Fantastic challenges. Amazing opportunities.
GKN Aerospace is reimagining air travel: going further, faster and greener! Fuelled by great people whose expertise and creativity sets the standards in our industry, we’re inspired by the opportunities to innovate and break boundaries. We’re proud to play a part in protecting the world’s democracies. And we’re committed to putting sustainability at the centre of everything we do, opening up and protecting our planet. With over 16,000 employees across 33 manufacturing sites in 12 countries we serve over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers and achieved sales of £3.35 bn.in 2023. There are no limits to where you can take your career.
We are looking for a senior DfM Engineer to strengthen our Manufacturing Engineering Design capability and lead Manufacturing Engineering activities in demonstrator projects, early product development, and future product programs.
The role is part of ME Design within the Engineering organization, which consists of Design and ME Design, and operates at the interface between product design and industrialization.
In this role, you drive Design for Manufacturing (DfM) and Zero Defect principles from the earliest design phases, ensuring robust, manufacturable, and industrialization ready product solutions. You work closely with Design, Technology, and Product Areas (Operations) and are accountable for the design requirements across the product lifecycle, with a strong focus on early phases.
- Lead and coordinate Manufacturing Engineering activities in demonstrator and product development projects.
- Drive Design for Manufacturing (DfM) and Zero Defect implementation within the Design System.
- Ensuring that the design is robust against manufacturing and assembly variation (Design for Robustness – DfR), as part of the manufacturability property.
- Work closely with the Product Areas to ensure manufacturing aspects are integrated into product architecture, requirements, tolerances, and material selection.
- Lead early manufacturability and robustness assessments (DfM reviews, DFMEA/PFMEA, tolerance and variation analysis).
- Define and secure production prerequisites, process concepts, and manufacturing assumptions prior to design freeze points.
- Ensure alignment with Product Area industrial structures, process capabilities, and industrial strategy.
- Act as the primary ME interface towards Design, Technology, Quality, and Product Areas during LCG 1–4.
- Ensure a complete and robust handover to industrialization / NPI programs at LCG 4.
- Maintain ownership of manufacturing requirements and design intent across the full product lifecycle (LCG 1–9).
- Contribute to continuous improvement of DfM standards, methods, and best practices.
Scope of Work Across Life Cycle Gates
- LCG 1–2: Influence product concepts through early DfM principles, process capability understanding, and risk identification.
- LCG 3: Secure robust design maturity, validated manufacturability, and defined process concepts prior to design freeze.
- LCG 4: Ensure a complete and Zero Defect aligned handover to industrialization (NPI).
- LCG 5–9: Retain responsibility for manufacturing requirements, design intent, and Zero Defect alignment throughout the product lifecycle.
- University degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent.
- Extensive experience in Manufacturing Engineering within product development environments.
- Strong knowledge of DfM, DFMEA/PFMEA, and Zero Defect principles.
- Experience from early product development, demonstrator programs, and NPI / industrialization.
- Solid understanding of production processes, process capability, and tolerance management.
- Experience working in cross functional and global engineering organizations.
- Ability to lead without formal line authority and influence design decisions.
- Strong communication skills in English; Swedish is beneficial.
Personal Attributes
- Structured, analytical, and proactive mindset.
- Strong leadership and collaboration skills.
- Ability to balance technical depth with system level thinking.
- Comfortable challenging assumptions and driving fact based decisions.
- Passion for quality, robustness, and continuous improvement.
Form of employment: Permanent
The selection process takes place continuosly. The position may therefore be filled before the application deadline. Therefore, do not wait with your application!
Last date for application: 2026-09-01, Please note that, due to the summer holiday period, the selection process and subsequent feedback will take place after the summer.
For more information, please contact hiring manager:
Head of ME, Per-Anders Atterklev
[email protected]
As part of our recruitment strategy at GKN, we have predetermined our recruitment and marketing channels. Therefore, we kindly request no contact from recruitment agencies, media sales, or similar entities.
The position requires that you undergo and be approved according to the current regulations for security protection. For positions where GKN's customer has requirements for security classification, this may, in some cases, involve specific citizenship requirements.
We’ll offer you fantastic challenges and amazing opportunities. This is your chance to be part of an organisation that has proven itself to be at the cutting edge of our industry; and is committed to pushing the boundaries even further. And with some of the best training on offer in the industry, who knows how far you can go?
A Great Place to work needs a Great Way of Working
Everyone is welcome to apply to GKN. We believe that we can only achieve our ambitions through a coming together of diverse minds who enjoy collaborating in an inspirational environment. Through our commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging and by living our five powerful principles we’ve created a culture where everyone feels welcome to contribute. It’s a culture that won us ‘The Best Workplace Culture Award’. By embracing and celebrating what makes us unique we encourage everyone to bring their full self to work.
We’re also committed to providing an accessible recruitment process, so if you require reasonable adjustments at any stage during our recruitment process please get in touch and let us know.
We are the place where human dreams, plus human endeavour, shape the future of aerospace innovation and technology.
