Manufacturing Engineer

Manufacturing Engineer

Location South Los Angeles or Orange County, California; facility to be finalized

Work Arrangement On-site, full-time

Hiring Priority Second priority hire following the initial technician team

Target Base Pay $130,000 to $160,000 subject to final level and approval

Role Summary

Kela is hiring a Manufacturing Engineer to convert product designs and early build knowledge into controlled, repeatable manufacturing processes. The immediate focus is creating work instructions and validating tooling and test equipment for United States production. This engineer will work across design engineering, quality, supply chain, contract manufacturers, and production to move hardware from prototype execution into scalable low-rate and full-rate production.

Job Duties

Create and rimplement clear manufacturing work instructions, routings, process specifications, and visual build aids.

Define, develop, and validate production tooling, fixtures, gauges, and test equipment before operational use.

Plan manufacturing sequences, labor content, workstation needs, material presentation, and production floor layout.

Lead production readiness for new products and engineering changes, including build planning, issue capture, and closure.

Resolve manufacturing constraints and recurring defects through structured root cause analysis and practical process changes.

Partner with design engineering on manufacturability, tolerance, material, and testability improvements.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in manufacturing, mechanical, aerospace, electrical, industrial engineering, or equivalent relevant experience.

Five or more years of manufacturing engineering experience with complex electromechanical or precision hardware.

Demonstrated experience authoring production work instructions and developing or validating tooling and test equipment.

Experience taking hardware from prototype or new product introduction into controlled low-rate production.

Ability to interpret drawings, bills of material, configuration data, tolerances, and test requirements.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in aerospace, defense, unmanned systems, robotics, or another regulated advanced manufacturing sector.

Working knowledge of AS9100, first article inspection, PFMEA, control plans, process capability, and configuration control.

Experience with CAD, PLM, ERP, or MES systems and change control in a production environment.