Manufacturing Engineer

Manufacturing Engineer

The Manufacturing Engineer develops, reviews, and optimizes manufacturing plans and CNC machining processes for highly complex, tightly regulated products used in applications such as jet engines, aerospace, automotive, and power generation. This role ensures customer specifications and design requirements are accurately translated into robust routings, time standards, and process documentation, while driving continuous improvement on the shop floor and collaborating closely with engineering, manufacturing, tooling, programming, materials, and quality teams.

• Translate customer specifications, design requirements, and quotation information into clear, accurate manufacturing plans and routings.
• Develop and review all routings, including decisions on multi-level routings, verifying the sequence of operations, and confirming all dimensional information such as rough/grind stock, tooling, and reference dimensions.
• Establish time standards for each manufacturing plan that serve as performance measurements, ensuring they align with selling price assumptions or actual historical times and reallocating time standards between operations as needed while maintaining overall cost relationships.
• Review customer and internal drawings for completeness and accuracy, including grind stock, reference and roll dimensions, and any required metric-to-English conversions (excluding threads).
• Determine whether prints should be redrawn into internal formats or transformed into detailed operation sheets to support manufacturing and quality processes.
• Communicate with customers to resolve open technical issues, clarify specifications, and ensure alignment on manufacturing requirements.
• Review and sign off on internally generated prints and operation sheets to confirm all information is complete, accurate, and that dimensions from previous operations are properly referenced.
• Ensure all manufacturing plans are reviewed by Quality Planning before releasing jobs to manufacturing, supporting compliance with regulated industry standards.
• Review customer-generated engineering changes and initiate corresponding updates to manufacturing processes, routings, and documentation as required.
• Verify and sign off on all changes or corrections to routings, process drawings, and print references, ensuring consistency and traceability across documentation.
• Serve as a liaison between Materials, Manufacturing, Engineering, Tooling, and Programming, sharing pertinent information and coordinating activities to support efficient production.
• Maintain professional and personable relationships with vendors, customers, and employees, responding promptly to their needs while supporting the company's objectives.
• Support CNC machining operations on the shop floor, including troubleshooting issues such as broken tools, offsets, and tolerance challenges, and providing guidance during setups and prove-outs.
• Collaborate with machinists to prove out new jobs and first-article runs, ensuring programs run correctly before cutting material and validating part quality and process stability.
• Create and maintain shop documentation such as setup sheets, tool lists, routers, work instructions, and process guides to ensure consistent and repeatable manufacturing processes.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on reducing cycle time, improving throughput, and optimizing tooling for better tool life and part performance.
• Work with tooling vendors to evaluate and implement tooling solutions that enhance machining performance and support complex, high-precision parts.
• Take ownership of parts from print to production, including reviewing the design, developing the process, programming as applicable, and supporting successful launch into manufacturing.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering.
• At least 5 years of experience working in a heavy industrial fabrication or CNC machining environment.
• Hands-on experience with CNC machines, including lathes and mills, and associated manufacturing processes.
• Experience working within regulated markets such as automotive, aerospace, or power generation.
• Proficiency in developing and reviewing manufacturing routings, including multi-level routings and operation sequences.
• Strong understanding of dimensional modeling, including rough/grind stock, tooling dimensions, and reference dimensions.
• Experience establishing and managing time standards for manufacturing operations, including time studies and performance measurement.
• Design and CAD/CAM experience, with a preference for NX or Mastercam, and openness to other comparable software.
• Experience in manufacturing engineering, including process development, continuous improvement, and machining.
• Ability to review technical drawings for completeness and accuracy and to interpret complex specifications.
• Experience with tooling and fixture design to support precision machining and complex part geometries.
• Knowledge of standard operating procedures (SOPs), process control, and…