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Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is seeking a Manufacturing Process Engineer for the Advanced Interconnects and Multilayer Solutions (AIMS) manufacturing cell.
AIMS is committed to the rapid development, manufacture and delivery of leading-edge discriminating products, utilizing advances in organic materials, technology and processing to meet or exceed customer expectations.
The Manufacturing Process Engineer will provide manufacturing technical expertise and direction to fabricate printed wiring boards, manifolds, and backplanes for next generation RF hardware. This position will be responsible for multiple imaging/chemical/wet processes in AIMS.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the tasks outlined below:
Process Development
- Developing new and maintaining or improving existing manufacturing processes with a focus on affordability
- Creating and managing to project plans (tasks, resources, schedules) for process development activities
- Providing ROI justification for process improvements
- Specifying, identifying and procuring new manufacturing equipment for production readiness and preparing equipment for production
- Developing and optimizing process parameters
- Developing/revising process documentation and work instruction
Factory Support
- Monitoring process yields, cost, and process stability and capability
- Recommending and implementing quality improvements based on the above metrics
- Creating, validating and maintaining automatic equipment programs
- Solving of manufacturing problems (related to materials, designs, equipment, people) in a timely manner
- Assisting with the training of new personnel and participating in the design of operator training materials
- Supporting factory maintenance personnel with the troubleshooting and repair of process equipment
Design Support
- Recommending product design improvements required to produce advanced microelectronics products
- Documenting state-of-the-art process capabilities and guidelines for product designers
- Participating in design producibility reviews for new products
The chosen candidate must have excellent verbal and written communication skills; be able to multi-task in a fast-paced, dynamic, and high visibility environment; and work well as part of a team.
This job may be filled as an Principal Engineer or a Senior Principal Engineer, based on the qualifications below.
Basic Qualifications for a Principal Engineer (level 3):
- Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or related STEM area with a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience (or minimum of 3 years with a MS or 1 year with a PhD); Candidates with a High School diploma/GED and minimum of 9 years of relevant experience or a minimum of 7 years with an Associate's degree will also be considered.
- Process Engineering experience.
- Experience with Design of Experiment (DOE), Statistical Process Control (SPC), 6 sigma concepts for process development, and control
- Experience with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T)
- Fluency in MS Office software applications
- The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret clearance is required.
- U.S. citizenship is required.
Basic Qualifications for a Senior Principal Engineer (level 4):
- Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or related STEM area with a minimum of 9 years of relevant experience (or minimum of 7 years with a MS or 4 year with a PhD); Candidates with a High School diploma/GED and minimum of 13 years of relevant experience or a minimum of 11 years with an Associate's degree will also be considered.
- Process Engineering experience.
- Experience with Design of Experiment (DOE), Statistical Process Control (SPC), 6 sigma concepts for process development, and control
- Experience with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T)
- Fluency in MS Office software applications
- The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret clearance is required.
- U.S. citizenship is required.
Preferred Qualifications For Both Levels:
- Experience working with high-end PWB imaging and chemical processing to include photolithography, developing, etching, stripping, electroless copper and electrolytic copper plating, electroless nickel gold plating, tin and tin/lead plating, blind, through and microvias
- Experience with IPC Class 3 substrate fabrication requirements
- Experience using TrueChem analysis software
- Candidate should have Experience with the following plating processes:
- Electrolytic Gold Plating (cyanide based)
- Electrolytic Sulfamate Nickel Plating
- Electrolytic Tin/Lead Plating
- Matte Tin, 90-10 Tin Lead, 95-5 Tin Lead, and 63/37 Eutectic Tin Lead
- Electrolytic Silver Plating (cyanide based)
- Aluminum Pretreatment for Electroless Nickel Plating on Aluminum
- Degreasing, Nitric Acid strip, Desmutting, Etching (ammonium bifluoride nitric acid/HF), Zincate
- Electroless Nickel Plating
- Electroless Copper Plating
- ENIG
- Electrolytic Copper Plating
- Electrocleaning (Copper substrates)
- General pretreatment of metals (Iron, Stainless Steel Grades, Copper, Brass, Aluminum, Copper-Molybdenum-Copper, Beryllium-Copper)
- Post plating Qualification Testing for Iron, Stainless Steel Grades, Copper, Brass, Aluminum, Copper-Molybdenum-Copper, Beryllium-Copper substrates
- Experience with Plating Specs, particularly: ASTM B488, AMS QQ-N-290, AMS 2404, AMS 2403
- Experience with trouble shooting plating defect root causes (nodules, spongy plating, “burnt” plating, skip plating, shadow plating etc.)
- Experience with tank maintenance for plating processes
- Pump replacement, troubleshooting low temperature/ high temperature issues, interlock failures, rectifier performance issues, Experience with general plumbing is a plus.
- Experience with reading drawing requirements and developing plating recipes to meet said requirements for required plating stack-ups that are called out.
- Experience with wet chemical titration methods, particularly, iodemetry and potentiometric titrations.
- Experience with chemical analysis of plating chemistries by UV-vis, ICP, TOC, and CVS.
- Experience with troubleshooting CVS, ICP and UV-vis instrumentation.
- Experience with developing new methods for ICP, TOC and UV-vis analysis
- Experience with troubleshooting redox titration endpoints and experience finding alternative methods/reagents due to supply chain issues restricting the availability of certain reagents.
- Experience with calibration procedures for Eppendorf pipettes and be able to justify statistically whether an out of tolerance condition is significant to chemical analysis and has an impact to product or not.
- Experience with XRF calibration, measurements, and method/product creation for new metal stack ups.
- Experience with automated particle count measurements for EGW and PAO coolants
Skills Required
- Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or a related STEM field with at least 5 years of relevant experience for Principal level, or 9 years for Senior Principal level
- Alternative education and experience combinations may qualify, including a high school diploma or GED with 9 years of experience for Principal or 13 years for Senior Principal
- Process Engineering experience
- Experience with Design of Experiments, Statistical Process Control, and Six Sigma concepts for process development and control
- Experience with Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing
- Fluency in Microsoft Office software applications
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret clearance
- U.S. citizenship
- Experience with high-end printed wiring board imaging and chemical processing
- Experience with IPC Class 3 substrate fabrication requirements
- Experience using TrueChem analysis software
- Experience with plating processes, plating specifications, tank maintenance, and plating defect troubleshooting
- Experience reading drawings and developing plating recipes for required plating stack-ups
- Experience with wet chemical titration methods, including iodometric and potentiometric titrations
- Experience analyzing plating chemistries using UV-Vis, ICP, TOC, and CVS
- Experience troubleshooting and developing methods for CVS, ICP, UV-Vis, and redox titration processes
- Experience calibrating Eppendorf pipettes and statistically evaluating out-of-tolerance conditions
- Experience with XRF calibration, measurements, and method or product creation
- Experience with automated particle-count measurements for EGW and PAO coolants
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to multitask in a fast-paced, high-visibility environment and work effectively on a team
Northrop Grumman Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northrop Grumman and has not been reviewed or approved by Northrop Grumman.
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Retirement Support — 401(k) matching is considered strong, with additional defined-benefit coverage for certain cohorts and options like catch-up contributions. Retirement programs are repeatedly highlighted as a core strength of the total rewards.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — PTO, company-paid holidays, and compressed work schedules (such as 9/80) provide meaningful time away and flexibility. These scheduling options are cited as a major quality-of-life benefit across many locations.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave alongside caregiver leave, adoption assistance, and back-up care supports a range of family needs. These programs have been expanded recently, signaling continued investment in family support.
Northrop Grumman Insights
What We Do
We are a close-knit community of big thinkers collaborating to keep the world safe. Our passion, creativity and expertise bring next-level technology solutions to life in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, strike, space, and logistics and modernization for our customers around the globe. On the Northrop Grumman team, you’ll join our pursuit of excellence immersed in a dynamic culture of innovation and respect. Your unique perspective will help achieve our shared vision for the future of global security. Every step of the way, you'll be supported by world-class training, employee resource groups and a comprehensive benefits package that enables greater health and happiness for you and your family. Worldwide and across disciplines, we’re challenging what’s possible for technology to protect people and places from undersea to outer space and into cyberspace. And we see the impact of our performance every day. We are Northrop Grumman, and we work on what matters—now, you too can make a difference. Explore opportunities in engineering, IT, manufacturing, business management, cybersecurity and more with us. Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
