure that work cells and equipment maximize operational performance and identify preventive maintenance recommendations for the Manufacturing Preventive Maintenance Program

• Technical recommendations and oversight of external suppliers that provide manufacturing services

• Collaborates with Product Engineering regarding design concepts and specification requirements to best use work cell capabilities and manufacturing processes to assure “design for manufacturing” products

• Identify automation opportunities to support growth, including specifying equipment, developing processes, qualifying, documenting, and training production personnel

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Mechanical or Optical Engineering, or other related STEM degree

• 14 years of opto-mechanical manufacturing and process development engineering experience in a Defense/DoD, Space or related industry, OR 12 years' experience with a Masters, OR 9 years' experience with a PhD

• Minimum 2 years of experience in lens and mirror mounting techniques, flexure and kinematic mount design, optical assembly and alignment, optical interferometry, geometric optics and/or wave optics and test equipment

• Adhesive applications of opto-mechanical products including athermalized telescope manufacturing and mounting, adhesive applications in ultrahigh vacuum and bonding techniques

• Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using NASTRAN

• Project Management

• Advanced Microsoft Office, MS Visio, MS Project, Solidworks, SigFit, Zemax and MATLAB

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Physics, Mechanical or Optical Engineering

• Gaussian Beam Propagation and Aberration Theory & Optical System Design Subject Matter Expert

• Lean Six Sigma Certification

• Programming skills including CMM or Optical CMM Inspection tools

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Salary Range: $146,000 USD - $219,000 USD

Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The health and safety of our employees and their families is a top priority. The company encourages employees to remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. U.S. Northrop Grumman employees may be required, in the future, to be vaccinated or have an approved disability/medical or religious accommodation, pursuant to future court decisions and/or government action on the currently stayed federal contractor vaccine mandate under Executive Order 14042 https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/contractors/.

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 most positions.