Tooling Design Engineer
Location: Frisco, TX
Salary: $120,000 – $190,000 per year
Build the Tooling Behind the Next Generation of Aerospace Manufacturing
We are looking for a Tooling Design Engineer to design, develop, and deploy the tooling that turns advanced aerospace designs into repeatable, scalable production.
This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who understands that great tooling is more than a CAD model—it is the foundation for safe, precise, efficient, first-time-right manufacturing. You will own tooling from initial concept through detailed design, analysis, fabrication, installation, prove-out, and production release.
You will work closely with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Production, Safety, Supply Chain, and Design Engineering to develop tooling that enables prototype and pilot builds while creating a path toward rate production.
The ideal candidate is comfortable working in a fast-moving environment where requirements evolve, problems need to be solved quickly, and engineers are expected to spend time both at their desks and on the manufacturing floor.
What You'll Do
Tooling Design & Development
- Own the complete tooling lifecycle from concept and requirements definition through design, fabrication, installation, validation, and production release.
- Translate engineering drawings, GD&T, key characteristics, critical-to-quality requirements, and assembly requirements into robust tooling concepts.
- Design and develop production tooling including:
- Assembly jigs and fixtures
- Drill and bond fixtures
- Composite molds and trim fixtures
- Inspection and go/no-go gauges
- Lifting and handling fixtures/carts
- Protective and transportation tooling
- Ergonomic workholding solutions
- Develop tooling that provides accurate datums, repeatable locating, appropriate clamping, controlled tolerances, and safe operator interaction.
- Design for manufacturability, maintainability, ergonomics, FOD prevention, ESD controls, and long-term production use.
Engineering Analysis
- Perform engineering calculations and FEA to validate tooling stiffness, deflection, clamp loads, stresses, safety factors, and overall structural integrity.
- Evaluate tooling concepts against manufacturing requirements and identify potential failure modes before fabrication.
- Apply GD&T and tolerance stack-up principles to ensure tooling supports required part and assembly tolerances.
- Incorporate human-factors and ergonomic considerations into tooling designs to improve safety, quality, and operator efficiency.
Tool Design Packages
- Create complete tooling design packages including:
- 3D CAD models
- 2D manufacturing drawings
- GD&T
- Bills of material
- Material and finish specifications
- Fastener and torque requirements
- Lifting points and load ratings
- Safety/FOD/ESD requirements
- Inspection and acceptance criteria
- Maintain accurate engineering documentation within PLM/PDM systems.
- Lead technical and design reviews with Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Safety, Production, and Launch teams.
Fabrication & Production Support
- Work directly with internal and external fabrication teams to bring tooling from design to reality.
- Review fabricated tooling, resolve design/manufacturing issues, and drive NCR/ECR resolution.
- Lead tooling installation, fit checks, and shop-floor prove-out.
- Troubleshoot tooling issues directly on the production floor and rapidly implement corrective actions.
- Partner with production teams to refine tooling based on operator feedback, assembly performance, and manufacturing data.
- Support the transition of prototype tooling into robust production-ready solutions.
Validation & Continuous Improvement
- Develop Tool Setup and Care Instructions, preventive maintenance plans, inspection requirements, and tooling checklists.
- Support First Article and production validation activities.
- Partner with metrology teams on CMM, laser tracker, and other dimensional inspection activities.
- Develop gage and inspection strategies to validate tooling accuracy and repeatability.
- Analyze tooling performance and drive improvements in cycle time, quality, ergonomics, and repeatability.
- Establish tooling standards and best practices that can scale across future production programs.
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in tooling design, mechanical design, manufacturing engineering, or a closely related discipline.
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related technical field.
- Demonstrated experience designing and deploying tooling for complex aerospace, automotive, or other highly engineered products.
- Strong proficiency with CATIA, Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or comparable 3D CAD platforms.
- Strong understanding of GD&T, tolerance analysis, datum schemes, and mechanical design fundamentals.
- Experience designing tooling for machining, assembly, composites, bonding, drilling, inspection, or other aerospace manufacturing processes.
- Experience taking tooling from concept design fabrication prove-out production.
- Ability to read and interpret engineering drawings, specifications, and manufacturing requirements.
- Experience with FEA, engineering calculations, or other methods for validating tooling designs.
- Working knowledge of manufacturing processes and supplier fabrication capabilities.
- Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to make sound engineering decisions in a fast-paced environment.
- Comfortable working directly with technicians, machinists, fabricators, and production personnel.
- Ability to manage multiple tooling projects and changing priorities while maintaining schedule and quality.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in aerospace, aircraft, UAV, defense, or advanced manufacturing environments.
- Experience supporting prototype, pilot, and/or low-rate initial production builds.
- Experience working in a startup or rapidly scaling manufacturing organization.
- Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, or similar quality systems.
- Experience with 3DEXPERIENCE, Teamcenter, or other PLM/PDM systems.
- Experience with additive manufacturing and designing tooling for 3D-printed components.
- Experience integrating automation, robotics, sensors, or other advanced manufacturing technologies into tooling.
- Familiarity with CMM, laser tracker, photogrammetry, or other dimensional metrology systems.
- Experience with composites manufacturing and composite tooling.
- Experience developing tooling standards, libraries, or reusable design architectures.
- Strong project management skills with the ability to independently drive multiple programs from concept through production.
What Success Looks Like
In this role, success means building tooling that works the first time, holds the required tolerances, keeps operators safe, and makes production faster and more repeatable.
You will be successful if you can take an ambiguous manufacturing problem, turn it into a practical tooling concept, engineer and release the design, work with the team to fabricate it, and then stand on the production floor to prove that it actually works.
This is an opportunity to have a direct impact on how next-generation aircraft are built—and to help establish the tooling systems and manufacturing foundation that will enable production at scale.