Manufacturing Engineering

Manufacturing Engineer - Steel Products

At Nextpower, we are accelerating the world’s transition to renewable energy through intelligent solar tracking and breakthrough engineering. As a Manufacturing Engineer – Steel Products you will be a critical player in this transformation. You will be responsible for driving concurrent engineering (DFM/DFMA), supplier process readiness, industrialization, and engineering change implementation for steel components and assemblies across Nextpower’s global supply base. This role partners directly with R&D/Design Engineering, Quality, Program Management, and Procurement to ensure new and existing designs are manufacturable, scalable, cost‑effective, and reliable, and to support design release and change‑control decisions through rigorous engineering analysis and factory validation while ensuring a customer‑centric approach to meet or exceed internal and external customer expectations.

Responsibilities

• Participate in product development from concept through design release, providing manufacturing feasibility input and DFM/DFMA recommendations.
• Review engineering drawings, specifications, and design revisions; identify manufacturability risks and propose engineering solutions; support structured design release gates by providing engineering recommendations based on manufacturability, process capability, cost drivers, and supplier readiness.
• Lead and/or drive innovation in manufacturing technologies and technical readiness activities for steel and/or industrial manufacturing processes including roll forming, stamping, casting, linear welding, laser cutting, machining, coating/finishing, assembly, testing, and/or automation.
• Plan and execute prototype builds, supplier trials, and on‑site validations; verify functional intent and key/critical dimensions through appropriate measurement and inspection methods.
• Lead technical value engineering and cost‑reduction initiatives across steel products by identifying cost drivers and developing engineering solutions (design alternatives, process alternatives, tooling strategy changes, yield improvement, cycle‑time reduction). Validate savings while maintaining product performance, reliability, safety, and manufacturability; document results and deploy best practices across regions and suppliers.
• Define and validate manufacturing readiness deliverables, as applicable: process flows, manufacturing risk assessments, inspection approaches, work instructions, packaging requirements, and ramp‑readiness checklists.
• Conduct supplier factory readiness audits and support supplier ramp execution; identify constraints (capacity, tooling, capability, quality systems) and drive corrective action plans.
• Identify and deploy manufacturing technologies and best practices across the supplier footprint, including automation and inspection equipment.
• Define technical requirements for tooling/equipment; develop and execute FAT/SAT acceptance criteria and validation checklists; support installation, commissioning, and training with suppliers.
• Serve as a Manufacturing Engineering reviewer/approver for engineering changes (ECR/DCO/ECO) in the company PLM system; drive controlled implementation at suppliers.
• Provide rapid technical escalation support when supplier, manufacturing, or field issues negatively impact Nextpower customers; lead structured root‑cause and corrective actions (8D, 5‑Why, Pareto) and verify effectiveness.
• Document best practices across the group and deploy standardized solutions across the supplier base.
• Participate in NPI readiness reviews and cross‑functional meetings as required to track technical readiness, prototype status, validation outcomes, and risk closure.

Requirements

• Mandatory: Fluent English and Spanish (written and spoken), other European languages are a plus.
• Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in an Engineering discipline from an accredited institution with at least 10+ years of relevant experience in manufacturing engineering/industrialization for steel components and assemblies in an OEM or contract manufacturing environment. Industrial, Mechanical, Manufacturing, Metallurgical, Electrical or Chemical Engineering is preferred.
• 5+ years minimum experience in design for manufacturing, steel manufacturing processes or steel machinery (leading CAPEX projects implementing machinery or equipment into factories).
• 5+ years minimum experience serving large OEM customers in renewable energy, automotive, consumer electronics, consumer goods, or industrial manufacturing (solar tracker experience a plus).
• Demonstrated experience delivering concurrent engineering outcomes: DFM/DFMA influence on design releases, supplier capability translation into design requirements, and factory validation.
• Strong experience w