Senior Aerospace Manufacturing Engineer

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· Garde is a full-service aerospace design, development, manufacturing, and qualification test supplier supporting Tier 1 primes, government agencies, and commercial customers. For more than 50 years, we've partnered with innovators to develop deployable systems that push the boundaries of what's possible—in space, on the Moon, and beyond.

Build What Matters - If you’re an experienced Manufacturing Engineer looking for an opportunity to do more than maintain existing processes—and want to help build the manufacturing capability behind the next generation of spacecraft hardware,we’d love to talk to you.

We're looking for a Senior Manufacturing Engineer to lead the transition of lightweight deployable spacecraft payload structures and related electro-mechanical assemblies from qualification and First Article through LRIP and ultimately Full Rate Production. You will work closely with Design Engineering and production, and develop the processes, tooling, documentation, and production methods needed to turn innovative designs into reliable, repeatable, and scalable hardware.

This is a hands-on leadership role where you’ll move between CAD and tooling development, process and work-instruction development, and the manufacturing floor. You’ll work directly with engineers and technicians to solve problems, improve manufacturability, and build the manufacturing systems needed to successfully scale production.

• Lead manufacturing engineering activities from concept through prototype, qualification, First Article, LRIP, and production scale-up.
• Develop manufacturing processes for lightweight deployable spacecraft payload structures, including composite hand lay-up and electro-mechanical assemblies.
• Translate engineering drawings, models, BOMs, GD&T, specifications, and requirements into practical manufacturing processes.
• Develop and maintain Manufacturing Work Instructions (MWIs), assembly instructions, routings, and travelers for AS9100D-controlled production.
• Design tooling, fixtures, jigs, assembly aids, and inspection aids using Solid Works.
• Use 3D printing, 80/20 aluminum extrusion, and rapid-prototyping techniques to develop practical manufacturing solutions.
• Work directly with technicians on the manufacturing floor to troubleshoot problems, improve processes, and make designs more manufacturable.
• Partner with Design Engineering on Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA).
• Lead manufacturing readiness activities and pilot production runs.
• Support First Article builds, qualification hardware, configuration control, nonconformance resolution, root-cause analysis, and corrective actions.
• Apply Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma principles to improve quality, yield, throughput, repeatability, and efficiency.
• Develop scalable manufacturing processes, work cells, tooling strategies, material flow, and capacity plans as programs move toward LRIP and full-rate production.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers and manufacturing personnel.
• Participate in MRB activities and provide manufacturing engineering input on nonconformances and corrective actions.
• Support technical discussions with suppliers, customers, and cross-functional teams, including design reviews and technical interchange meetings.

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering from an accredited four-year university.
• 7+ years of manufacturing engineering experience, with significant hands-on responsibility in aerospace, spacecraft, or similarly demanding hardware environments.
• Experience supporting spaceflight hardware or spacecraft-related systems.
• Experience taking manufacturing activities from early development through pilot production and First Article.
• Experience with composite hand…