Project Engineer - Mechanical Products - 1040

We are seeking a Project Engineer - Mechanical Products in our Broomfield, CO, location. This role will lead project execution for manufacturing and product industrialization initiatives supporting complex Physics Package and magneto-optical trap (MOT) subsystems. Working across engineering, production, quality, supply chain, and program management, this individual will establish execution plans, coordinate accountable owners, manage risks and dependencies, and drive hardware from development toward repeatable, scalable production.

All applicants for placement in safety-sensitive positions will be required to submit to a pre-employment drug test.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead cross-functional manufacturing execution for Physics Package and MOT builds by translating program milestones into integrated schedules, material and resource plans, build priorities, and daily workflows.
• Drive build-readiness reviews, manage technical, material, capacity, quality, and schedule risks, and remove roadblocks to delivery.
• Establish clear project scope, deliverables, ownership, dependencies, decision paths, and status reporting for industrialization initiatives.
• Facilitate disciplined planning cadences, including backlog management, sprint planning, daily execution coordination, and retrospective-driven continuous improvement.
• Coordinate product transitions through development and manufacturing readiness gates, ensuring required plans, reviews, documentation, and acceptance criteria are completed before release to the next phase.
• Oversee cross-functional initiatives to develop and improve production systems-including process flows, work instructions, build travelers, manufacturing execution workflows, configuration controls, training plans, and readiness checklists-by defining project scope, coordinating technical owners, managing dependencies, tracking deliverables, and escalating gaps.
• Coordinate procurement and material readiness activities, including long-lead tracking, inventory availability, supplier commitments, delivery schedules, and escalation of quality or supply risks.
• Oversee implementation of approved product and process changes by coordinating the responsible engineering owners and aligning documentation, material disposition, build timing, validation activities, dependencies, and release readiness.
• Develop project charters to improve cost, schedule, process, or quality and manage projects to timely completion.
• Oversee manufacturing infrastructure projects-including laboratory and production-space expansion, work cells, tooling, equipment installation, utilities, safety requirements, and capacity improvements-by coordinating technical and functional owners, schedules, dependencies, approvals, risks, and readiness for use.
• Coordinate forward-looking demand, staffing, equipment, and capacity planning with functional leaders; consolidate inputs, identify constraints and dependencies, and recommend priorities or recovery actions needed to meet program commitments.
• Define and maintain manufacturing and quality metrics such as schedule attainment, cycle time, yield, rework, throughput, work-in-process, defect trends, and readiness risks; use the data to prioritize improvements and communicate performance.

YOU MUST HAVE:

• Bachelor’s degree minimum
• Minimum 4 years of experience in a hardware R&D, manufacturing, or low-volume, high-complexity manufacturing environment.
• Minimum 2 years of experience leading technical projects, manufacturing execution, or product industrialization activities
• Due to Contractual requirements, must be a U.S. Person defined as, U.S. citizen permanent resident or green card holder, workers granted asylum or refugee status
• Due to national security requirements imposed by the U.S. Government, candidates for this position must not be a People's Republic of China national or Russian national unless the candidate is also a U.S. citizen.

WE VALUE:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant engineering or STEM discipline.
• 5+ years of experience managing technical projects or manufacturing workstreams from planning through execution.
• Experience executing manufacturing and industrializing complex electromechanical hardware in a low-volume, high-mix manufacturing environment.
• Experience using structured planning and execution methods such as Scrum, Kanban, integrated schedules, production control boards, or daily tiered management.
• Experience with vacuum systems, precision mechanical assemblies or similarly complex scientific hardware systems.
• Working knowledge of manufacturing operations, material planning, configuration management, quality systems, and manufacturing execution systems.
• Experience applying manufacturing readiness assessments, phase-gate processes, DFM/DFA, process flow mapping, work instruction development, and production readiness reviews.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and communication skills, with the ability to establish accountability, escalate issues constructively, and align teams without direct authority.
• Ability to engage deeply with engineering and production teams to understand technical constraints, drive risk-based decisions, and resolve manufacturing and quality challenges.
• Experience with project scheduling, risk registers, requirements and configuration management, PLM/PDM, ERP/MRP, MES, or data visualization tools; PMP, CAPM, Lean, Six Sigma, or Scrum certification is a plus.
• Strong bias for action, attention to detail, comfort working hands-on near the production floor, and a continuous-improvement mindset.