Application & Supplier Quality Engineer — CAD & Sourcing

About the Opportunity

The Application & Supplier Quality Engineer serves as a technical bridge between Ascent Solar's customers, Sales, Engineering, Manufacturing, Finance and suppliers.

Approximately 70% of the role will focus on application engineering, translating customer requirements into technically sound, manufacturable solutions through product design and development. The remaining 30% will focus on supplier quality and supply-chain resilience, including supplier management, alternative source qualification, supplier redundancy, lead-time management and minimum order quantities.

The ideal candidate is a highly technical, detail-oriented engineer with strong Solid Works/CAD experience who can effectively translate between customers, Sales, engineers, technicians and suppliers. This role will help Ascent Solar turn customer requirements into viable products while strengthening the reliability and resiliency of the supply chain.

Application Engineering & Product Development

• Partner with Sales and customers to understand technical requirements, application needs and performance objectives.

• Translate customer requirements into engineering concepts, specifications, drawings and design recommendations.

• Develop, modify and maintain 3D models, assemblies, drawings and other engineering documentation using Solid Works and related CAD tools.

• Collaborate with Engineering, Manufacturing and Finance to evaluate design constraints, production requirements, costs and opportunities for design optimization.

• Support development of engineering documentation, specifications, bills of materials and other product definition materials.

• Assist in resolving technical issues that arise during product development, prototyping and production.

• Ensure customer-driven design changes are accurately documented, communicated and incorporated into applicable processes and documentation.

• Other duties as assigned.

Supplier Quality & Development

• Manage and maintain strong working relationships with existing suppliers of critical materials, components and services including monitoring supplier quality, delivery, lead times, responsiveness to questions and issues and overall reliability.

• Identify supply-chain vulnerabilities and develop strategies to reduce single-source and supplier-concentration risk by identifying and evaluating alternative suppliers capable of meeting Ascent Solar's technical, quality, cost and delivery requirements.

• Support supplier qualification (including new materials), onboarding and technical evaluation activities Including root-cause analysis and corrective action activities related to supplier performance.

• Partner with Accounting, Engineering, Manufacturing and Leadership to ensure supplier capabilities align with current and future product requirements.

• Support negotiations and supplier discussions involving technical requirements, quality expectations, lead times and minimum order quantities.

• Maintain accurate supplier documentation, performance data and engineering requirements.

• Other duties as assigned.

• Work onsite five (5) days per week in our Manufacturing facility located in Thornton, Colorado.

• Travel up to 35%

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering or a related technical discipline preferred; or equivalent relevant work experience.

• 3+ years of relevant engineering experience in application engineering, product development, mechanical design, manufacturing engineering, supplier quality or a related discipline.

• Strong hands-on experience with Solid Works or comparable 3D CAD software.

• Demonstrated ability to create and interpret engineering drawings, models, assemblies and technical documentation.

• Strong mechanical…