My Engineering Career

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) Poway, California
Urgent Field Support Engineer, Engineer V         February 2024 to Present

Nighthawk Flight Systems, Inc.       Vista, California
Principal Mechanical Engineer, Avionics Mechanical and Electromechanical Design     Dec. 2023 to Nov. 2024
    • New Product Development Engineering
o Generated and Presented proposals and prototypes of avionics products to C-Suite executives inclusive of cutting edge, full envelope electromechanical designs while balancing both executive and engineering requirements derived from multiple leadership levels
               o Led stakeholder alignment meetings with industrial design and customer experience experts to define the look, feel and user interface of avionics products with exceptional ergonomic consideration
o Worked with our CTO and Director of operations to propose and implement a driving numbering structure inclusive of all documentation families across manufacturing, design, quality and purchasing considerate of both current product and future potential products
o Onboarded, trained and managed 2 Junior Mechanical Engineers whose forward progressions each abundantly expanded the capability and speed at which the Mechanical Engineering team functionally operated
                o Owned mechanical and electromechanical designs, inclusive of board level definitions and component placements for the entire Nighthawk product line inclusive of our 20 year old Sandel Avionics product line
o Owned all technical documentation, inclusive of mechanical and electromechanical piece part design drawings, assembly drawings, manufacturing work instructions and inspection documentation for the entire Nighthawk product line, inclusive of Nighthawk's 20 year old Sandel Avionics Based product line
o Owned manufacturing and assembly method changes; delegated change control ownership within both the Engineering Change Order (ECO) and Supplier Corrective Action Report (SCAR) processes
o Restructured existing subassembly layouts within Solidworks PDM in a manner aligned with Engineering Best Practice, align PDM with our quality and document tracking system known internally as the Configuration Control Log (CCL) 

ONI, Incorporated                                            San Diego, California / Oxford, United Kingdom
Nanoimager Design Engineering Lead– Autodesk Inventor, Fusion, Solidworks, Propel                                                                                          October 2021 to January 2024
    • Nanoimager (NIM) Design Optimization Lead Mechanical Engineer, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Acting Supplier Quality Engineer
o Hired as ONI’s first Mechanical Design Engineer, bear accountability for the implementation of a manufacturable, serviceable, high quality mechanical design through all phases of development while meeting consistently aggressive timelines and the requirements of ONIs ambitious mission to democratize science
               o Using lean, dated representations of prior NIM design iterations stored across multiple modeling suites, recreate or import ~500 current state piece parts to Autodesk Inventor with emphasis on understanding historic design logic and structuring models in a manner favorable to future-state design implementations
o Closely collaborate with manufacturing, electrical, optomechanical and fluidics engineers to complete hands-on prototype testing and builds for the validation of redesigned, higher quality subassemblies
o Support design and materials decisions with engineering analyses, understanding that any combination of unaccounted tolerance stack-up, thermal expansion or incidental vibration can result in non-operational customer instrumentation
                o Create and implement a subassembly structure inclusive of piece part and subassembly drawings which provides definition to the current NIM, drives streamlined Work Instructions to enhance Manufacturing throughput and enables the creation of countless supporting documentation families for interdisciplinary teams
o Lead stakeholder alignment meetings with industrial design and customer experience engineers to define the look, feel and user interface of the future state of the instrument with exceptional consideration to ergonomics
o Onboard, train, mentor and manage 2 Junior Mechanical Engineers whose forward progression within ONI abundantly expanded the capability and speed at which the Mechanical Engineering team functionally operates
o Acting as a Quality Team Lead, identify, validate and train new external machining partners in alignment with reduction of the Cost of Poor Quality (CoPQ) and the empowerment of Manufacturing Engineering to produce high quality assemblies
o Acting as a Configuration Control Board, align and organize interdisciplinary technical files such that teams can easily access a variety of document types required for routine operations
o Provide key input to both the selection process and rollout of ONIs first Quality Management System (QMS), Propel

Safe Flight Instrument Corporation / LLC                                                                                   Harrison, New York
Senior Programs Engineer, Technical Lead – Angle of Attack, Stall Warning Programs – Autodesk Inventor                                          October 2019 to October 2021
      • Angle of Attack (AoA) Sensor Programs, Program Manager, Lead Design and Manufacturing Engineer
o Spearheaded efforts to reduce CoPQ by taking ownership of the product lifecycle inclusive of modernization of manufacturing procedures, advances in operator training, enhancements to the technical data package and coordination of increases in inspection standards with external suppliers
o Proposed updated vane assembly to Senior Management inclusive of a completed technical data package, manufacturing advancements, qualification test procedures and scheduling for production of qualification units
o Finalized and released updated technical documents, fabricated and tested qualification units alongside operations and replaced current production units with  new design
o Anticipated annual implementation savings is over $400k with anticipated impacts of both increased reproducibility in assembly and a reduction in field unit failures
o Identified gaps in production tooling throughout AoA sensor production; designed, produced and implemented tooling using both on-site 3D printing and model shop machining capabilities for rapid viability assessment and integration

    • Stall Warning System (SWS), Senior Design Engineer: R&D, proposals, design and test engineering
o Worked with both internal interdisciplinary engineering teams and external customer engineering to identify technical requirements, align auxiliary interface requirements and define test procedures for SWS packages
o Completed and released designs including mechanical and electrical technical drawing packages
o Developed Qualification Test Plans and performed qualification testing on prototype assemblies

    • Assistance to facilities:
o Utilizing personal expertise in internal combustion engines, rapidly performed a root cause investigation of a facility backup generator, correctly identified catastrophic failure resulting from contractor-led maintenance program deviance
o Resulted in a cost avoidance exceeding $35k, enhancement to the warranty term of all affected subsystems and a complimentary rental of a backup unit to sustain the facility during equipment repair
      • General Production Improvement:
o   Identified gaps in production tooling throughout facility; designed, produced and implemented tooling using both on-site 3D printing and model shop machining capabilities for rapid viability assessment and integration

Perkin Elmer Health Sciences            Shelton, Connecticut
Senior Design Engineer – GC R&D Design Engineer; LC Prototype Design Leader – Solidworks, Pro-E                                                       October 2017 to  July 2019
    • Gas Chromatography (GC) Program: R&D, proposals and design to replace outdated GC instrumentation and accessories
o Led multidisciplinary R&D engineering team through instrument teardowns, component and assembly cost reviews and instrument capability assessments for competitive intelligence market analysis
                o Organized and presented key project proposals to senior leadership highlighting Perkin Elmer’s cost and accessory offerings as competitive advantages
o Led instrument design, completion and review of technical drawing packages and selection of upstream supply chain to ensure compliance with scheduling requirements
o Coordinated alignment of manufacturing, design, quality and supplier resources managing prototyping planning, assembly and testing across 4 international divisions

    • Liquid Chromatography (LC) Program: R&D, propose, design and implement replacement for current instrumentation
o Using Earned Value Management, completed budgetary and scheduling requirements including interdisciplinary resource allocations for project research, prototype planning and production line alignment
o Coordinated and oversaw local prototype assembly, test and approval of new production chassis assemblies
o Finalized technical design documentation and conferred final product approval to internal Engineering and external Industrial Design teams; launched final product successfully given an aggressive release date and limited budget

    • International Sustaining Engineering: Managed documentation of existing GC, LC and Automated Headspace products
o Managed routine and emergency Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) including updates to Consumer Maintenance Manuals (CMMs) and implementation of design changes for internationally produced product lines
o Managed meetings with interdisciplinary Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for tests and approvals of replacement components tailored to updating obsoleted parts in international consumer product divisions