Firestorm Labs
Principal, Manufacturing Design Engineer
$209K–$237K
San Diego, United States · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 6, 2026
- Experience
- 10+ years.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Aerospace, Manufacturing, or related discipline); experience in lieu of a degree will not be considered.
- Visa sponsorship
- Because this position requires a security clearance, U.S. citizenship is required. Export-control eligibility is also required; the posting lists U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, protected individuals, or those otherwise eligible to obtain required authorizations.
About the job
Leads manufacturing design for aircraft programs from early design through tooling, process development, and transition to production.
What you'll do
- Provide DFM/DFA input, create models and drawings, and manage design releases and changes in the PLM system.
- Develop manufacturing processes, production tooling, fixtures, ground support equipment, and shipping solutions.
- Support tool commissioning, production handoff, early builds, and cross-functional resolution of producibility issues.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering; experience in lieu of a degree will not be considered.
- 10+ years of aerospace or defense engineering experience spanning design, tooling, manufacturing engineering, or NPI.
- Hands-on experience with composites and metallics manufacturing and related assembly, integration, inspection, and test; experience designing production tooling and ground support or shipping solutions.
- Experience with Siemens NX, working knowledge of SolidWorks, GD&T per ASME Y14.5, PLM configuration management, and taking new products from design into production.
Nice to have
- Experience with unmanned aircraft or small airframe programs.
- Experience with multi-site or deployable production, additive manufacturing for tooling, tolerance stack-up analysis, or APQP/PFMEA in an AS9100 environment.
Pay
$209,000 - $237,000 USD base salary
Tools
Siemens NX, SolidWorks, ASME Y14.5, PLM, APQP, PFMEA, AS9100
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative