Eaton’s Electrical Sector is currently seeking a Test Engineering Manager to join our team. This position is based on site at our Santa Ana, CA facility. Relocation assistance will be provided to candidates who live outside of a 60 mile radius of Santa Ana, CA.
As Test Engineering Manager, you will lead the site's Test Engineering function and ensure production testing is safe, reliable, efficient, and scalable. This position is accountable for the people, processes, equipment, technology, capacity, and strategy that support electrical testing, troubleshooting, test automation, new product introduction, and customer requirements.
The expected annual salary range for this role is $129,000 - $190,000 a year.
Please note that the salary information shown above is a general guideline only. Salaries are based upon candidate skills, experience, and qualifications, as well as market and business considerations.
Lead the Team and Functional Strategy
- Lead, coach, and develop Test Engineers, technicians, and electrical test personnel, setting clear priorities, expectations, and development plans.
- Build workforce, succession, cross-training, and capability plans that support current operations and emerging technologies.
- Develop and execute the Test Engineering strategy and technology roadmap, including automation, instrumentation, software, data acquisition, and equipment modernization.
- Own staffing, workload, test capacity, equipment utilization, capital planning, and investment priorities to meet production and business needs.
- Use performance metrics and regular reviews to strengthen accountability across safety, quality, delivery, cost, inventory, and customer performance.
Own Test Systems, Equipment, and Production Support
- Lead the specification, design, development, installation, validation, and sustainment of automated, semi-automated, and manual production test systems.
- Provide technical direction for test equipment that uses power sources, loads, instrumentation, controls, software, and network or serial communications.
- Establish standards for test hardware, software, interfaces, procedures, troubleshooting, calibration, preventive maintenance, revision control, spare parts, upgrades, and obsolescence planning.
- Lead resolution of complex electrical, controls, instrumentation, test equipment, and production issues, including escalation and recovery during critical line-down events.
- Standardize and reuse test technologies and methods to improve reliability, maintainability, training effectiveness, scalability, and deployment speed.
Advance Product Readiness, Quality, and Data Integrity
- Partner with Product Engineering and cross-functional teams to define validation and production test strategies for new products, including Design for Testability input.
- Define test requirements and acceptance criteria, and confirm that equipment, software, procedures, documentation, and trained resources are ready before launch.
- Support prototype, first-article, verification, validation, and transition-to-production testing.
- Develop and improve test procedures, protocols, and data practices aligned with product specifications, quality requirements, FMEA outputs, and the Quality Management System.
- Lead or support root cause analysis and corrective action for test system, process, product, internal, and customer-return failures.
Strengthen Safety, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement
- Ensure test equipment and processes incorporate electrical safe work practices, hazard controls, NFPA 70E, Lockout/Tagout, applicable OSHA requirements, and relevant product or electrical standards.
- Identify test and electrical hazards, and lead corrective actions and risk-reduction efforts that support a zero-incident culture.
- Improve first-pass yield, cycle time, equipment uptime, retest rate, test capacity, troubleshooting response, and cost of test through data analysis and structured problem-solving.
- Lead Lean and continuous improvement activities, including Kaizen, cost-out, business process improvement, and rapid improvement events.
- Coordinate customer witness testing and communicate technical results, risks, recommendations, and investment needs to plant and senior leadership.
Collaborate and Deliver Across the Business
- Align resources, schedules, projects, and priorities with Operations, Quality, Engineering, EHS, Maintenance, Supply Chain, and other partners.
- Lead cross-functional efforts to resolve complex production, product, equipment, test, and quality issues.
- Manage multiple technical projects and competing priorities while maintaining focus on safety, customer requirements, schedule, cost, and business objectives.
- Influence across functions and organizational levels to support timely decisions, corrective actions, and sustainable results.
Required (Basic) Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline from an accredited institution.
- Minimum of five (5) years of experience in electrical engineering, electrical design, production testing, controls, test automation, or a related engineering function.
- Minimum of two (2) years of experience leading technical projects or engineering programs, along with prior leadership, supervisory, or management experience in an engineering, manufacturing, testing, or related technical organization.
- Strong electrical troubleshooting skills and the ability to interpret electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, one-line diagrams, power-flow diagrams, and technical drawings.
