Manager R&D Mechanical Engineer Jobs in Lafayette, LA

Position Overview

The Senior CMM / Metrology Engineer owns Coastal's metrology capability: CMM program architecture, inspection fixturing standards, measurement-system integrity, and capability studies across LTA and new part families. The role exists to remove metrology as a constraint on scaling new defense part families to production — standing up controlled, proven, documented inspection on each new family fast enough to honor Coastal's fast-to-production commitment to customers.

This is a standards-and-capability ownership function, not a daily-inspection role. It sits at the front end of new-family go/no-go: how fast a family reaches its first accepted FAIR is a direct input to how fast Coastal can commit to production. The boundary is firm — this role builds and proves the metrology system; the Offline CMM Programmer / QC Planner executes and sustains within it. Capability that is claimed but not proven, or proven but not documented and co-owned, does not count as delivered.

Metrology Capability & Program Architecture

• Owns one controlled, version-managed CMM program per part family — architecting programs to the print's datum scheme, with print → machining fixture → CMM datum alignment, so no per-inspector program variants run on the floor.
• Develops and validates CMM programs and inspection fixturing for new and changing part families, sequencing the work against the families gating delivery or a new-program commitment.
• Designs inspection fixturing standards that repeatably locate the part, independent of the individual inspector.

Measurement-System Integrity

• Proves measurement-system repeatability before capability is claimed — running and interpreting Gage R&R / MSA on new or suspect setups.
• Distinguishes measurement-system error from genuine part variation before a result becomes an NCR or drives a fixturing change.
• Confirms metrology equipment is in known-good state before measurement runs — probe qualification, stylus condition and torque, calibration artifact, and thermal equilibrium.
• Ensures the measurement system feeding any SPC or process-monitoring data is proven adequate — gauge resolution sufficient for the tolerance, Gage R&R adequate, data trustworthy before it drives a control decision. Metrology owns whether the SPC data can be believed; the process owner owns the SPC program and reacting to it.
• Holds authority to reject a capability claim on any family whose measurement system is not proven repeatable. Capability claimed but not proven is exposure, not capability.

Documented Transfer & Continuity (measured deliverable — not optional)

• Co-develops every standardized program, method sheet, and fixturing standard with the Offline CMM Programmer as named co-owner — building transfer into the work, not after it.
• Advances the controlled standards library as a tracked weekly deliverable; nothing repeatable stays as tribal knowledge or on a personal drive.
• Develops the CMM programmer into a genuine second capable owner able to stand up metrology on a new family independently — not a mentee observing.

New-Family Readiness & Go/No-Go Input

• Provides metrology readiness input to Estimating and new-program go/no-go: can we inspect it, how fast, and to what proven capability.
• Reports new-family standup status to the Director of Quality — what is ready to inspect, what is gated, and why.
• Architects new-family programs and method sheets so that correct, complete FAIR / source-inspection measurement content is a property of the standard — generated by routine execution without the engineer in the loop. The standard is not done until an uninvolved person can produce packet-ready content from it.

Manufacturing Feedback & Inspectability

• Feeds measurement findings and datum-alignment issues back to Manufacturing Engineering — surfacing where print datum, machining fixture, and CMM fixture locate off different schemes before parts pass on the machine and fail at inspection.
• Provides inspectability constraints on new families early — where a feature cannot be probed in a given setup, or a tolerance cannot be proven with current equipment — as advisory input to ME's machining approach, not as ownership of it.
• Informs, does not own, machining method. Manufacturing Engineering owns machining approach; this role owns proving whether the resulting part can be measured to committed capability.

Equipment Integrity & Escalation

• Logs measurement-system anomalies and open equipment-health issues.
• Escalates suspected hardware faults to OEM/service rather than absorbing them as process noise — a corrupted baseline invalidates every capability number built on it.

