Senior NPI / Manufacturing Engineer

About Emesent 

Emesent is a Brisbane-based world leader in autonomous LiDAR mapping and drone autonomy. Our flagship product, Hovermap, delivers autonomous LiDAR mapping in GPS-denied environments for the Mining and Defence sectors. Our newly launched GX1 brings high-performance handheld LiDAR to surveying and the built environment. Behind both sits a pipeline of future hardware products and a team that takes hard engineering problems from concept to the field. 

About the role 

This is a role for a T-shaped engineer whose depth is in manufacturing and production engineering, and whose reach extends across the full product lifecycle. 

You will be the first interface between engineering and manufacturing: the person who represents long-term manufacturability while a product is still being designed, and who then takes that product through to robust, repeatable, efficient production. You will propose, design and improve the jigs, fixtures, test systems and processes that make our manufacturing faster and more reliable, and you will own the manufacturing perspective from early design reviews all the way through to production ramp and continuous improvement. 

You won’t work in a silo. The hardware team shares ownership across design, development and production engineering; you bring the specialist depth and you’re the first port of call for manufacturing and NPI work, but the team moves together rather than queuing behind any one person. 

The role today, and where it’s heading 

Right now, your biggest focus is maturing GX1 production: standing up and improving jigs, fixtures and test, lifting production reliability, and driving efficiency on a product whose design is already mature. This is hands-on manufacturing engineering, and it’s where you’ll make your first impact. 

As our pipeline turns, you’ll move upstream into new product introduction proper: joining future hardware programs from the start, running PFMEA and design-for-manufacture early, and shaping products for production before the design is locked. The manufacturing capability you build serves every product across Mining, Defence and the built environment, not a single line. 

This role will suit someone who wants both halves: the production floor today, and shaping the next products tomorrow. 

Key responsibilities 

New product introduction & production readiness 

• Take engineering designs through to manufacturable, production-ready hardware.
• Lead and support candidate builds, pilot production and production ramp.
• Act as the primary interface between the engineering and manufacturing teams. 

Manufacturing systems, tooling & test 

• Propose, design, build and improve production jigs, fixtures, tooling and test systems.
• Stand up and scale manufacturing processes, and improve their throughput, yield and consistency.
• Own the design of the manufacturing system that sits around each product. 

Production reliability & continuous improvement 

• Investigate field returns, test failures and recurring production defects through structured root-cause analysis.
• Drive corrective and preventive actions and verify that fixes work.
• Monitor production and product performance data to find and act on improvement opportunities (with no dedicated sustainment team, this continuous-improvement work sits with the role). 

Contribution to the full design lifecycle 

• Contribute to product design for manufacturability as an active voice in the design, not a bystander.
• Participate in design reviews, surface assembly and manufacturing requirements early, and facilitate PFMEA with the team.
• Work with design engineers to agree the changes needed; detailed design changes are then implemented by the responsible design owners. 

Adaptability & Change Leadership 

• Acts as a champion for organisational change by embracing new ways of working and actively supporting transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrates adaptability and encourages others to approach change with a positive and growth mindset.
• Supports others through change by modelling a resilient and solutions-focused approach.
• Builds trust and credibility with colleagues, leaders, and stakeholders by acting with integrity and accountability. 

Essential criteria 

• Degree in a relevant engineering discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Depth in manufacturing, production or new product introduction engineering, demonstrably gained on complex, electronics-dense products.
• Hands-on experience designing and building manufacturing systems: jigs, fixtures, tooling and test.
• Fluency in design for manufacture and assembly (DFM/DFA) and in PFMEA.
• A track record of contributing across the full design lifecycle, representing manufacturing from early design through to production. 

Desirable criteria 

• Genuine electronics depth, the second leg of the T-shape.
• Reliability engineering experience, including DFMEA.
• Exposure to supply chain and component sourcing.
• Familiarity with embedded/firmware, and with MES or production-data systems.