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical results, risks, and recommendations to varied audiences.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Nine (9) years of experience with power systems, magnetics, automated electrical test systems, Engineer-to-Order manufacturing, or New Product Introduction.
- Experience developing production test strategies, procedures, software applications, and automated test solutions.
- Experience with National Instruments TestStand, Python, SQL Server, GitHub, or comparable test software and development tools.
- Experience with communication protocols such as GPIB, Modbus RTU/TCP, REST API, or comparable protocols.
- Working knowledge of NFPA 70E and electrical Lockout/Tagout practices; Lean, Green Belt, or Black Belt certification is a plus.
- Strong technical leadership and people-development capabilities.
- Proven analytical, troubleshooting, and structured problem-solving skills.
- Ability to get results, establish accountability, and drive change through others.
- Strong project management, planning, organizational, and resource-prioritization skills.
- Ability to balance competing production priorities and multiple engineering projects.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to translate complex technical issues into clear business risks and recommendations.
- Ability to effectively present results and recommendations to senior leadership.
- Strong collaboration and influence skills within a matrix manufacturing organization.
All positions may require participation in video and in-person interviews as part of the hiring process. All candidates will be evaluated based on job-related competencies, and all candidates’ privacy rights and data security will be protected in accordance with applicable laws.
This posting will remain open until filled.
We are committed to ensuring equal employment opportunities for all job applicants and employees. Employment decisions are based upon job-related reasons regardless of an applicant's race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, marital status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other status protected by law.
Eaton believes in second chance employment. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction history will be considered regardless of their arrest or conviction history, consistent with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, the California Fair Chance Act and other local laws.
You do not need to disclose your conviction history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if Eaton is concerned about conviction that is directly related to the job, you will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report.
To request a disability-related reasonable accommodation to assist you in your job search, application, or interview process, please call us at 1-800-836-6345 to discuss your specific need. Only accommodation requests will be accepted by this phone number.
We know that good benefit programs are important to employees and their families. Eaton provides various Health and Welfare benefits as well as Retirement benefits, and several programs that provide for paid and unpaid time away from work. Click here for more detail: Eaton Benefits Overview. Please note that specific programs and options available to an employee may depend on eligibility factors such as geographic location, date of hire, and the applicability of collective bargaining agreements. #LI-NG1
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering or a related engineering discipline from an accredited institution
- At least five years of experience in electrical engineering, electrical design, production testing, controls, test automation, or a related engineering function
- At least two years of experience leading technical projects or engineering programs
- Prior leadership, supervisory, or management experience in an engineering, manufacturing, testing, or related technical organization
- Strong electrical troubleshooting skills
- Ability to interpret electrical schematics, wiring diagrams, one-line diagrams, power-flow diagrams, and technical drawings
- Clear written and verbal communication skills
- Nine years of experience with power systems, magnetics, automated electrical test systems, Engineer-to-Order manufacturing, or New Product Introduction
- Experience developing production test strategies, procedures, software applications, and automated test solutions
- Experience with National Instruments TestStand, Python, SQL Server, GitHub, or comparable test software and development tools
- Experience with GPIB, Modbus RTU/TCP, REST API, or comparable communication protocols
- Working knowledge of NFPA 70E and electrical Lockout/Tagout practices
- Lean, Green Belt, or Black Belt certification
Eaton Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Eaton and has not been reviewed or approved by Eaton.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive, spanning medical, dental, vision, prescription, life, and company‑paid disability, with HSAs/HRAs and wellness programs enhancing access and support.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings include a 401(k) with company matching alongside additional retirement contributions, with some sites also featuring pension and profit‑sharing components.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave for all parents, childbirth leave via short‑term disability for birth mothers, adoption benefits, and subsidized backup care signal strong family‑focused support.
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What We Do
Planes. Hospitals. Factories. Data centers. Vehicles. The electrical grid. These are things people depend on every day. And the companies behind them depend on Eaton to solve some of the toughest power management challenges on the planet. Eaton’s mission is to improve the quality of life and the environment through the use of power management technologies and services. We provide sustainable solutions that help our customers effectively manage electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical power – more safely, more efficiently, and more reliably. Eaton’s 2020 revenues were $17.9 billion, and we sell products to customers in more than 175 countries. We have approximately 92,000 employees.
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