Assembly Design Manager

Manager, Assembly Design Engineering

Job Title: Manager, Assembly Design Engineering

Location: Mesa, AZ

Reports To: Director of Engineering

FLSA: Exempt

Summary

The Manager, Assembly Design Engineering leads a team of Assembly Design Engineers responsible for creating, standardizing, and improving high-performance RF hardware kits and coaxial cable assembly designs. This individual serves as a technical leader and people manager, ensuring the team develops robust, manufacturable, and compliant designs that meet customer, internal, and industry requirements.

This role is also responsible for driving new engineering policies, procedures, and design controls to support more advanced BOM structures, including line replaceable units (LRUs) and group-A and group-B kits. The manager must be adaptable, process-oriented, and capable of leading cross-functional change to improve design consistency, configuration control, and release readiness.

Exposure to Aerospace and Defense programs, standards, and customer expectations is a plus.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Cable Assembly Design Engineers.
• Set priorities, tack team KPI's, drive process improvement, assign work, and ensure engineering resources are aligned to business needs.
• Provide performance feedback, support employee development, and encourage technical growth.
• Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, ownership, and continuous improvement.

Engineering Leadership

• Oversee the design, documentation, and release of cable assemblies, harnesses, and related interconnect products.
• Ensure design work balances form, fit, function, manufacturability, performance, and cost.
• Support the team in evaluating materials, components, and design approaches for demanding mechanical and electrical requirements.
• Review and guide design calculations, simulations, prototype development, and validation activities as needed.
• Support troubleshooting of design, documentation, and production-related issues.

Policy and Procedure Development

• Develop and implement engineering policies, procedures, and standards to support advanced BOM structures and controlled design practices.
• Establish or improve processes for LRUs, group-A kits, group-B kits, and other complex product structures.
• Drive standardization in design elements, documentation, and product configuration management.
• Ensure the engineering organization has the tools, methods, and controls needed to support repeatable and scalable design release processes.
• Identify gaps in current practices and lead changes that improve quality, consistency, and efficiency.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Sales, Applications Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations.
• Support new product development by converting customer and market requirements into manufacturable design solutions.
• Work with internal and external suppliers to improve manufacturability, availability, and cost effectiveness of designs.
• Support resolution of production floor issues, non-conformances, and design-related failures.
• Coordinate with program teams to ensure design deliverables align with schedule and customer expectations.

Technical Oversight

• Guide the team in applying engineering principles to evaluate tensile, torque, crush, sealing, loss, phase, VSWR, and other critical design characteristics.
• Ensure compliance with applicable customer, industry, and military standards.
• Encourage use of formal problem-solving methods to identify root cause and implement corrective actions.
• Maintain awareness of emerging materials, methods, and technologies relevant to high-performance cable assemblies.

Aerospace and Defense Support

• Support aerospace and defense programs requiring disciplined configuration control, traceability, and compliance with military or customer standards.
• Help ensure the team can support more complex product architectures and qualification requirements.
• Promote strong documentation practices and workmanship standards appropriate for regulated or high-reliability applications.

Qualifications / Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field.
• 4+ years of experience in cable assembly design, interconnect engineering, manufacturing engineering, or related technical discipline.
• Prior people leadership or engineering management experience preferred.
• Strong knowledge of coaxial cable assembly design principles, materials, and manufacturing methods.
• Experience with RF and microwave test equipment and design validation.
• Experience with MIL-STD-348, IEEE 287 interfaces, MIL-DTL-38999 interconnect systems, and IPC/WHMA-A-620 workmanship standards preferred.
• Familiarity with advanced BOM structures, configuration-controlled products, or kit-based assemblies preferred.
• Experience with LRUs and group-A / group-B kit structures highly desirable.
• Strong understanding of design for manufacturability, standardization, and documentation control.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, AutoCAD, DraftSight, SolidWorks, or similar tools.
• Experience with mechanical component design.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, lead change, and communicate effectively across functions.
• Strong judgment, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aerospace and Defense industry experience.
• Familiarity with military standards, test requirements, and high-reliability design practices.
• Experience leading process improvement or engineering standardization initiatives.
• Experience with CST or similar RF simulation software.
• Proven ability to build and implement engineering procedures in a growing or evolving organization.