COE Engineer, Manufacturing Cost, Design-to-Value, and Producibility
As a COE Engineer, you will help build and deliver a new technical Center of Excellence focused on cost transparency, manufacturability, producibility, and design-to-value for complex Aerospace & Defense and advanced industrial products.
You will analyze how components, assemblies, and systems are designed, manufactured, sourced, qualified, and costed, then translate technical findings into practical recommendations for supplier negotiations, design optimization, sourcing strategy, production readiness, and cost reduction.
The role sits at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and commercial strategy. It is intended for a hands-on technical problem solver who can evaluate drawings, specifications, bills of material, manufacturing routings, supplier inputs, process assumptions, labor content, material yield, tooling, quality, overhead, and supplier economics to develop credible cost and producibility insights.
Why join or take on this role?
Are you ready to:
- Work on nationally important Aerospace & Defense, space, naval, propulsion, electronics, nuclear, and advanced industrial programs?
- Apply deep manufacturing and engineering expertise to real commercial, sourcing, design, and operational decisions?
- Help clients improve cost transparency, challenge supplier economics, and identify practical cost reduction opportunities?
- Evaluate product architectures, manufacturing approaches, supplier feasibility, and producibility tradeoffs across complex engineered systems?
- Work alongside experienced consultants, cost engineers, supplier experts, technical specialists, and client engineering teams?
- Help build reusable should-cost, DFM, DTV, and producibility methods and tools for a new U.S. Center of Excellence?
- Develop a broader perspective on how products are designed, sourced, manufactured, qualified, scaled, and costed?
- Join a capability early, with meaningful opportunity to shape how the team grows?
Make your mark as a COE Engineer
You will:
- Develop should-cost models for complex components, assemblies, systems, and supplier quotes.
- Assess manufacturing cost using drawings, specifications, bills of material, routing assumptions, labor content, cycle time, material usage, yield, tooling, quality requirements, overhead, and supplier economics.
- Identify supplier cost drivers, manufacturing complexity, cost outliers, margin opportunities, and commercial negotiation levers.
- Evaluate design choices for cost, manufacturability, producibility, scalability, qualification risk, and supplier feasibility.
- Identify over-specification, avoidable complexity, tolerance-driven cost, material or process inefficiencies, assembly challenges, and production ramp risks.
- Compare alternate manufacturing processes, product architectures, sourcing approaches, and make-versus-buy options.
- Translate technical analysis into actionable recommendations for engineering, sourcing, supplier management, operations, and executive stakeholders.
- Support client-facing problem solving in ambiguous environments through rapid hypothesis development, technical validation, and structured communication of findings.
- Help codify reusable COE tools, benchmarks, cost models, playbooks, and analytical methods.
Who you are
- U.S. citizen with the ability to support ITAR or restricted Aerospace & Defense work.
- Have 5+ years of experience in engineering, manufacturing engineering, cost engineering, supplier engineering, operations, product engineering, design engineering, systems engineering, producibility, DFM, DTV, or value engineering.
- Bring experience from aerospace, defense, space, propulsion, naval, electronics, nuclear, automotive, industrial equipment, complex mechanical systems, advanced manufacturing, or similar sectors.
- Possess a strong understanding of manufacturing processes including machining, casting, forging, welding, fabrication, composites, additive manufacturing, electronics assembly, final assembly, testing, tooling, inspection, and quality.
- Able to read and interpret engineering drawings, GD&T, tolerance requirements, specifications, CAD outputs, bills of material, manufacturing routings, materials, and supplier technical inputs.
- Able to estimate cost from structured assumptions, including materials, labor, cycle time, yields, scrap, tooling, overhead, quality requirements, and supplier economics.
- Understand design and manufacturing tradeoffs involving tolerance, material selection, process selection, assembly complexity, qualification, reliability, scalability, and producibility.
- Able to identify cost drivers, complexity drivers, manufacturability risks, supplier feasibility constraints, and production ramp challenges.
- Possess strong analytical skills and are comfortable working with Excel-based cost models, structured assumptions, and quantitative problem solving.
- Communicate technical findings clearly to both engineering and business stakeholders.
- Bring practical manufacturing experience, including plant, supplier, shop-floor, production engineering,
- manufacturing launch, supplier development, or production ramp experience.
- Comfortable with ambiguity, fast learning, client-facing problem solving, and translating technical analysis into business impact.
Preferred experience
- Prior experience in should-cost, design-to-cost, design-to-value, value engineering, DFM, producibility, supplier development, manufacturing launch, production ramp, sourcing support, or technical negotiations.
- Exposure to complex, low-volume/high-complexity manufacturing environments.
- Experience working with cross-functional teams across engineering, manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, finance, quality, and program management.
- Familiarity with supplier quote analysis, cost breakdowns, RFQ support, technical negotiation preparation, or teardown and benchmark analysis.
What we can offer you
Every day, our people work to be the difference for our clients, our communities, and our colleagues. Helping them make an impact, they are sustained by a competitive remuneration package plus comprehensive benefits and perks, including but not limited to:
- Generous retirement/pension savings contributions
- Comprehensive medical insurance for employees and immediate family
- Gym membership discounts
- Structured and on-the-job learning and development opportunities
- Personalized opportunities including talent mobility, flexible work programs, and externships to help you chart a unique career journey to pursue your own personal and professional goals
COE Engineer Compensation Range: $145k-$150k
It is important to note that at Kearney, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role. Individual salaries within each range are determined through a wide variety of factors including but not limited to education, experience, knowledge and skills. Kearney reviews compensation regularly and may adjust base salaries to reflect market competitiveness. In addition to salary, individuals may be eligible for a discretionary performance bonus. Our full suite of benefits includes paid time off, 401(k) match and profit sharing, medical, dental and vision coverage, healthcare concierge, backup child/adult care, annual employer HSA contribution, home office stipend, subsidized Gympass and annual wellness program, and leaves of absence when needed to support employees’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Read more about our benefits and a career at Kearney.com/careers.
Equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination
Kearney prides itself on providing a culture where our employees belong and thrive equally, which means our people feel comfort, confidence, and joy as they do great things for our firm, our colleagues, and our clients. That’s why Kearney is committed to building a diverse workforce and inclusive environment. Kearney is an equal opportunity employer; we recruit, hire, train, promote, develop, and provide other conditions of employment without regard to a person’s gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, religion, age, national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other differences consistent with applicable laws. This includes providing reasonable accommodation for disabilities or religious beliefs and practices. We encourage everyone to apply, including those who may not feel historically represented in consulting.
