NPD Industrial Engineer

Job Title: NPD (New Product Development) Industrial Engineer

Location:South Chesterfield, VA

We are looking for a NPD (New Product Development) Industrialization Engineer responsible for industrialization, manufacturing readiness, and controlled implementation of new products and engineering changes. The role serves as the primary bridge between Product Engineering, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Sourcing, and Operations, translating released designs into safe, stable, scalable, and cost-effective manufacturing processes.

• Lead industrialization activities for New Product Development, Design to Value, customer-requested changes, and product improvement initiatives from design development through production launch and stabilization.
• Own ECP (Engineering Change Plan) development and execution, including implementation sequence, timing, effective dates or serial breaks, inventory disposition, documentation updates, training, validation, supplier coordination, and manufacturing readiness.
• Serve as the primary liaison between Product Engineering and Operations to ensure designs are successfully translated into capable, repeatable, and scalable manufacturing processes.
• Lead manufacturing feasibility, DFM/DFA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly), process risk, capacity, tooling, material-flow, labor, quality-control, and cost reviews throughout the Stage-Gate process.
• Develop industrialization and launch plans covering process flow, workstations, equipment, tooling, fixtures, routings, work instructions, labor requirements, test methods, inspection criteria, packaging, and line readiness.
• Coordinate engineering prototypes, manufacturing prototypes, pilot builds, pre-production builds, first-article inspections, PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) activities, and process validation.
• Lead cross-functional manufacturing-readiness reviews and establish measurable entrance and exit criteria for pilot, launch, ramp-up, and engineering-change implementation.
• Define and coordinate inventory disposition for raw material, WIP (work in Process), finished goods, service parts, and supplier inventory, including use-as-is, rework, return, deviation, or scrap decisions.
• Ensure BOMs (Bill of Material), routings, drawings, specifications, work instructions, inspection plans, service documentation, configuration records, and PLM/PDM/ERP (Product Lifecycle Management/Product Data Management/ Enterprise Resource Planning) updates are complete before production cut-in.
• Confirm material, supplier, tooling, equipment, test capability, quality controls, workforce training, maintenance support, and production documentation are ready before launch or change implementation.
• Drive structured problem solving and corrective action for product, process, supplier, quality, and manufacturing issues identified during pilots, launch, and ramp-up.
• Monitor industrialization performance using safety, FPY (First Pass Yield), throughput, productivity, scrap, labor, delivery, inventory exposure, and schedule-attainment metrics.
  
  Lead first-unit and first-lot controls, verify implementation effectiveness, manage deviations, and formally close ECP (Engineering Change Process) and launch actions. Lead the technical and operational handoff to Manufacturing, Product Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Service, and Operations with clearly defined ownership and open-risk closure.
• Capture lessons learned and continuously improve industrialization standards, launch playbooks, manufacturing-readiness criteria, and ECP(Engineering Change Process) practices.

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related technical discipline.

• Minimum five years of experience in product industrialization, New Development, manufacturing engineering, product engineering, or engineering-change implementation within a manufacturing environment.

• Proven experience developing and executing engineering change implementation plans, including inventory disposition, documentation control, training, supplier coordination, validation, and manufacturing readiness.
• Strong knowledge of design for manufacturing and assembly, PFMEA (Process Failure Mode and Effect Analysis), control plans, process capability, structured problem solving, Lean Manufacturing, and production-readiness…