Principal Engineer, Material Review Board

What you'll do

• Establish and mature the Material Review Board process for post-production hardware, fielded assemblies, depot repairs, and sustainment-related nonconformances.
• Lead technical dispositions for nonconforming material, damaged hardware, returned components, field returns, production escapes, and repairable assemblies.
• Develop standard repair procedures, repair limits, inspection criteria, and disposition guidance for recurring hardware issues.
• Support returned material analysis, production quality deficiency reports, production escape investigations, and field hardware issue reviews.
• Partner with responsible engineers, design engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality, fleet support, supply chain, and chief engineers to ensure dispositions are technically sound and executable.
• Ensure MRB dispositions are documented, traceable, configuration-controlled, and aligned with engineering, quality, and sustainment requirements.
• Identify trends in nonconformances, supplier issues, manufacturing defects, field damage, repair escapes, and recurring hardware failures.
• Work with Failure Analysis, Reliability and Maintainability Engineering, and Root Cause and Corrective Action teams to resolve recurring hardware issues.
• Partner with Manufacturing Engineering and Quality to improve inspection methods, acceptance criteria, repair execution, test processes, and production controls.
• Support supplier quality investigations when supplier parts, materials, or assemblies impact aircraft sustainment or fleet readiness.
• Provide technical input to corrective actions, product health reviews, repair governance reviews, and sustainment leadership updates.
• Help ensure hardware issues are resolved in a way that protects safety, quality, reliability, configuration discipline, customer support, and fleet readiness.
• Mentor engineers and cross-functional partners on MRB discipline, disposition quality, repair documentation, and sustainment repair governance.

Required qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Material Review Board, quality engineering, manufacturing engineering, sustaining engineering, aerospace structures, aviation maintenance, hardware product support, or complex hardware sustainment.
• Demonstrated experience dispositioning nonconforming hardware, damaged components, returned material, production escapes, field failures, or repairable assemblies.
• Strong understanding of nonconforming material processes, MRB workflows, repair dispositions, inspection records, engineering documentation, and corrective action systems.
• Experience developing or approving repair procedures, rework instructions, inspection criteria, use-as-is dispositions, repair dispositions, or scrap/replacement recommendations.
• Strong technical judgment with the ability to evaluate hardware issues based on safety, structural integrity, reliability, maintainability, configuration impact, and fleet readiness.
• Experience working across engineering, quality, manufacturing, supply chain, fleet support, sustainment, and operations teams to resolve hardware issues.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, inspection results, manufacturing records, repair records, and field evidence.
• Strong documentation discipline, including the ability to write clear technical dispositions, repair rationale, risk assessments, and corrective action inputs.
• Ability to operate independently as a principal technical IC and influence cross-functional decisions without direct authority.
• Ability to balance engineering rigor, quality requirements, configuration control, field urgency, and customer support needs.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with aviation, defense, aerospace manufacturing, unmanned systems, aircraft sustainment, depot repair, field repair, or deployed hardware systems.
• Experience with composite structures, metallic structures, bonded assemblies, fastened assemblies, avionics hardware, propulsion components, payload interfaces, or complex electromechanical assemblies.
• Familiarity with RCCA, FRACAS, PQDR, AS9100, configuration management, ECO/ECR processes, service bulletins, maintenance releases, or field retrofit execution.
• Experience supporting supplier quality investigations, production escape resolution, returned material analysis, depot repair development, or field repair governance.
• Experience building scalable MRB processes, repair governance mechanisms, standard repair libraries, or sustainment disposition workflows.
• Experience supporting military, government, international, or deployed aviation customers.
• Familiarity with ITAR, export-controlled technical data, controlled customer environments, or defense operational support.
• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance preferred.