Senior DFx Manufacturing Engineer

Anduril-1; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 194,000; Full time

Job summary

Anduril Industries, a defense technology company, is seeking a Senior DFx Engineer to join the AD&S Manufacturing Engineering team. You will drive design for manufacturability, assembly, and cost across avionics, electronics, wiring, and harnessing, ensuring producibility and cost targets are met.

You will work with SME manufacturing and design engineers to translate constraints into actionable feedback, lead DFx reviews, and support supplier qualification.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Manufacturing, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering or related field.
• 8+ years in manufacturing engineering, producibility engineering, or DFx with focus on electronics, avionics, wiring, or harnessing.
• Experience leading DFM/DFA reviews and translating findings into cost reductions.
• Experience evaluating contract manufacturers — facility assessments, process capability reviews, or production readiness evaluations.
• Understanding of electronics/harnessing cost drivers; exposure to should-cost modeling or cost analysis.
• Ability to read electrical schematics, PCB layouts, harness drawings, and mechanical packaging for producibility and cost impact.
• Knowledge of IPC standards and their application to design, process, and supplier qualification decisions.
• Proven cross-functional collaboration across design, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and operations.
• Hands-on experience building or reworking electronic assemblies or harnesses.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to access to export controlled information.

Responsibilities

• Execute DFx analysis across avionics, electronics, wiring, and harnessing subsystems with a focus on manufacturability, assembly, and cost.
• Lead DFM/ DFA/ DFC reviews at key milestones, applying scoring to identify producibility and cost risks and drive design changes.
• Collaborate with SME manufacturing and design engineers to translate constraints into actionable feedback and support design trades.
• Assist in selecting and qualifying contract manufacturers for avionics, electronics, and harnessing production.
• Participate in supplier manufacturing assessments including facility reviews and process capability evaluations.
• Contribute to should-cost models and cost-driver analyses for electronics and harnessing assemblies.
• Develop and maintain DFx standards, guidelines, and scorecards for electronics manufacturing processes.
• Analyze designs across manufacturability, cost, and technology maturity to inform risk assessments.
• Coordinate with sourcing to align DFx requirements with supplier strategy.
• Work with quality to ensure DFx findings feed into inspection plans and supplier requirements.
• Help close the loop between production feedback, supplier data, and design improvements.
• Contribute to scalable DFx templates, rubrics, and training materials.
• Travel to production sites and supplier facilities (~20%).

Skills

DFx engineering

Electronics manufacturing

Cross-functional collaboration

Supplier evaluation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Manufacturing/Mechanical/Industrial Engineering or related field

Tools

IPC standards (IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, IPC-620, IPC-6012)

ECAD tools (Altium, KiCad)

