Directed Energy Sr. Manufacturing Systems Business Analyst

Worker Type

Regular

Job Description

Summary

The Directed Energy Sr Manufacturing Systems Business Analyst serves as the bridge between manufacturing operations, engineering, supply chain, quality, finance, and information technology. This role gathers, analyzes, documents, and prioritizes business and technical requirements for manufacturing systems, including Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Material Requirements Planning (MRP), and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).

The analyst supports system implementations, process improvements, integrations, data governance, testing, training, and ongoing operational support. The position ensures that manufacturing applications effectively support product development, production planning, material control, shop-floor execution, quality processes, traceability, and business reporting.

Position Responsibilities

Requirements and Process Analysis

• Partner with business stakeholders to understand current and future-state manufacturing processes.
• Elicit, document, validate, and prioritize functional and non-functional requirements.
• Translate business needs into clear user stories, use cases, process flows, specifications, and acceptance criteria.
• Identify process gaps, inefficiencies, risks, and opportunities for automation.
• Facilitate workshops with engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, finance, and IT teams.
• Ensure requirements are aligned across PLM, ERP, MRP, MES, and related systems.

Manufacturing Systems Support

• Analyze and support business processes involving:

o Product data and bills of material

o Engineering change management

o Production planning and scheduling

o Material requirements planning

o Work orders and routings

o Inventory and warehouse transactions

o Shop-floor execution

o Quality inspections and nonconformance management

o Serial number and lot traceability

o Labor reporting and production performance

• Support system configuration decisions and ensure solutions meet operational requirements.
• Coordinate with system administrators, developers, vendors, and implementation partners.
• Assist with troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, issue resolution, and production support.

Implementations and Integrations

• Participate in system upgrades, implementations, migrations, and continuous-improvement initiatives.

• Define data, workflow, reporting, and integration requirements.

• Support integration analysis between PLM, ERP, MRP, MES, and other enterprise applications.

• Review proposed solutions for process alignment, usability, scalability, security, and data integrity.

• Maintain requirements traceability from business need through design, testing, and deployment.

• Testing and Deployment

• Develop test scenarios, test scripts, and acceptance criteria.

• Coordinate system, integration, regression, and user acceptance testing.

• Document defects and work with technical teams to verify corrective actions.

• Support cutover planning, deployment, release management, and post-launch stabilization.

• Develop user procedures, job aids, training materials, and release communications.

Governance and Continuous Improvement

• Maintain process documentation, requirements repositories, data definitions, and system documentation.
• Support master-data governance and data-quality initiatives.
• Monitor system performance and user adoption.
• Identify opportunities to improve standardization, automation, reporting, and operational efficiency.
• Ensure changes comply with applicable company policies, quality requirements, security standards, and regulatory obligations.

Basic Qualifications (Required Skills & Competencies)

• Bachelor's degree in business, information systems, engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
• 3-7 years of experience in business analysis, manufacturing systems, ERP, MES, PLM, MRP, or related manufacturing technology.
• Experience gathering and documenting requirements for complex business processes.
• Understanding of manufacturing, production planning, supply chain, engineering, or quality processes.
• Experience supporting system implementations, enhancements, integrations, or upgrades.
• Strong analytical, communication, facilitation, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with process-mapping and requirements tools.
• Ability to work effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Other Qualifications & Desired Competencies

• Experience with one or more enterprise systems such as:

o Oracle Fusion

o ERP

o Arena

o Unanet

• Experience in aerospace, defense, automotive, electronics, or other regulated manufacturing environments.
• Familiarity with bills of material, routings, work instructions, configuration management, and engineering change processes.
• Knowledge of SQL, data analysis, reporting tools, APIs, or system-integration concepts.
• Experience with Agile, Scrum, Waterfall, or hybrid project methodologies.
• Familiarity with Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, or continuous-improvement practices.
• Experience with product traceability, auditability, export controls, or quality-management systems.

Core Competencies

• Business and systems analysis
• Manufacturing process knowledge
• Requirements elicitation and documentation
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Process mapping and optimization
• Data and integration analysis
• Testing and quality assurance
• Change management
• Stakeholder communication
• Structured problem-solving
• Prioritization and decision-making
• Technical writing and documentation

Success Measures

• Requirements are complete, accurate, prioritized, and traceable.
• Manufacturing-system changes are delivered on schedule and meet user needs.
• PLM, ERP, MRP, and MES processes are aligned and integrated.
• System defects, manual workarounds, and process disruptions are reduced.
• Data quality, traceability, and reporting accuracy improve.
• User adoption and satisfaction increase.
• Manufacturing efficiency, planning accuracy, and operational visibility improve.

Physical Demands & Work Environment

• This role typically operates in a cross-functional environment and may require regular interaction with engineering offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouse operations, quality organizations, IT teams, and external system vendors.
• Periodic travel or on-site support may be required during implementations, testing, training, and production deployments.
• Required to sit and stand for long periods; talk, hear, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer and telephone keyboard.

Clearance Level

No Clearance

The salary range for this role is:

$91,000 - $138,750

AeroVironment considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the location, the role and associated responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, education/training, and key skills.

ITAR Requirement:

This position requires access to information that is subject to compliance with the International Traffic Arms Regulations ("ITAR") and/or the Export Administration Regulations ("EAR"). In order to comply with the requirements of the ITAR and/or the EAR, applicants must qualify as a U.S. person under the ITAR and the EAR, or a person to be approved for an export license by the governing agency whose technology comes under its jurisdiction. Please understand that any job offer that requires approval of an export license will be conditional on AeroVironment's determination that it will be able to obtain an export license in a time frame consistent with AeroVironment's business requirements. A "U.S. person" according to the ITAR definition is a U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or protected individual such as a refugee or asylee. See 22 CFR § 120.15. Some positions will require current U.S. Citizenship due to contract requirements.

Benefits: AV offers an excellent benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401K with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule and a paid holiday shutdown. For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit: http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits.

We also encourage you to review our company website at http://www.avinc.com to learn more about us.

Principals only need apply. NO agencies please.

About AV:

AV isn't for everyone. We hire the curious, the relentless, the mission-obsessed. The best of the best.

We don't just build defense technology-we redefine what's possible. As the premier autonomous systems company in the U.S., AV delivers breakthrough capabilities across air, land, sea, space, and cyber. From AI-powered drones and loitering munitions to integrated autonomy and space resilience, our technologies shape the future of warfare and protect those who serve.

Founded by legendary innovator Dr. Paul MacCready, AV has spent over 50 years pushing the boundaries of what unmanned systems can do. Our heritage includes seven platforms in the Smithsonian-but we're not building history, we're building what's next.

If you're ready to build technology that matters-with speed, scale, and purpose-there's no better place to do it than AV.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans. AeroVironment, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Qualified applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic data, sexual orientation, gender identity or other legally protected status.

ITAR

U.S. Citizenship required. Must be willing to work on government contracts and have the ability to obtain a security clearance.