Aerospace Composites Machining Engineer II

Firefly Aerospace; Briggs (TX); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental & vision plans

Relocation reimbursement

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace seeks a highly motivated Composite Machining Manufacturing Engineer II to join the Structures Department in north Austin, Texas. You will develop and scale machining processes for carbon fiber aerospace structures, owning from development through full-rate production.

Responsibilities include CNC and robotic machining programs, tooling and fixturing, and collaboration with Design Engineering to ensure manufacturability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of aerospace manufacturing experience.
• Experience with CFRP, composites, CNC machining, and robotics.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and implementation of machining processes for aerospace composite components, including trimming, routing, drilling, milling, profiling, and other secondary machining operations.
• Develop and optimize machining strategies for CFRP, sandwich structures, honeycomb core, foam core, bonded assemblies, and other composite configurations.
• Develop CNC manufacturing processes including cutter selection, feeds and speeds, toolpath strategy, workholding, datum strategy, probing, inspection, and process controls.
• Develop, review, simulate, prove out, and optimize CNC machining programs using Mastercam for multi-axis CNC equipment.
• Develop and optimize robotic machining processes including toolpath strategy, robot positioning, reach and accessibility, collision avoidance, spindle orientation, cutting parameters, approach/retract motions, and off-part movement.
• Support production operation and continuous improvement of KUKA robotic machining cells, including program prove-out, fixture setup, coordinate system establishment, tooling, machining parameters, dimensional verification, and troubleshooting.
• Develop machining strategies that account for the unique characteristics of robotic machining including robot stiffness, positional accuracy, repeatability, dynamic loading, tool orientation, reach limitations, singularities, and process-induced deflection.
• Develop robust part locating, fixturing, datum, and workholding strategies that maintain dimensional accuracy while preventing damage, distortion, or excessive loading of composite hardware.
• Optimize cutter selection, cutting parameters, and toolpath strategies to minimize delamination, fiber breakout, splintering, heat damage, surface damage, excessive tool wear, and other composite machining defects.
• Establish and continuously improve machining parameters including spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, cutter geometry, entry and exit strategy, drilling strategy, and tool-life requirements.
• Develop and implement tool-life management and cutter replacement strategies to maintain consistent machining quality and reduce manufacturing risk.
• Support capital equipment selection and implementation, including development of technical requirements, equipment evaluation, acceptance testing, installation, qualification, and production readiness.

Skills

CFRP machining

CNC programming

Robotic machining

Mastercam

Robotmaster

KUKA robotics

Root cause analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Mastercam

Robotmaster

KUKA

CAD/CAM software

Job description

Firefly Aerospace seeks a highly motivated Composite Machining Manufacturing Engineer II to join the Structures Department in north Austin, Texas. You will develop and scale machining processes for carbon fiber aerospace structures, owning from development through full-rate production.

Responsibilities include CNC and robotic machining programs, tooling and fixturing, and collaboration with Design Engineering to ensure manufacturability.