Job description

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

ABOUT THE TEAM

Anduril's Air Dominance & Strike (AD&S) Manufacturing Engineering team is seeking a Senior DFx Engineer to drive design for manufacturability, assembly, and cost across our avionics, electronics, wiring, and harnessing subsystems. This role spans our full portfolio of autonomous aircraft, cruise missiles, and loitering munitions — ensuring that design decisions account for how hardware will be built, by whom, and at what cost.
You will bring specialty expertise in at least one of the following domains: avionics, wire harnessing, electronics (PCBA), or electrical systems. Your primary focus areas are manufacturability, assembly, and cost — the three lenses that determine whether a design can be produced at rate, by a qualified supplier, at an affordable price point. You will work directly with subject matter expert (SME) manufacturing engineers and design engineers to evaluate producibility, negotiate design trades, and drive improvements that make hardware buildable and cost-effective.
A key part of this role is supporting the selection and qualification of contract manufacturers — assessing supplier capabilities against DFx requirements and helping ensure that external production partners can deliver to the quality, rate, and cost targets our programs demand. This is an inherently cross-functional role: you will work daily with supply chain, quality, operations, and program teams in addition to ME and DE.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Execute DFx analysis across avionics, electronics, wiring, and harnessing subsystems for AD&S programs, with a primary focus on manufacturability, assembly, and cost.
• Participate in and help lead structured DFM/DFA/DFC reviews at key design milestones, applying rigorous scoring to identify producibility and cost risks and drive design changes before they reach production.
• Work directly with SME manufacturing engineers and design engineers to evaluate designs, translate manufacturing constraints into actionable feedback, and support design trades that balance performance, producibility, and cost.
• Support the selection and qualification of contract manufacturers for avionics, electronics, and harnessing production — assessing supplier manufacturing capability, process maturity, and cost competitiveness against DFx requirements.
• Participate in supplier manufacturing assessments including facility reviews, process audits, and capability evaluations.
• Contribute to should-cost models and cost-driver analyses for electronics and harnessing assemblies, identifying design changes that reduce unit cost without compromising quality or performance.
• Develop and maintain DFx standards, guidelines, and scorecards specific to electronics manufacturing processes including SMT, wave/selective solder, conformal coating, potting, wire harness fabrication, and box-build assembly.
• Analyze designs across key lenses — manufacturability/assembly, cost structure, adherence to specification, process capability, and technology maturity — to contribute to quantified risk assessments that inform engineering and program decisions.
• Partner with supply chain to align DFx requirements with sourcing strategy, ensuring that designs are producible by the suppliers we intend to use.
• Collaborate with quality engineering to ensure DFx findings flow into inspection plans, acceptance criteria, and supplier quality requirements.
• Close the loop between production floor feedback, supplier performance data, and upstream design improvements.
• Contribute to the DFx toolkit — templates, scoring rubrics, cost models, lessons-learned databases, and training materials — so that DFx knowledge scales across the organization.
• Travel to production sites, contract manufacturers, and supplier facilities (~20%, depending on business needs).

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, producibility engineering, or DFx with a significant focus on electronics, avionics, wiring, or harnessing — with specialty expertise in at least one of these domains.
• Strong working knowledge of electronics and/or harnessing manufacturing processes: SMT placement and reflow, wave and selective soldering, conformal coating, potting and encapsulation, wire harness fabrication (cut/strip/crimp/solder/mold), and electromechanical box-build.
• Experience participating in or leading DFM/DFA reviews and translating findings into measurable design improvements that reduce cost and improve producibility.
• Experience supporting contract manufacturer evaluations — including facility assessments, process capability reviews, or production readiness evaluations.
• Understanding of cost drivers in electronics and harnessing production, with exposure to should-cost modeling or cost analysis.
• Ability to read and critically evaluate electrical schematics, PCB layouts, harness drawings, and mechanical packaging for producibility and cost impact.
• Working knowledge of IPC standards (IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, IPC-620, IPC-6012) and their application to design, process, and supplier qualification decisions.
• Proven ability to work cross-functionally across design engineering, manufacturing engineering, supply chain, quality, and operations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present DFx and cost findings to engineering teams and drive alignment on design changes.
• Comfortable working across multiple programs simultaneously in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Personal experience physically building or reworking electronic assemblies or harnesses. Hands-on credibility matters.
• Must be a U.S. Person due to required access to U.S. export controlled information or facilities.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree in engineering or a related field.
• Specialty expertise in two or more of: avionics, PCBA/electronics, wire harnessing, electrical systems.
• Experience in aerospace or defense electronics production, particularly with qualified or flight-critical hardware.
• Familiarity with AS9100/AS9102 quality management systems and First Article Inspection processes.
• Experience with PCBA insourcing or standing up electronics manufacturing lines (SMT, test, integration).
• Proficiency in ECAD tools (Altium, KiCad, or similar) sufficient to review designs independently.
• Background in Design of Experiments (DOE), statistical process control, or Six Sigma applied to electronics manufacturing.
• Experience with value engineering or formal cost reduction programs in a production environment.
• Appropriate clearance classification.

US Salary Range

$146,000 - $194,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:

At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information, Explore Our Benefits .

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