Manufacturing Engineer Manager

Company Overview: ARA is a leading C5ISR company that designs, manufactures, tests and installs innovative technologies that provide the national security community with unparalleled situational awareness, threat detection, and communications capabilities. Our disruptive, integrated solutions, assemblies and subsystems rise to the challenging demands of discerning, mission-critical customers. We leverage our capabilities to meet and exceed the requirements of our customers and empower them to remain ahead of evolving threats and complexities in a dynamic security landscape.

Job Summary: The Manufacturing Engineer Manager is a leadership role responsible for overseeing the manufacturing engineering function across multiple programs and production areas. This position provides both strategic direction and deep, hands-on technical leadership to ensure the successful development, implementation, and optimization of manufacturing processes. The manager will guide a team of engineers and technicians while maintaining a high technical standard, fostering innovation, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. The ideal candidate brings strong technical depth in manufacturing engineering and can connect engineering decision and process improvements to measurable business outcomes, including yield, throughput, cycle time, scrap/rework, on-time delivery (OTD), labor efficiency, capacity and cost reduction. This role collaborates closely with cross-functional partners in Design Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations to align manufacturing capabilities with business goals. U.S. Citizenship is required, as only U.S. Citizens are authorized to access information under this program/ contract.

Essential Functions: Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of manufacturing engineers and support staff while maintaining a high technical bar and culture of engineering rigor. Provide strategic direction and hands-on technical leadership for manufacturing process development, automation, and factory improvements. Drive execution of New Product Introductions (NPI), Design for Manufacturability (DFM), and production readiness initiatives, ensuring manufacturing processes are capable, scalable, and cost-effective. Oversee the development, validation, and continuous improvement of manufacturing processes, equipment, tooling, and documentation. Drive measurable improvements in yield, throughput, cycle time, scrap/rework, on-time delivery (OTD), labor efficiency, capacity utilization, and cost through data-driven engineering and continuous improvement. Champion Lean, Six Sigma, and Kaizen principles to improve throughput, reduce waste, and enhance product quality and eliminate sources of process variation and manufacturing constraints. Collaborate cross-functionally to resolve complex production challenges, establish root cause, and implement robust corrective and preventive actions. Lead efforts to identify and eliminate manufacturing bottlenecks, improve line balance and capacity, optimize labor content, and increase overall equipment and process effectiveness. Manage capital equipment justifications and acquisition strategies based on ROI, capacity requirements, technical performance, and business impact. Support audits, compliance activities, and process standardization aligned with ISO and industry standards. Ensure engineering deliverables are completed on time, within scope, and meet technical requirements and production objectives. Establish and monitor meaningful manufacturing metrics and use performance data to prioritize engineering activities and demonstrate the impact of improvements. Serve as an escalation point for high-impact technical or operational issues and represent the manufacturing engineering team in leadership forums.