Senior Manufacturing Design Engineer

About the Role

The Senior Manufacturing Design Engineer is responsible for developing, validating, and scaling the manufacturing processes used to build advanced unmanned aircraft systems. This role bridges product development and production, ensuring new drone designs can be manufactured safely, reliably, and at the required cost, quality, and production rate.

The engineer will work cross-functionally with Design Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, Test Engineering, and Production to transition products from prototype builds through production launch and sustained high-volume manufacturing.

How You’ll Make an Impact: NEW PRODUCT INTRODUCTION

• Lead manufacturing activities for new drone products and major design changes from prototype through production launch.
• Develop manufacturing plans, process flows, workstation layouts, tooling strategies, and production-readiness requirements.
• Participate in design reviews and provide actionable design-for-manufacturing, assembly, test, automation, and serviceability feedback.
• Coordinate prototype, engineering-validation, design-validation, and production-validation builds.
• Identify manufacturing risks early and drive mitigation plans to closure.
• Establish production-readiness criteria and support formal manufacturing readiness reviews.

Manufacturing Process Development

• Develop and validate manufacturing processes for mechanical assembly, electronics integration, adhesive bonding, fastening, soldering, calibration, software loading, functional testing, and final product acceptance.
• Define critical process parameters and product characteristics that affect safety, performance, reliability, and regulatory compliance.
• Create process specifications, work instructions, standard work, control plans, inspection requirements, and manufacturing bills of material.
• Design or specify production tooling, fixtures, error-proofing devices, and semi-automated equipment.
• Conduct process capability studies, gauge repeatability and reproducibility studies, and equipment qualification.
• Use statistical methods and structured experimentation to establish robust operating windows.

Production Scaling and Optimization

• Translate production forecasts into labor, equipment, tooling, floor-space, and capacity requirements.
• Perform time studies, line balancing, capacity modeling, and bottleneck analysis.
• Improve production flow, ergonomics, material presentation, and operator utilization.
• Develop scalable processes that support increasing production volumes without compromising quality or safety.
• Identify and implement opportunities for automation based on safety, quality, capacity, technical feasibility, and return on investment.
• Support factory layout development and production-line commissioning.

Quality and Continuous Improvement

• Lead root-cause investigations for manufacturing defects, test failures, yield losses, and reliability issues.
• Implement corrective and preventive actions using tools such as 5 Whys, fishbone analysis, fault-tree analysis, and 8D.
• Develop and improve manufacturing metrics, including first-pass yield, cycle time, throughput, scrap, rework, downtime, and overall equipment effectiveness.
• Partner with Quality Engineering to develop process failure mode and effects analyses, control plans, inspection methods, and acceptance criteria.
• Reduce process variation and improve capability using Lean and Six Sigma methods.
• Support configuration control, nonconformance disposition, and engineering change implementation.

Cross-functional and Supplier Support

• Partner with design teams on airframes, propulsion systems, avionics, cameras, sensors, batteries, gimbals, payloads, and communications hardware.
• Collaborate with Test Engineering to develop efficient functional, calibration, and end-of-line testing strategies.
• Work with Supply Chain and suppliers to improve component manufacturability, quality, capacity, and production readiness.
• Support make-versus-buy evaluations and equipment or capital-expenditure business cases.
• Train technicians, production leads, and operators on new processes, equipment, and work instructions.
• Provide hands-on support during pilot builds, production ramps, and critical manufacturing issues.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related technical field.
• Three or more years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process development, new product introduction, or production engineering.
• Experience transitioning complex electromechanical products from development into production.
• Working knowledge of design for manufacturing and assembly, process validation, production tooling, and manufacturing documentation.
• Experience with structured problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action methods.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, bills of material, and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.
• Experience analyzing manufacturing data and using it to improve yield, cycle time, cost, or process capability.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment with evolving products and production requirements.
• Willingness to work directly on the manufacturing floor and support time-sensitive production builds.
• Obtaining FAA Part 107 certification within the first 60 days of employment is strongly encouraged for all Skydio employees and required for certain positions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience manufacturing drones, aerospace products, robotics, autonomous systems, consumer electronics, or other complex electromechanical assemblies.
• Knowledge of aerospace quality systems, including AS9100, first-article inspection, configuration management, and production traceability.
• Experience with printed circuit board assemblies, cameras, optical systems, gimbals, inertial sensors, electric motors, batteries, composite structures, or precision mechanical assemblies.
• Experience developing adhesive-bonding, torque-controlled fastening, soldering, calibration, or environmentally controlled processes.
• Familiarity with production databases, manufacturing execution systems, enterprise resource planning systems, and product lifecycle management tools.
• Experience with CAD, tolerance analysis, statistical analysis, and manufacturing simulation tools.
• Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or Design for Six Sigma training.
• Experience specifying, purchasing, commissioning, or validating automated manufacturing equipment.
• Familiarity with regulated defense or export-controlled manufacturing environments.

Compensation

At Skydio, our compensation packages for regular, full-time employees include competitive base salaries, equity in the form of stock options, and comprehensive benefits packages. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. Relocation assistance may also be provided for eligible roles. The annual base salary range for this position is $145,000 - $219,000*.

Fundamentally, we believe that equity is the key to long-term financial growth, and we ensure all regular, full-time employees have the opportunity to significantly benefit from the company's success. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to enroll in the Company’s group health insurance plans.

Regular, full-time employees are eligible to receive the following benefits: Paid vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay and 401K savings plan. This position and all associated benefits are subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as the Company’s policies and eligibility criteria.

*Compensation for certain positions may vary based on the position’s location.

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At Skydio we believe that diversity drives innovation. We have created a multidisciplinary environment that embraces the power of diverse perspectives to create elegant solutions for complex problems. We are committed to growing our network of people, programs, and resources to nurture an inclusive culture.