Staff Configuration Management Specialist

Firestorm is seeking a Configuration Manager to own product configuration across its aircraft platforms. The role exists to make modularity manageable, serving as the single source of truth for what a given aircraft is, owning the change control process end to end, and defining the product structure that allows a modular aircraft family to be configured without re-deriving it each time. This hands-on role reports into Hardware Engineering and works directly with design engineering, production, quality, and supply chain, ensuring configuration processes satisfy AS9100, ITAR, and DoD requirements while keeping pace with the company's fast build rate.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end engineering change process — ECR authoring and analysis, CCB disposition, release, implementation, and closure verification — and run it at a cadence that matches how fast we build
• Define and maintain the product variant structure for a modular aircraft family, including option dictionaries, 150% or superset BOMs, and configuration rules, so that a valid aircraft configuration can be specified, quoted, and built without being reinvented each time.
• Establish and control baselines across the digital thread — requirements, EBOM, MBOM, as-designed, as-built, and as-maintained records — across the Tempest family, Hurricane, El Niño, and future platforms
• Own part numbering, revision, and effectivity conventions, including the judgment call on when a change warrants a rev roll versus a new part number, and drive that convention consistently across mechanical, electrical, and payload hardware
• Reconcile configuration deltas between builds: what carried forward from the prior top assembly, what rolled revision, what is net-new, and what that means for parts already purchased or on the shelf
• Perform inventory disposition analysis on every approved change — use-as-is, rework, scrap, or run-out — so that change decisions are made with the cost and schedule impact visible up front
• Administer our PLM and CAD data management environment (Arena and SolidWorks today), and support the evaluation and potential migration to a Teamcenter/NX-class toolchain
• Extend configuration control to additively manufactured articles — print files, build and slicer profiles, material lots, and machine effectivity — so that an airframe produced forward in an xCell is traceable to the same controlled baseline as one built in San Diego
• Own serialization and as-built record capture across prototype, pilot, and production builds, including capturing field modifications and deviations made during flight test
• Control interface definitions for third-party and government-furnished payloads, so that each integration has a documented, versioned interface rather than tribal knowledge
• Chair the Change Control Board and prepare the configuration data packages for design gates and program milestones (PDR, CDR, delta design reviews, MRR) and for customer technical data deliverables
• Support the Payloads & Integrations team by controlling configurations produced through rapid, out-of-cycle integration work and folding proven configurations back into the mainline baseline
• Partner with Supply Chain and Production to ensure changes land with the right effectivity, that kitting and buy plans track the released BOM, and that the shop floor is never building to a superseded drawing
• Report on change health — cycle time, aging ECOs, rework and rejection rates, cost of change — and use the data to continuously improve the process rather than just enforce it
• Ensure configuration processes satisfy AS9100, ITAR, and DoD program requirements without adding ceremony that does not earn its keep

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Industrial Technology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR regulations.
• 7+ years of configuration management, product data management, or engineering release experience in a hardware environment with real rigor (aerospace, defense, automotive, medical device, or similar)
• Demonstrated hands-on ownership of a formal change control process: ECR/ECO authoring, CCB facilitation, engineering release, and effectivity setting
• Working fluency with a PLM system (Arena, Teamcenter, Windchill, ENOVIA, Duro, or similar) and with CAD data management practices
• Strong command of EBOM and MBOM structures, indented BOMs, part numbering schemes, and revision control — including where the engineering and manufacturing views legitimately diverge
• Exceptional attention to detail. You are the person who catches the wrong revision buried on line 340 of a 500-line indented BOM, and you care that it was wrong
• Demonstrated history of holding yourself and your teammates to a high standard, even when it creates discomfort.
• Ability to work from incomplete information, chase down the missing decision, and drive it to closure rather than waiting for someone else to
• Strong written communication — your baselines, change notices, and process documentation will be read by engineers, technicians, buyers, and customers alike
• Comfort working cross-functionally with design engineering, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain, including telling a program that a change is not ready to release

Nice to have

• Experience managing configuration for a modular or variant-heavy product line (superset/150% BOMs, option and variant dictionaries, product configurators, effectivity rules)
• Experience with UAS, aircraft, or other systems under airworthiness, type design, or safety-of-flight control
• Experience supporting a company through the transition from prototype and pilot builds into rate production
• Familiarity with EIA-649, MIL-STD-31000 and technical data package delivery, AS9100, or DoD configuration management and CDRL requirements
• Experience treating additive manufacturing build files, print parameters, and material specifications as controlled configuration items
• Experience administering, implementing, or migrating a PLM system, including data cleanup and user training
• Experience integrating PLM with ERP/MRP for BOM sync, effectivity, and inventory disposition
• Scripting or data analysis ability (Python, SQL, Excel/Power Query) for BOM comparison, audits, and change reporting
• Background that includes both startup and scale-stage product development.
• Experience coordinating configuration baselines with external development partners, subcontractors, or government customers
• Experience managing software and firmware release baselines alongside hardware configuration
• Experience supporting field deployments, depot, or sustainment activities and reconciling field configuration records
• CMPIC, NDIA, or equivalent configuration management certification

Benefits

• We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and visions plan.
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals
• Equity grants for new hires
• Unlimited PTO
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in November, & December
• Generous Parental Leave
• Lifestyle Spending Account
• FSA
• DCFSA
• HSA
• Hospital Indemnity insurance
• Critical Illness insurance
• Accident insurance
• Basic Life/AD&D, short-term and long-term disability insurance, 100% covered by Firestorm. Plus, the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your family
• Mental Health Resources: We provide free mental health resources 24/7 including therapy and more. Additional work-life services, such as free legal and financial support, are available to you as well