Principal Manufacturing Engineer at Castelion

About Castelion

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production at scale. We design, build, and test next generation weapon systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge in defense capabilities.

Principal Manufacturing Engineer

Castelion is seeking a principal manufacturing engineer to join our Radar development team. In this role, you will own the end-to-end transition from prototype to full-scale production. You will architect and implement manufacturing processes to achieve aggressive production cost, quality, and delivery targets.

Core Responsibilities:

Define & Scale Manufacturing Processes

Lead R&D-to-production transition by capturing existing (yet informal) production flows, formalizing them, and architecting scalable, high-throughput processes (e.g., tooling, layout, SOPs, PFMEA). Design a greenfield production site from scratch to produce radars at scale.

Production Test Equipment Selection and Implementation

Specify stations and necessary equipment for each production step-defining functional requirements, safety interlocks, interfaces, and use cases. Manage procurement and coordinate with hardware and software teams to ensure integration and deployment

Data Capture & Quality Control

Collaborate with design engineers and software teams to define what data to collect, set process control limits, and enable data capture, validation, storage, and visualization (e.g., dashboards, SPC tools)

Troubleshooting & Continuous Improvement

Provide technical support to resolve production issues, lead root-cause analysis, and drive continuous improvements in quality, cost, and throughput

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Documentation

Engage with R&D, design, test, operations, and suppliers to align manufacturing needs with design intent. Maintain up-to-date, accurate documentation for flow processes, test systems, and manufacturing specs

Mentorship & Influence

Act as the go-to expert for electronics production and test. Provide guidance to less experienced engineers and influence the company's overall approach to electronics production.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, Systems, or Manufacturing Engineering (or related field)
• 10+ years in manufacturing engineering and/or production, with significant experience in avionics, high-reliability electronics, or aerospace hardware development

Preferred Experience:

• Proven record in supporting NPI, pilot runs, and transition to production-delivering robust and scalable manufacturing systems.
• Demonstrated success in troubleshooting complex build issues and driving corrective actions.
• Skilled at interfacing with design, systems, test, and supplier teams to close the loop on manufacturability and production readiness.
• Experience in regulated or defense environments
• Aptitude for mentoring and influencing cross-functional teams-without direct reporting relationships.

Leadership Qualities:

• Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to break through ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. Ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.
• High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion's mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company's technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.
• Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company-desired outcomes without compromising relationships. Emails, IMs and verbal interactions are logical, drive clarity, and detailed enough to eliminate ambiguity.

ITAR Requirements:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment at Castelion. All employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers four weeks of paid time off per year.