Lead Manufacturing Engineer, DFMA - Tooling Design

Location: Huntington Beach, California, United States. The role is performed on the production floor and in the lab, with extended hours and weekends as needed. ITAR eligibility is required: U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, asylee, or eligible to obtain the required U.S. authorization.

Salary: $140,000–$180,000 USD base salary per year, plus performance incentives and equity.

Company

hirify.global is a defense technology startup developing autonomous defense platforms and scalable, decentralized systems for the United States and its allies.

What you will do

• Own the tooling and design-for-automation guide, including design rules, locating strategies, tolerances, tooling standards, verification methods, and DFMA sign-off criteria.
• Review vehicle architectures and material choices early, lead DFMA studies and virtual assembly builds, and improve part count, assembly time, automation rate, cost, ergonomics, and quality.
• Provide tooling cost, lead-time, capital, rate, should-cost, and make-versus-buy analysis for automation decisions and supplier RFQs.
• Lead R&D in reconfigurable and additive tooling, fixtureless and vision-guided assembly, robotic drilling, fastening, and prototype production cells.
• Run designed experiments, build test articles, analyze process and measurement capability, and release proven processes into production.
• Own critical tool lifecycles, supplier buyoffs, tooling reviews, FMEAs, root-cause analysis, and mentoring for the DFMA function.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Manufacturing, or Industrial Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years designing production tooling, fixtures, or end effectors for automated or high-rate assembly in aerospace, automotive, defense, or consumer electronics.
• Expertise in GD&T, ASME Y14.5, datum schemes, tolerance stack-ups, and dimensional variation analysis.
• Experience integrating tooling with robots and automated cells, selecting equipment, and justifying ROI.
• Strong knowledge of cycle-time analysis, OEE, Cp/Cpk, gauge R&R, DOE, error proofing, ergonomics, and manufacturing economics.
• Proficiency with 3D CAD such as NX, CATIA, SolidWorks, or similar, plus strong technical writing and communication skills.

Nice to have

• Tool and die maker certification or equivalent toolmaker experience.
• Experience across aerospace assembly tooling and automotive assembly automation.
• Familiarity with PLCs, robot programming, machine safety standards, large-scale metrology, and robot simulation tools.
• Experience with DFMEAs, PFMEAs, AS9100 or defense production, Lean or Six Sigma, and value engineering.
• Patents, publications, or developed processes placed into production.

Culture & Benefits

• Startup environment focused on rapid manufacturing innovation and national security.
• Competitive base salary with performance-based incentives and equity participation.
• Healthcare, dental, vision, retirement savings, and paid time off.
• Funding for continuing education, training, and professional development.
• Transparent compensation practices and opportunities for long-term growth.