Project Kuiper is Amazon’s low Earth orbit satellite broadband network. Its mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet to customers and communities around the world, and we’ve designed the system with the capacity, flexibility, and performance to serve a wide range of customers, from individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.
Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
Key job responsibilities
The Kuiper team is looking for a Supplier Manufacturing Engineer to support business and engineering stakeholders in developing, implementing and monitoring manufacturing processes/controls within our supply base. The ideal candidate will have a successful track record working with a global supply base on scaling manufacturing in order to achieve business needs. Experience working in new and ambiguous environments while solving complex problems with a broad range of cross functional stakeholders will be an advantage.
Resolve Technical Matters
• Collaborate with respective teams to address and resolve technical issues in manufacturing, quality, sourcing, and design to ensure continuous supply, minimizing disruptions and keeping production schedules on track.
Enhance Supplier Agility
• Work with suppliers to improve their ability to quickly respond to rapid design changes and maintain supply continuity, ensuring timely delivery of parts within condensed timelines.
Coordinate DFM Initiatives
• Lead and execute Design for Manufacturing (DFM) initiatives to enable suppliers to meet manufacturing rate and cost targets, ensuring manufacturability is considered early and throughout the design process.
Develop and Validate Supplier Capabilities
• Assist suppliers in developing the capability to produce parts that meet design, print, and manufacturing requirements. Conduct first article validations to ensure compliance with Kuiper and industry workmanship standards and specifications.
Implement New Materials and Processes
• Collaborate with suppliers to industrialize new materials and processes, including necessary capital improvements and part qualification (PPAP), ensuring readiness for large-scale production and meeting project timelines.
Support NPI and Mitigate Risks
• Provide leadership for New Product Introduction (NPI) at suppliers, acting as the technical point of contact to solve emergent challenges and mitigate risks, ensuring smooth and timely product launches.
Facilitate Continuous Improvement and Corrective Actions
• Collaborate with supplier quality engineering to resolve nonconformances and implement continuous improvements. Validate supplier corrective actions to ensure robust solutions and lead containment activities with cross-functional teams.
Drive Results and Supplier Excellence
• Identify, audit, and onboard new suppliers while conducting surveillance and diagnostic audits on incumbents. Exhibit technical excellence, innovation, and attention to detail in all activities. Drive results and customer satisfaction by leading projects, collaborating with teams, and continuously improving the supply base.
Bridge Between Engineering and Supply Chain
• Serve as the critical link between engineering teams focused on rapid design iterations and supply chain teams prioritizing efficiency and continuity. Earn trust to increase influence, deliver consistent results, and ensure alignment and buy-in from both organizations, balancing their opposing priorities.
A day in the life
The Supplier Manufacturing Engineer will dive deep into the supplier manufacturing processes, identify areas with waste/opportunities, and help guide the supplier through process improvements to ensure they yield a high-quality product at the right cost every time in order to enable Kuiper objectives.
About the team
Here at Amazon, we embrace our differences. We are committed to furthering our culture of inclusion. Amazon has ten employee-led affinity groups, reaching 40,000 employees in over 190 chapters globally. We have innovative benefit offerings, and host annual and ongoing learning experiences. Amazon’s culture of inclusion is reinforced within our 16 Leadership Principles, which remind team members to seek diverse perspectives, learn and be curious and earn trust. At Amazon, our mission is to be the most customer-centric company on Earth. To get there, we need exceptionally talented, bright and driven people.
