Printed Circuit Board; PCB) Subject Matter Expert; SME

Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Subject Matter Expert (SME)

DEPARTMENT:
Engineering

FLSA Status:
Salaried Exempt

Pay Range: $140,900 - $183,200

Rantec is seeking a Printed Circuit Board SME to serve as the company's technical authority for bare printed circuit board fabrication risk. Although Rantec does not manufacture bare PCBs internally, PCB fabrication quality and supplier process control are critical to the performance and reliability of our products.

This role will report to Engineering and work closely with Strategic Sourcing, Supplier Quality, Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Quality Assurance, Program Management, and external PCB suppliers. The successful candidate will help ensure that PCB designs are manufacturable, supplier processes are capable, technical risks are identified early, and defective or nonconforming PCB product is prevented from entering Rantec's production flow.

This is not a purchasing role or a traditional receiving inspection role. It is a technical leadership role focused on PCB producibility, supplier capability, supplier qualification, first article readiness, change control, defect prevention, and technical problem solving.

• Serve as Rantec's internal subject matter expert for bare PCB fabrication technologies, supplier capabilities, fabrication risks, and industry best practices.
• Provide technical guidance on PCB stack-ups, laminate systems, copper weights, dielectric spacing, controlled impedance, via structures, surface finishes, solder mask, plating, cleanliness, high-voltage spacing, high-current design, and thermal performance.
• Establish standards for PCB fabrication drawings, fabrication notes, stack-ups, data packages, and supplier-facing requirements to ensure clarity, completeness, manufacturability, and supplier enforce ability.
• Develop and maintain PCB DFX guidelines for new product development, redesign, obsolescence redesign, supplier transition, and production release, aligned with industry best practices and current supplier capabilities.
• Work with Engineering, PCB Layout, Manufacturing, Test, Quality, and Sourcing to ensure PCB designs are manufacturable, inspectable, testable, and aligned with qualified supplier capabilities.
• Partner with Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Quality to evaluate, qualify, and maintain PCB suppliers for Rantec aerospace and defense programs.
• Maintain a PCB supplier capability matrix covering supplier strengths, limitations, manufacturing locations, certifications, process capabilities, technology fit, and known risk areas.
• Support sourcing decisions by reviewing supplier capability, quotation assumptions, material substitutions, stack-up changes, inspection gaps, testing gaps, capacity concerns, and manufacturability risks.
• Lead the technical portion of PCB supplier qualification, surveillance, and triggered audits in partnership with Quality Assurance, assessing supplier controls for CAM, stack-up management, materials, lamination, drilling, plating, solder mask, surface finish, electrical test, microsection practices, final inspection, nonconforming material, and change control.
• Conduct routine risk-based PCB supplier surveillance with QA to verify that supplier processes, materials, manufacturing locations, sub-tier usage, inspection methods, test methods, and change-control practices remain stable and in control over time.
• Establish technical audit checklists, supplier surveillance cadence, and escalation criteria based on supplier criticality, process risk, defect history, program impact, and technology complexity.
• Establish the framework for first article, production-readiness, and lot-acceptance requirements for new suppliers, new part numbers, major revisions, new materials, new stack-ups, new manufacturing locations, or significant supplier process changes.
• Define criteria for when supplier data such as stack-ups, material certifications, microsection reports, impedance coupon data, electrical test reports, dimensional reports, and certificates of conformance require routine review, escalation review, or engineering disposition.
• Define risk-based incoming inspection and documentation-review requirements for PCB commodities, enabling Receiving Inspection and Quality Assurance to make consistent lot acceptance, rejection, quarantine, and escalation decisions.
• Develop best practices, templates, checklists, and quality clauses for PCB procurement, inspection, documentation review, supplier lot release, and acceptance.
• Review supplier process change notifications and determine when engineering approval, customer approval, requalification, first article, additional testing, source inspection, or supplier containment is required.
• Lead or support the technical response to significant PCB supplier escapes, including containment strategy, suspect-lot identification, root-cause review, supplier corrective action, recurrence prevention, and internal/customer impact assessment.
• Apply practical PCB…