Senior Manufacturing Engineer – Suppliers

Job Summary

We are seeking a Senior Supplier Engineer – Structural Components to play a key role in transferring complex structural assemblies and components—including stamped, laser-cut, welded, plated, and bent parts—from engineering into stable supplier production. Reporting into the Global Supply Management organization and working closely with Supplier Industrialization Engineering, you will lead supplier readiness from early design through production, ensuring designs are manufacturable, cost-effective, and capable of meeting demanding quality and delivery requirements. This role offers an opportunity to work at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain, directly influencing supplier capability and new product launch success. You will collaborate with Design, Advanced Manufacturing, Program Management, and supplier teams to solve challenging manufacturing problems and help bring innovative products from concept to production.

What You’ll Do

• Collaborate with Design and Advanced Manufacturing teams to develop pack-level structural designs, including bases, roofs, towers, and cabinets, optimizing structural integrity, heavy-gauge fabrication, manufacturability, and modular system integration.
• Lead Design for Manufacturing (DFM), APQP, and supplier readiness reviews, focusing on welding feasibility, tube and C-channel bending constraints, fabrication requirements, dimensional tolerances, and large-scale assembly considerations.
• Own the Quality Maturation Level (QML) and PPAP roadmap, ensuring suppliers meet production-readiness requirements and systematically qualifying Welding Procedure Specifications (WPS), Procedure Qualification Records (PQR), and Welder Performance Qualifications (WPQ).
• Partner with structural suppliers to establish robust weld verification and validation programs, including weld characterization, destructive testing such as macro-etch and tensile testing, and Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods including ultrasonic, magnetic particle, and liquid penetrant inspection.
• Identify and mitigate supplier and program risks associated with heavy manufacturing, including long-lead raw material requirements, steel mill production schedules, supplier crane and material-handling limitations, large-component transportation, shipping, and validation constraints.
• Drive closed-loop supplier non-conformance management by issuing SCARs, leading structured root-cause analysis and corrective actions for structural and weld defects, and conducting supplier audits to verify welding, fixturing, coating, and process-control effectiveness.

What You’ll Bring

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Materials Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Strong experience in Supplier Engineering, Supplier Quality Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or Supplier Industrialization.
• Hands-on experience with structural fabrication, welding, stamping, laser cutting, bending, plating, and large-scale assemblies.
• Strong knowledge of DFM, APQP, PPAP, PFMEA, Control Plans, process validation, and supplier quality management.
• Experience with welding quality and qualification processes, including WPS, PQR, and WPQ.
• Knowledge of weld inspection and NDT methods, including ultrasonic, magnetic particle, and liquid penetrant testing.
• Strong understanding of GD&T, dimensional tolerances, manufacturing processes, and process capability.
• Experience leading 8D, RCA, SCAR, corrective action, and continuous improvement activities.
• Ability to work effectively with Design Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing, Quality, Program Management, Procurement, and external suppliers.
• Strong analytical, communication, project management, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability and willingness to travel to supplier facilities as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting new product introduction (NPI) from concept through production.
• Experience working with heavy-gauge steel structures or large fabricated assemblies.
• Experience conducting supplier manufacturing/process audits.
• Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and statistical process control (SPC).
• Experience managing supplier technical issues, launch schedules, and production-readiness milestones.
• Experience in fast-paced, high-growth manufacturing environments.