Staff Reliability Engineer - Defense Tech

Sigma Design; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 127,000 - 168,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance and dental insurance

401(k) with company match

PTO 15 days + 9 holidays

Quarterly bonus program

Vision insurance

Long-term disability

Life insurance

Monday–Friday day shift

Job summary

Sigma Design in Costa Mesa, CA seeks a Staff Reliability Engineer for a contract-to-hire role in an in-office setting. You will lead reliability efforts across the full product lifecycle, drive FMEA/FTA, and develop validation plans to ensure production-ready systems.

The position requires 12+ years in reliability engineering, strong knowledge of MIL-STD standards, and cross-functional collaboration skills. ITAR/compliance ensured; candidates must be US persons.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or an equivalent technical discipline required; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 12 years of relevant work experience as a Reliability Engineer, Design/Development Engineer, Test Engineer, or related engineering role preferred.
• Experience with safety-critical hardware and software systems, preferably within aerospace, defense, or other highly regulated industries.
• Experience establishing and implementing Reliability Engineering frameworks for products or programs, including production testing, field testing, data acquisition, and data analysis.
• Advanced knowledge of reliability engineering methodologies, including FMEA/FMECA, Fault Tree Analysis, predictive reliability modeling, and Weibull analysis.
• Experience developing and executing qualification testing requirements and reliability validation plans.
• Experience conducting failure investigations, root cause analysis, and implementing corrective actions to prevent recurrence.
• Experience supporting design reviews, including PDR, CDR, and MRR.
• Knowledge of reliability and environmental standards, including MIL-STD-810, MIL-HDBK-217, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-516C, and MIL-STD-1629.
• Experience with MIL-HDBK-217Plus, MIL-HDBK-472, and MIL-STD-1916 preferred.
• Experience with Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) assessments, Manufacturing Review Boards (MRB), quality inspection, tooling, or calibration preferred.
• Experience with HALT (Highly Accelerated Life Testing), HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening), environmental testing, and/or mechanical testing preferred.
• Experience with risk management, change control/change management reviews, and software/firmware HITL/SITL preferred.
• Strong technical writing, analytical, problem-solving, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Compliance (background check, ITAR, vaccine, etc.) ITAR - Permanent resident of the United States (“U.S. person” as defined by ITAR)

Responsibilities

• Lead reliability engineering activities across product development programs, supporting design, manufacturing, production, and field performance initiatives.
• Review system block diagrams, interface control documents, and schematics to evaluate compliance, redundancy, and alignment with system requirements.
• Lead Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA/FMECA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) efforts to identify risks and drive design improvements.
• Perform predictive reliability analyses, including MTTF/MTBF calculations, reliability modeling, and failure prediction using applicable industry standards.
• Develop and execute qualification, validation, environmental, life-cycle, and accelerated testing plans to verify product reliability and production readiness.
• Partner with engineering, manufacturing, quality, and test teams to improve assembly, integration, inspection, and testing processes.
• Develop maintainability prediction models and support preventative maintenance and sparing strategies.
• Perform Weibull analysis using qualification, production, and field data to identify failure trends and improve product reliability.
• Lead failure investigations, root cause analyses, and corrective/preventative actions (CAPA) for issues identified during development, production, and field operations.
• Support development milestone reviews by identifying reliability requirements, entry/exit criteria, and risks associated with transitioning products into production.
• Develop and implement standardized reliability processes, tools, and documentation to improve design, manufacturing, and deployment operations.
• Provide technical leadership and collaborate across engineering teams to drive continuous reliability improvements.
• Follow Business Technology policies to protect sensitive data and reduce information security occurrences.

Skills

Reliability engineering

FMEA/FMECA

Weibull analysis

Root cause analysis

Education

Bachelor's in Mechanical/Aerospace/Systems Eng

Master's preferred

Job description

Sigma Design in Costa Mesa, CA seeks a Staff Reliability Engineer for a contract-to-hire role in an in-office setting. You will lead reliability efforts across the full product lifecycle, drive FMEA/FTA, and develop validation plans to ensure production-ready systems.

The position requires 12+ years in reliability engineering, strong knowledge of MIL-STD standards, and cross-functional collaboration skills. ITAR/compliance ensured; candidates must be US persons.