Project Engineer - Mechanical

Ontic Engineering & Manufacturing Inc; California (MO); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical insurance

Competitive PTO

Company 401K plan

Annual bonus program

Flexible working arrangements

Paid volunteering opportunities

Mental health champions

Commitment to development

Employee referral program

Job summary

Ontic Engineering & Manufacturing Inc. seeks a Project Engineer – Mechanical at our Chatsworth, CA office.

You will oversee technical planning, coordination, and delivery of small- to mid-size engineering projects within a Value Stream, serving as the day-to-day focal point between customer requirements and engineering scope. You will lead cross-functional teams in an IPT, manage budgets and schedules, and drive issues to closure across the product lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering Technology, or related discipline.
• 2–5 years of relevant engineering/manufacturing experience.
• Ability to develop and manage project plans, budgets, and schedules.
• Knowledge of mechanical/electromechanical assemblies and GD&T.
• Ability to interpret drawings and data, assess manufacturability and implications.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills with risk assessment.

Responsibilities

• Translate requirements into technical scope, deliverables, milestones, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop and maintain project plans, budgets, and resource estimates.
• Establish engineering baseline for scope, schedule, and cost; provide status and recovery actions.
• Coordinate technical reviews and qualification activities; ensure complete, configuration-controlled deliverables.
• Lead cross-functional work packages within an IPT framework; manage interfaces and ownership.

Skills

Analytical skills

Structured problem-solving

Clear communication

Cross-functional leadership

Project planning

MS Office

Education

Bachelors in Mechanical Eng

Equivalent experience

Tools

CAD

PLM/PDM

ERP

MS Project

Job description

We are a fast-paced business with ambitious growth plans; so if you are dedicated, enthusiastic and always seeking ways to improve, you'll enjoy a career with us! Ontic is a leading global aerospace OEM trusted by the world’s aviation leaders. Ontic’s Chatsworth, CA, site specializes in precision engineering, MRO, and new solutions for parts at risk of obsolescence. With over 1,400 employees across four time zones and seven sites, we have more than doubled in size since 2019 and are continuing to grow at pace.

Our team is looking for a Project Engineer- Mechanical at our Chatsworth, CA Office. The Project Engineer - Mechanical is accountable for the technical planning, coordination, and delivery of small- to mid-size engineering projects and work packages supporting assigned product lines within a Value Stream.

The role serves as the day-to-day technical focal point connecting customer and business requirements to executable engineering scope, deliverables, schedules, resource plans, and budgets. Working within an Integrated Product Team (IPT), the Project Engineer leads through influence in a matrixed organization and coordinates Engineering, Program Management, Sales/Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain, Quality, Configuration Management, and Manufacturing Engineering. The position owns the engineering portion of assigned commitments, manages technical risk and change, provides clear status and escalation, and drives issues to timely closure throughout the product lifecycle.

As a Senior Manufacturing Mechanical Engineer, you will:

Technical Project Planning and Delivery

• Translate customer, contractual, product, and business requirements into defined technical scope, work packages, deliverables, milestones, dependencies, and acceptance criteria.
• Develop and maintain engineering project plans, schedules, resource plans, labor estimates, and budgets; integrate the engineering plan with the overall program or Value Stream plan.
• Establish and track the engineering baseline for scope, schedule, cost, and technical performance. Provide accurate status, forecasts, estimate-to-complete updates, and recovery actions when commitments are at risk.
• Coordinate technical reviews, design and analysis activities, verification and qualification, production-readiness reviews, approvals, and release of complete, configuration-controlled engineering deliverables.

IPT and Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead assigned technical work packages within an IPT framework, guiding resources with different reporting relationships and establishing clear ownership, due dates, interfaces, and decision paths.
• Collaborate with engineering managers and functional leaders to align priorities and secure the skills and resources needed to meet project commitments.
• Facilitate technical coordination meetings; maintain action, decision, risk, issue, and dependency logs and drive actions to verified closure.
• Communicate effectively at working and management levels and elevate unresolved resource, technical, or priority conflicts with an impact assessment, options, and a recommended path forward.

Customer and Stakeholder Interface

• Serve as a primary technical interface between internal or external customers and Engineering, maintaining a proactive, customer-focused approach based on transparency, responsiveness, and trust.
• Clarify, validate, and document technical requirements, assumptions, interfaces, and acceptance expectations so the project team maintains a common understanding of the approved baseline.
• Communicate project status, technical decisions, risks, changes, and required actions clearly to customers, functional teams, Program Management, and Value Stream leadership.
• Support proposals, contract reviews, requests for quotation, and scope negotiations with the technical approach, deliverables, schedule, resource and cost estimates, assumptions, and risks; route scope changes through formal approval and change control.

To be considered for the Project Engineer – Mechanical opening, here’s what you’ll need to bring with you:

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering Technology, or a related discipline; an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience may be considered.
• Typically, 2-5 years of relevant experience in engineering, manufacturing, product support, planning, or technical project execution, preferably involving complex mechanical or electromechanical products.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and manage project plans, schedules, engineering budgets or labor estimates, resource requirements, risks, and technical deliverables.
• Broad knowledge of mechanical and electromechanical assemblies, manufacturing processes, inspection and test methods, engineering drawings, bills of material, specifications, and engineering change control.
• Ability to interpret mechanical drawings and technical data, including geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), and assess design intent, manufacturability, and product-support implications.
• Strong analytical and structured problem-solving skills, including risk assessment, root-cause analysis, evaluation of alternatives, and practical decision making.
• Clear written and verbal communication, professional maturity, initiative, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams through influence while managing multiple priorities.
• Working proficiency with Microsoft Office and project planning, ERP, or product-lifecycle/configuration-management tools relevant to the business.

Preferred

• Experience in aerospace, defense, or another highly regulated product environment.
• Experience with sustaining engineering, legacy product support, parts obsolescence, supplier or manufacturing changes, product improvement, and customer-driven engineering projects.
• Experience working within an IPT, matrixed organization, or Value Stream operating model.
• Familiarity with AS9100 expectations, formal configuration management, engineering change processes, and applicable airworthiness or certification considerations.
• Experience with CAD, PLM/PDM, ERP, Microsoft Project, or comparable systems; project-management, Lean, Six Sigma, or structured problem‑solving training is beneficial.

Our Benefits

• Comprehensive medical insurance
• Competitive PTO, holiday pay, and sick leave
• Company 401K plan with up to 4% matched contribution
• Annual bonus program (varies by level and discretionary based on company and individual performance)
• Flexible working arrangements
• Paid volunteering opportunities
• Access to mental health champions across our sites
• Commitment to development
• Employee referral program

Compensation Pay Range $100k to $140k

Ontic Engineering and Manufacturing Inc. is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex including sexual orientation and gender identity, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

This position must meet export control compliance requirements. To meet export control compliance requirements, a “U.S. Person ” as defined by 22. C.F.R. §120.15 is required. “U.S. Person” includes U.S. Citizen, lawful permanent resident, asylee, or refugee.

Ontic is a leading manufacturer to the world’s civil and military aircraft. By becoming the OEM to critical parts others originally developed, we provide continuity, availability and longevity to our customers’ fleets, supporting them for a lifetime of flight. Through our in‑house manufacturing and engineering, MRO, spares, and AOG support, we ensure certified, safety‑critical components remain available, compliant, and reliable across the full operational life of the aircraft we support.