NPI Systems Engineer - Solar Center of Excellence

Application close date: Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!

This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin’s mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design.

As part of a hardworking team of specialists, technicians, and engineers, you will own end-to-end integration verification for the New Product Introduction (NPI) lines that bring next-generation spacecraft solar arrays into production at unprecedented rates and reliability. This is an architecture-level opportunity for green-field design and process integration - the equipment is still being specified, the flow has not been locked, and the architecture is still a set of open decisions.

You will work on a team of manufacturing, process, and ground support equipment engineers owning their individual process areas - cell interconnection, lamination and bonding, mechanism assembly, tooling, fixturing, automation. You own the interfaces between them and the overall performance of the manufacturing system as a whole. Your object is the value stream as a system, raw material intake through wing integration, verified end to end as scalable and stable for high volume production. You will use data to make enhancements to the solar array design with design engineers vertically integrated within the organization.

You will not only ensure that each process works, but more importantly you will be responsible for making the integrated system scalable. That is a claim about distributions and resource envelopes: process capability, equipment availability, yield, test throughput, and lot-to-lot variation. You will build the models that determine whether it closes, instrument the line to find out what it actually does, and generate the verification evidence the program's scalability claim rests on. You will partner with Operations to define the architecture the full-rate lines are built to, ensuring the lines inherit proven designs instead of new discovery, enabling a rapid ramp up to rate production.

This is a hands-on building role. You will write the models yourself and be on the floor with the machines and instrumentation. You'll play a front seat role in architecting high volume production lines powering the next generation of space vehicles.

We are primarily seeking a senior-level engineer to help establish and scale this capability, but are open to exceptional candidates at adjacent career levels whose manufacturing, industrialization, NPI, and cross-functional execution experience align with the needs of the role.

Special Mentions

• Relocation provided

• Travel expected up to 25% of the time

• Interviews will include a technical assessment

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Own end-to-end integration verification of the NPI value stream, and the interfaces between process areas - material handoff, fixture and datum compatibility, data continuity, environmental constraints, storage and transport

  • Build and maintain the capacity, availability, and throughput models that determine whether the value stream closes at rate; identify the constraint and the capital decisions rate capability depends on
  • Characterize how the integrated system actually behaves, hands-on with developing and implementing instrumentation, including how variation in one process area propagates to yield and throughput downstream
  • Establish the rate conditions design, processes, and equipment must be verified against - takt, capability and availability targets, test throughput, sampling posture, capacity margin - and the verification methods that close them
  • Author the production architecture requirements that make those targets achievable: how far each process can be modularized, how much capacity margin is needed, and how sameness between parallel modules is specified, verified, and controlled
  • Derive the rate and interface requirements that equipment and tooling specifications must satisfy, and co-author critical capital specifications with the responsible process and GSE engineers

• Build producibility feedback tooling that quantifies the production consequence of a design choice early enough to influence the design

• Carry proven changes from NPI toward production with process capability evidence, and support the technical risk work behind them - PFMEA linkage, escape exposure, detection latency, requalification impact

• Partner with design engineering on producibility trades, Operations on production architecture and module commissioning, and mission assurance on acceptance test strategy at rate

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial, Manufacturing, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering, or equivalent technical discipline

• 8+ years of experience in manufacturing, industrial, process, or production engineering (or 5+ years with an advanced degree)

• Experience industrializing a product from development into higher-rate production, including hands-on work with automated production equipment

• Demonstrated ownership of a multi-stage value stream as a system - flow, takt balance, aggregate capability, and the interfaces between stages - not only individual processes or stations

• Hands-on experience building and defending quantitative models of a production system: capacity, availability, throughput, and process capability

• Technical credibility with specialist process and equipment engineers - the depth to challenge capability claims, automation feasibility, and supplier specifications on their own terms

• Ability to verify and influence work owned by other teams without direct line authority, and to communicate findings that change design and capital decisions

• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Prior aerospace or systems engineering experience is not required. This role needs industrialization depth in a high-rate, high-reliability production environment. Candidates from semiconductor, battery manufacturing, medical device, automotive, or comparable industries are encouraged to apply. If you meet most of the above and the work described sounds like yours, we want to hear from you.

Preferred Qualifications

• Industrializing a product where both high rate and high reliability were binding - semiconductor, battery manufacturing, medical device, automotive safety-critical, aerospace at rate, or comparable

• Working inside a pilot, NPI, or process-development line built with production-specification equipment, and carrying proven changes from it into a qualified production baseline

• Greenfield production or facility planning where little prior definition existed

• Test-capacity-limited production, where acceptance test throughput constrains line architecture - environmental chambers, vibration, EMI/EMC, flash/IV, electroluminescence

• SPC and process capability, measurement system analysis, PFMEA and control plans, and gated qualification models (PPAP/APQP, IQ/OQ/PQ, or equivalent)

• Specifying or developing high-rate production automation, including modularity, reconfigurability, and data architecture requirements

• Spacecraft solar arrays, photovoltaics, deployment mechanisms, precision mechanisms, or comparable high-reliability hardware

• Carrying an industrialization methodology across more than one product or program, rather than solving a single line and stopping

• Developing analytical tools or automated design-for-manufacturing feedback that enable rapid engineering decisions

• Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, APQP, PPAP, or other production quality systems.

• Experience supporting supplier readiness, and supplier development.

Culture Statement

Don’t meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Export Control Regulations

Applicants for employment at Blue Origin must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e. current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Background Check

• Required for all positions: Blue’s Standard Background Check

• Required for Certain Job Profiles: Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) background check if at any time the role requires one to be on a military installation

• Required for Certain Job Profiles: Drivers who operate Commercial Motor Vehicles with a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW), Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) or combination of power unit and trailer that meets or exceeds 10,001 lbs. and/or transports placardable amounts of hazardous materials by ground in any vehicle on a public road while in commerce, may be subject to additional Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations including: Driver Qualification Files, Medical Certification (obtained before onboarding), Road Test, Hours of Service, Drug and Alcohol Testing, vehicle inspection requirements, CDL requirements (if applicable) and hazardous materials transportation/shipping training.

• Required for certain Job Profiles: Ability to obtain and maintain Merchant Mariner Credential, which includes pre-employment and random drug testing as well as DOT physical

Benefits

• Benefits include: Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.

• Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)

• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

• Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Blue Origin is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and is committed to attracting, retaining, and developing a highly qualified and dedicated work force. Blue Origin hires and promotes people on the basis of their qualifications, performance, and abilities. We support the establishment and maintenance of a workplace that fosters trust, equality, and teamwork. We provide all qualified applicants for employment and employees with equal opportunities for hire, promotion, and other terms and conditions of employment, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin/ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, and/or local law. Blue Origin will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable federal, state, and local laws, including the Washington Fair Chance Act, the California Fair Chance Act, the Los Angeles Fair Chance in Hiring Ordinance, and other applicable laws. For more information on “Know Your Rights,” please see here.

Affirmative Action and Disability Accommodation

Applicants wishing to receive information on Blue Origin’s Affirmative Action Plans, or applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in the application and/or interview process, please contact us at EEOCompliance@blueorigin.com. Please note this is a publicly managed inbox. Please do not include any personal medical information in your request.