Tools & Systems

• PC-DMIS CMM programming and execution
• Hexagon CMM hardware and probing systems
• Gage R&R / MSA methodology and supporting analysis tools
• ProShop ERP / QMS — system of record for method sheets, fixturing standards, and revision control; PC-DMIS program files version-managed and checked in per Coastal's document control process
• Datanomix (setup / throughput context relevant to new-family standup timing)
• Current AS9100 revision and AS9102 First Article Inspection requirements
• Standard metrology equipment — probing systems, calibration artifacts, granite / surface reference

Required Qualifications

• Deep CMM programming and GD&T interpretation competence — able to independently interpret a part's datum scheme and architect a controlled inspection program to it, including print → machining fixture → CMM datum alignment.
• Demonstrated MSA / Gage R&R judgment — not only having performed the studies, but the ability to distinguish measurement-system error from genuine part variation before a result drives an NCR or a fixturing change.
• Demonstrated experience building metrology standards that others execute from — programs, method sheets, and fixturing standards that a second person can run without the author present. (Assessed primarily through interview and work sample, not résumé.)

Preferred Qualifications

• PC-DMIS programming experience (transferable from Calypso, PolyWorks, or comparable for a candidate with the GD&T foundation).
• Hexagon CMM hardware experience.
• Statistical fluency and SPC experience — control charts, control-limit derivation, distinguishing common-cause from special-cause variation.
• Aerospace, defense, or space manufacturing background; familiarity with AS9100 / AS9102 requirements.
• ProShop or comparable ERP/QMS experience.
• Experience preparing FAIR / source-inspection content for customer or government source inspection.

Behavioral Expectations

• Holds the line between proven and claimed. Will not sign off on capability that isn't demonstrated, even under delivery pressure — treats an undocumented or unproven result as exposure, not as good enough for now.
• Builds so others can execute. Instinctively documents and transfers rather than becoming the indispensable expert; measures a standard by whether someone else can run it, not by how well the author knows it.
• Distinguishes signal from noise under pressure. Separates measurement-system error from real part variation before escalating — does not let a suspect gauge trigger an NCR or a suspect part pass as a gauge problem.
• Operates with disciplined precision. Comfortable being the person who says “we can't prove that yet” when a program or a customer wants a yes.
• Collaborates across the build/run and Manufacturing boundaries without absorbing others' work — feeds findings to ME and hands execution to the programmer, rather than pulling both toward themselves.

Physical Demands & Work Environment

• Split between a temperature-controlled metrology / inspection environment and the production floor; regular movement between the two.
• Extended periods of standing, and close-vision work at the CMM and with precision measurement equipment.
• Ability to lift and handle inspection fixtures, calibration artifacts, and parts; assistance and lift equipment available for heavier items. (Coastal runs large, heavy turned and milled parts — material-handling support is standard, not exceptional.)
• Manual dexterity for probe styli, fixturing, and fine adjustment.
• Shop-floor exposure to noise, machining coolant, and moving equipment; hearing and eye protection and other PPE required on the floor.
• Safe-lifting and material-handling awareness in a heavy-machining environment.

What Success Looks Like

The Senior CMM / Metrology Engineer is successful when metrology has stopped being a constraint on how fast Coastal can commit to new defense part families. New families reach their first accepted FAIR inside the committed window — inspection readiness is no longer the thing production waits on. Every active family runs on one controlled, version-managed program with no per-inspector variants, and every capability number the shop reports rests on a measurement system proven repeatable, so no disputed result traces back to an uncontrolled measurement process. Most importantly, the capability is not trapped in one person: the standards, programs, and

Why Coastal?

Coastal Machine is on an extremely aggressive growth plan to support America's most critical and demanding programs that include Space, Defense and Energy. Joining Coastal now in a role like this allows you to have a large part in how the organization scales up.

Coastal Machine & Supply is a fully digital precision manufacturing company serving customers in aerospace, defense, space, and energy. We are a family-oriented organization with a strong culture of accountability, partnership, and execution—focused on building long-term careers, not just filling roles.