Principal / SR. Principal Manufacturing Process Engineer

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: No

CLEARANCE TYPE: Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

Join Northrop Grumman on our continued mission to push the boundaries of possible across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Enjoy a culture where your voice is valued and start contributing to our team of passionate professionals providing real-life solutions to our world’s biggest challenges. We take pride in creating purposeful work and allowing our employees to grow and achieve their goals every day by Defining Possible. With our competitive pay and comprehensive benefits, we have the right opportunities to fit your life and launch your career today.

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

Primary Level Salary Range: $98,900.00 - $148,300.00

Secondary Level Salary Range: $123,400.00 - $185,000.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.