New Product Investigation Engineer

NPI Engineer – PMA Candidate Research & Analyst
Industry: PMA / Aerospace / Aviation Engineering
Company: Aviation Component Solutions (ACS)
Location: India (remote), supporting the NPI (New Product Investigation) team in Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Employment type: Full-time
About ACS
Aviation Component Solutions is an FAA-regulated aerospace company that designs, certifies, and supplies PMA (Parts Manufacturer Approval) replacement parts for regional and large commercial aircraft. Our PMA parts give airlines a cost-effective, FAA-approved alternative to OEM parts. We are growing our new product pipeline and need a dedicated engineer to find, screen, and qualify the next generation of PMA candidates.
Role Summary
The NPI Engineer will own the front end (potential product development projects) of our PMA development pipeline, from building the master part number list to presenting fully vetted candidates to the NPI review team. You will harvest part data from technical manuals and industry databases, apply financial and technical screening criteria, estimate market usage, and prepare the business case (Red-Green analysis) for each part that moves forward. The goal is a steady flow of about five well-researched candidates to each weekly NPI meeting, roughly ten parts per month into development.
What You will Do
· Extract part numbers from CMM and IPC numerical indexes across supported aircraft platforms, separating replaceable parts from NHAs.
· Expand the part list using industry databases/marketplaces (Fulcrum360, Avref, ILS, Partsbase) and deduplicate against inhouse investigation database.
· Obtain reference pricing from market databases and customers and improve pricing coverage over time.
· Screen candidates against ACS criteria: price range, consumption data, customer type (and past purchasing history of the customer), ACS’s past experience of similar parts, pipeline status, minimum usage, and minimum annual sales.
· Categorize parts from illustrations and photos and reject those outside ACS's current or near-term capabilities.
· Estimate market potential potential from fleet size of eligible aircraft models, MROs associated with LRU, replacement rates, ATA approval or restrictions by customers and ACS sales history.
· Perform preliminary NPI evaluation (in coordination with the team) for sample availability, reverse engineering capability, PMA path, sourcing, and sales potential.
· Flag safety-critical, life-limited, or high-risk parts early, and recommend OEM sample purchases when data is insufficient.
· Prepare Red-Green analyses and approval documents, and follow up with signatories to shorten review cycles.
· Presenting about 10 vetted candidates to the NPI team (which includes Sales, Engineering and Procurement team) each week.
Qualifications
Required:
· Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical, Aerospace, or Mechanical Engineering (or a closely related field).
· 3+ years of experience in the aviation industry (MRO, OEM, airline engineering, or aftermarket parts).
· Ability to read and navigate (hands on experience with) CMMs, AMMs, and IPCs, including numerical indexes, figure/item structures, and effectivity.
· Strong Excel skills (lookups, pivot tables, filtering large datasets) and comfort working with databases.
· Analytical and commercial mindset, comfortable making order-of-magnitude estimates and defending assumptions.
· Clear written and verbal English for working with a US-based team.
· Willingness to work remotely in the US time zone- Eastern Time (EST).
Preferred
· Solid understanding of aircraft system architecture and where parts are installed (mandatory).
· Procurement or reliability background: Experience in procurement, spares planning, or reliability analysis team at an airline, MRO, or aviation company. Familiarity with component removal rates, MTBUR/MTBF data, and which parts and assemblies are replaced frequently versus rarely (preferred).
· Materials knowledge: Understanding of aerospace materials (aluminum and titanium alloys, stainless steels, elastomers, composites, plastics) and their specifications, enough to judge whether a part's material and process requirements would make sourcing a reverse-engineered part difficult (preferred).
· Failure modes and criticality awareness: Working knowledge of FMEA and part criticality concepts, so that safety-critical and high-risk parts are identified and screened out early (preferred).
· Familiarity with FAA PMA requirements (14 CFR Part 21, Subpart K) or the reverse engineering and certification process (preferred).
· Experience with Airtable or similar relational database tools (preferred).
Why Join Us
· Hands-on exposure to real-world PMA and aerospace engineering and FAA related processes.
· Opportunity to develop specialized expertise in aviation eligibility and compliance.
· Collaborative team environment with mentorship and growth opportunities.
· Direct impact on engineering decisions and product development.

Work arrangement
No