Manufacturing Engineer NPI

Location: Franklin

Job Title:

Manufacturing Engineer - New Product Introduction (Semiconductor Capital Equipment)

Job Description

The Manufacturing Engineer supports New Product Introduction (NPI) from early design concept through full production readiness for complex semiconductor capital equipment. In this highly visible, hands-on role, you work closely with design engineering, quality, supply chain, and operations to ensure new tools are manufacturable, reliable, serviceable, and ready for smooth transition into sustained production. You engage early in the design cycle, influence how products are built and validated, and see your work come to life on the manufacturing floor and in customer environments.

Responsibilities

+ Support NPI programs from initial concept through development, validation, and production readiness for large-scale, custom semiconductor capital equipment.

+ Evaluate designs for manufacturability, assembly, integration, testing, serviceability, and scalability, providing clear recommendations to design teams.

+ Identify manufacturing, integration, and supply chain risks and drive mitigation actions prior to design release.

+ Translate design intent into production-ready solutions that support efficient assembly, integration, and final test.

+ Participate actively in concept, preliminary, and detailed design reviews, providing expert manufacturing engineering input.

+ Review bills of materials (BOMs), drawings, CAD models, schematics, and system and component-level test plans to ensure completeness and accuracy.

+ Ensure designs are coordinated and complete across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and software disciplines before engineering change order (ECO) release.

+ Develop and optimize manufacturing processes, build flows, work instructions, tooling, fixtures, and inspection strategies to support repeatable, high-quality builds.

+ Apply Design for Manufacturing (DFM), Design for Assembly (DFA), Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA), and Design for Test (DFT) methodologies to improve product and process robustness.

+ Support engineering builds, Factory Acceptance (FA) builds, and all activities required to achieve production readiness.

+ Collaborate with suppliers on critical or high-risk fabricated parts and subsystems to ensure manufacturability and quality.

+ Use structured problem-solving methods such as DFMEA, fishbone diagrams, 8D, and failure analysis to resolve build and performance issues.

+ Document lessons learned from NPI programs and feed them back into future designs and processes to continually improve NPI execution.

+ Spend significant time on the manufacturing floor troubleshooting issues, guiding assembly, and ensuring first-time build success.

+ Work cross-functionally with design engineering, quality, supply chain, production, and warehouse teams to transition products smoothly into sustaining engineering.

+ Balance technical depth with practical execution, ensuring solutions are both sound in theory and effective on the production floor.

Essential Skills

+ Bachelor's degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline.

+ Minimum of 5 years of manufacturing engineering experience, including direct support of New Product Introduction (NPI) programs.

+ Proven experience transitioning complex electromechanical or semiconductor equipment into manufacturing environments.

+ Demonstrated track record supporting NPI from concept through production readiness.

+ Working knowledge of semiconductor capital equipment or vacuum-based system manufacturing (strongly preferred).

+ Ability to evaluate design completeness and manufacturability across mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, and software disciplines.

+

Experience with tolerance analysis and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T).

+ Experience performing interference checks and managing structured BOMs for complex assemblies.

+ Familiarity with manufacturing quality tools and Design Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (DFMEA).

+ Proficiency with manufacturing engineering practices in large equipment assembly environments.

+ Ability to troubleshoot issues on the manufacturing floor and guide assembly teams in real time.

+ Experience working with or within ERP systems such as SAP (preferred).

+ Ability to travel up to 10%, depending on the NPI phase.

Additional

Skills & Qualifications

+ Experience in semiconductor manufacturing environments and exposure to multi-million-dollar capital equipment builds.

+ Hands-on experience with large equipment assembly and integration.

+ Familiarity with CAD tools such as AutoCAD and Solid Works for reviewing and interpreting mechanical designs.

+ Experience in new product development or new product engineering in a high-mix, custom engineering environment.

+ Lean Six Sigma training or certification is a plus.

+ Experience applying structured problem-solving tools such as fishbone diagrams, 8D, and failure analysis techniques.

+ Strong cross-functional communication skills, with the ability to…