Supplier Mfg Engineer, Kuiper Supply Chain and Procurement

The Kuiper Hardware Supply Chain team is looking for a Supplier Manufacturing Engineer to serve as the technical bridge between design engineering, the global supplier base, and internal production operations. This role owns manufacturing process expertise across assigned hardware commodities, working hands-on with suppliers and cross-functional teams to resolve technical issues, improve producibility, and ensure the supply base can deliver conforming hardware at rate. The ideal candidate brings a combination of manufacturing process knowledge, structured problem-solving discipline, and the ability to work across organizational boundaries in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift and ambiguity is the norm.

Key job responsibilities

• Investigate and resolve manufacturing and quality issues at suppliers by analyzing defect data, observing processes firsthand, and applying structured problem-solving (DMAIC, 8D, fault tree) to drive corrective actions to verified closure
• Provide DFM/DFA feedback to design engineers during NPI and production, identifying tolerances, features, or material selections that create manufacturing risk and recommending producibility improvements
• Conduct first article inspections, process validations, supplier capability assessments, and site visits to confirm suppliers can produce conforming parts at rate and to develop their manufacturing capabilities over time
• Collaborate with suppliers to industrialize new materials and processes, supporting tooling, capital improvements, and part qualification (PPAP) while acting as the technical point of contact for manufacturing readiness through launch milestones
• Coordinate with supplier quality engineering to disposition nonconformances, validate corrective actions, and lead containment activities across the supply base
• Serve as the technical bridge between design engineering and supply chain, translating supplier process data and floor observations into actionable feedback and using production data systems (MES, ERP, quality databases) to frame issues in terms of cost, throughput, and delivery impact

A day in the life

A typical day balances supplier engagement with analytical depth. Morning starts reviewing incoming quality data and identifying a yield trend at a supplier that needs investigation. Mid-morning brings a design review where you flag a tolerance that will create manufacturability issues at rate. After lunch, you"re on a call with a supplier"s engineering team working through a corrective action on a nonconforming lot. Late afternoon means writing up findings, updating the data package, and aligning with stakeholders on next steps. The pace is fast, the problems are real, and the work directly impacts whether satellites get built on time.

About the team

The Supplier Manufacturing Engineering team sits within Hardware Supply Chain and serves as the technical bridge between design engineering, the global supplier base, and internal production operations. The team owns manufacturing process expertise across non-electronics hardware commodities, holding design authority to drive drawing revisions, resolve specification conflicts, and qualify suppliers for critical components. Engineers operate with high independence, applying structured problem-solving to improve cost, quality, delivery, and producibility across both external suppliers and internal factory environments.