Systems Engineer III

Systems Engineer III – Build Reliability Engineer

The Systems Engineer III – Build Reliability Engineer ensures that complex Optical Inter-Satellite Link (OISL) products, and any design revisions, are properly qualified and robustly implemented in manufacturing. This role owns the new and revised product introduction process and supports ongoing builds, with a strong focus on quality, reliability, process improvement, and risk reduction from prototype through full production. You will act as a key bridge between design and manufacturing teams, driving effective Design for Manufacturing (DfM), Design for Quality (DfQ), and Design for Reliability (DfR) practices to deliver reliable flight hardware.

• Partner closely with design and manufacturing engineering teams to understand and define critical-to-function manufacturing, quality, and reliability attributes and parameters.
• Oversee the implementation of robust manufacturing process and reliability control plans that protect product performance throughout the build lifecycle.
• Review and approve or reject the results of product and process qualification activities, ensuring they meet reliability and quality expectations.
• Perform analytical reviews of process control, measurement, and reliability data to enable real‑time, data‑driven decision‑making.
• Collaborate with production teams to improve existing processes for yield, cost, and throughput while maintaining negligible impact on quality and reliability.
• Investigate production inspection, test, and reliability screening failures to identify failure modes, underlying mechanisms, and proximate causes, and drive effective corrective actions.
• Review and approve or reject nonconforming product dispositions for flight hardware to ensure negligible impact on reliability.
• Apply Design for Manufacturing (DfM), Design for Quality (DfQ), and Design for Reliability (DfR) principles to new and revised product introductions.
• Contribute to the development and refinement of screening tests and methods that effectively identify failure modes and mechanisms.
• Serve as a technical liaison between design, manufacturing, and quality functions to align on critical reliability and quality requirements and control strategies.

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline, physics, or a closely related field.
• Practical experience with analytical methodologies associated with materials and failure analysis.
• Hands‑on experience with fabrication and assembly of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs).
• Experience conducting statistical data analysis to interpret manufacturing, process, and reliability data.
• Experience in reliability engineering and failure analysis in a manufacturing or production environment.
• Ability to interpret and act on process control and measurement data to improve quality and reliability.
• Demonstrated capability to bridge design and manufacturing functions to implement effective control plans for critical reliability and quality parameters.

• Experience in manufacturing process development, including defining and optimizing processes for new or revised products.
• New Product Introduction (NPI) experience, from prototype through production ramp.
• Experience in production and supplier quality, including working with suppliers to ensure reliable components and assemblies.
• Familiarity with screening test development and methods for identifying failure modes and mechanisms.
• Knowledge of Design for Manufacturing (DfM), Design for Quality (DfQ), and Design for Reliability (DfR) principles and their application in complex hardware products.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills with the ability to perform root‑cause analysis and implement corrective and preventive actions.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills to work across engineering, production, and quality teams.

This role is based onsite in Redmond in a production and engineering environment focused on complex Optical Inter‑Satellite Link (OISL) hardware and flight products. You will work closely with design, manufacturing, quality, and…