Senior DFX Engineer

Worker Type

Job Description

 

Summary
AV builds proven systems and the future of defense for the warfighter. The Senior DFX Engineer is the enterprise steward of lifecycle-driven design quality, ensuring AV products are buildable, testable, observable, reliable, affordable, and sustainable across their full operational life.

Rather than owning individual programs, this role defines and governs how AV designs for reality across manufacturing, test, supply chain, cost, and obsolescence --so downstream crises are prevented, not fought.

Primary Responsibilities

The Senior DFX Engineer will:

• Define and maintain the enterprise Design-for-X (DFX) framework governing manufacturability, testability & observability, reliability, supply-chain resilience, cost, and sustainment.
• Establish DFX standards, criteria, and maturity gates embedded into early architecture, SRR/PDR/CDR, configuration & release, and platform definition.
• Advise engineering and program leadership by participating in key design and architecture reviews, providing independent lifecycle risk assessments, and recommending balanced design trade-offs.
• Drive design reuse, modularity, and platform commonality through DFX architectures that enable reusable hardware, test/diagnostics, and manufacturing & sustainment models.
• Define and govern Design-for-Test and Design-for-Observability, guide products to include standardized BIT/BITE, self-test, health monitoring, telemetry, and fault isolation so systems can validate and report their own performance from development through fielded operations. 
• Support bid & proposal (B&P) and capture by assessing manufacturability, testability, technology and part maturity, cost and supply-chain exposure, and obsolescence risk --ensuring what AV proposes can be built, tested, and sustained.
• Serve as the escalation and arbitration point for major lifecycle risks (DMSMS, manufacturing infeasibility, inadequate testability/observability, or excessive cost/supplier concentration).
• Define and maintain DFX KPIs (e.g., first-pass yield, test escape rates, repair/return metrics, NRE/recurring cost targets, DMSMS status) and routinely brief leadership on lifecycle health of key platforms.
• Will work with development teams to capture best practices and improve product reliability and capabilities. 

Enterprise Process & Methodology Ownership

The Senior DFX Engineer ensures DFX is a working operating model:

• Design, deploy, and continuously improve enterprise DFX processes integrated into engineering workflows, design reviews, release & change control, and platform architecture.
• Translate DFX principles into repeatable, auditable, and scalable practices so lifecycle-driven design is organic to how AV develops products.
• Establish enterprise standards for testability and observability, making diagnostics, telemetry, and field-level debug design requirements, not afterthoughts. 
• Familiarity with PLM/ERP/data workflows (so DFX outputs map into configuration/parts systems).
• Willingness to travel and work across locations; ability to be tactically assigned to projects.

Basic Qualifications (Required Skills & Experience)

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field
• 7+ years across hardware design, manufacturing, test, reliability/sustainment, or product realization
• Hands-on experience with Design-for-Manufacturability and/or Design-for-Test on production programs
• Experience influencing architecture, New Product Introduction (NPI), manufacturing & test readiness, and lifecycle planning
• Proven cross-discipline, lifecycle-level thinking

Other Qualifications & Desired Competencies

• Master's degree in Engineering
• Aerospace defense, automotive, high_rate/commercial, production of high-reliability industrial product experience
• Demonstrated ability to institutionalize engineering standards and governance
• Ability to influence without formal authority
• Preferred Clearance  - Secret

Physical Demands

• Ability to sit, stand, stoop, reach, lift (up to 10 lbs.), bend, etc.  Hand and wrist dexterity to utilize the computer.
• May require travel to sites/program and special functions.

Environmental Conditions Critical to Performance

• May have some exposure to outside environment while traveling.

Special Requirements