Principal Automation & Controls Engineer

About the role

You’ll be at the heart of bringing the production system to life. K2 has a strong push to vertically integrate our production system, which means you’ll work side-by-side with the production and engineering team to concept, develop, and roll out various automation projects to support this vision. At a principal level, you’ll not just be implementing automation and controls projects, you’ll help shape how K2 approaches these types of projects—setting standards, requirements, design process, and determining what automation looks like at K2. This role is built for someone who wants to help own the future of satellite manufacturing, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and wants to take high levels of ownership. You’ll draw on your deep technical intuition, contribute to systems that scale, and have core impact in increasingly complex challenges as we push towards higher-rate production in an environment unlike anywhere else.

Responsibilities

• Own the company roadmap of production automation across hardware and control layers, working closely with mechanical, electrical, and production engineers
• Conceive, design, and develop production tooling electromechanical automation assemblies either in-house or through vendors
• Own hands-on buildout, activation, and qualification of automation and controls projects across the production line spanning machine design, robotics, computer vision, and other systems
• Shape and implement our HMI strategy and PLC automation in a way that makes machines easy to operate with repeatable results
• Understand build flow, production reliability, and process control to implement strategies to increase production takt rate and first pass yield
• Mentor and develop junior engineers, raising the technical bar across the team to help achieve our automation and production goals

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, manufacturing, aerospace, materials or other relevant engineering discipline
• 4+ years of experience in a high-volume manufacturing, production, or hands-on engineering environment
• 6+ years of experience working in industrial automation and controls in a production environment, including full-stack ownership
• Strong hands-on aptitude and willingness to work directly with hardware on the production floor
• In-depth knowledge of precision assembly and electromechanical fabrication processes
• Ability to generate and review engineering drawings, schematics, and technical documentation
• Experience setting up a manufacturing/production floor for first article builds through at-rate production

Skills

• Full-stack and state-of-the-art experience with industrial automation hardware & controls, PLC/HMI/Robotics software control stacks, electrical and fluid schematics
• Exposure to space, defense, or other high-reliability manufacturing environments
• Experience designing automation systems for manufacturability
• Demonstrated experience developing production processes from the ground up including driving design improvements for manufacturing
• Experience working closely with technicians and build tooling
• Familiarity with CAD software (NX or equivalent) and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T)

Pay

Base salary range for this role is $175,000 – $200,000 + equity in the company. Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level.

Benefits

• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Many other perks

Export Compliance: The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.