Job Summary
Role Purpose
We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to work directly with the Amphenol Commercial Products Business (CBP) engineering organization to identify, build, and deploy AI-enabled solutions that improve engineering productivity and accelerate New Product Introduction.
The FDE will work alongside CBP product-development, design, manufacturing, and engineering leadership teams to understand real engineering workflows, identify high-value friction points, rapidly prototype solutions, and take successful solutions into production.
This is not a traditional IT or software-development role.
The FDE combines:
Engineering understanding + AI/software engineering + problem discovery + rapid prototyping + deployment
The primary mission is to help CBP engineers spend more time on new product concepts, next-generation designs, and critical engineering decisions, while reducing effort spent on repetitive engineering activities.
Key Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities 1. Embed with CBP Engineering Teams Work directly with CBP product engineers, designers, engineering leads, manufacturing engineers, and product-development leadership. Understand workflows such as: Customer requirement intake Product concept development Connector and hardware design Detailed design and drafting Drawing creation BOM development Design reviews DFM/DFA Prototype development Engineering testing Validation Engineering changes Product release The FDE should observe how engineers actually perform work rather than relying only on documented procedures. 2. Identify High-Value AI Interventions Continuously identify engineering activities where AI, automation, analytics, or software can improve productivity. Typical CBP opportunities may include: Reuse of previous product designs Search across historical engineering data Automated engineering documentation Drawing and print preparation support Similar-product identification Design-rule checking NPI documentation Engineering change impact analysis Test-data analysis Should-cost support DFM decision support 3. Engineering Knowledge & Design Reuse Develop AI capabilities that allow engineers to quickly find and reuse relevant historical engineering knowledge. Potential capabilities include: Find similar historical designs Retrieve drawings and specifications Search previous NPI programs Identify reusable components Find historical engineering decisions Retrieve test and qualification results Identify prior manufacturing issues Surface lessons learned from similar designs The objective is to reduce the need for engineers to manually search across multiple systems and repositories. 4. AI-Assisted NPI Develop AI capabilities that support CBP’s NPI process from customer requirement through product release. Potential workflow: Customer requirement → Historical design search → Concept → Detailed design → Cost → DFM → Documentation → Testing → Release The FDE should identify opportunities where AI can reduce cycle time at each stage without compromising engineering quality. 5. Drawing & Engineering Documentation Automation Identify repetitive engineering documentation activities that can be partially automated. Potential applications include: Drawing preparation Engineering notes Product specifications BOM documentation Test reports Qualification documents Design review packages Release documentation The goal is to allow CBP’s senior engineers to focus more heavily on product architecture, design decisions, and future product development. 6. Engineering Change Intelligence Build solutions supporting ECN/PCN and related engineering-change workflows. Potential capabilities include: Identify affected components Determine drawing impact Determine BOM impact Find related products Identify manufacturing impact Compare previous similar changes Generate change summaries Track required documentation 7. Design-to-Cost Intelligence Develop tools that give engineers earlier visibility into the cost implications of design decisions. Potential use cases include: Historical product-cost comparison Material-cost analysis Manufacturing-process cost Component-cost comparisons Design alternative evaluation Should-cost analysis Cost-performance trade-offs The objective is to introduce cost intelligence earlier in the engineering process rather than after design completion. 8. Testing & Validation Intelligence Work with CBP engineering teams to improve how test and qualification data is analyzed and reused. Potential capabilities include: Analyze historical test results Compare current design performance with previous products Identify recurring failure patterns Recommend relevant historical test cases Generate test-result summaries Identify anomalies Improve reuse of qualification knowledge 9. Rapid Prototyping The FDE should build solutions directly with CBP engineers using an iterative approach: Observe → Define problem →
Skill Requirements
Preferred Experience
- NPI, product development, design engineering, DFM/DFA, testing and validation, or manufacturing engineering.
- CAD/PLM environments such as PTC Windchill, Creo, SolidWorks, or similar platforms.
- Engineering change management, design reuse initiatives, and engineering documentation processes.
- Experience within connector, interconnect, electronics, or industrial product development domains.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechanical, Electrical, Manufacturing, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
- 5+ years of experience in engineering, product development, industrial technology, AI, or engineering software solutions.
- Strong programming skills, preferably in Python.
- Experience with APIs, databases, enterprise applications, and Generative AI technologies (LLMs, RAG, AI Agents).
- Ability to rapidly prototype and deploy technical solutions in cross-functional engineering environments.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and stakeholder communication skills.
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Technical Environment
The FDE should be comfortable working with engineering and enterprise systems relevant to CBP, including potentially:
- PTC Windchill
- Creo
- SolidWorks
- PLM repositories
- Engineering databases
- ERP systems
- Test systems
- Quality systems
- Microsoft platforms
- Structured and unstructured engineering files
Other Requirements
Preferred Experience
Experience in one or more of the following is highly desirable:
- Connector design
- High-speed interconnect products
- Mechanical product design
- Electrical product development
- Data-center hardware
- Electronics
- CAD/PLM environments
- NPI
- DFM/DFA
- Engineering change management
- Product testing and validation
- Manufacturing engineering
Experience with PTC Windchill, Creo, SolidWorks, or similar engineering environments is strongly preferred.
Success Measures
- Reduced NPI cycle time.
- Increased reuse of historical designs and engineering knowledge.
- Reduced engineering documentation effort.
- Faster engineering change and product release processes.
- Improved testing and validation productivity.
- Measurable engineering productivity gains through deployed AI solutions.
Mission:
Find engineering friction, build AI solutions, prove engineering value, and scale successful capabilities across CBP engineering to enable faster product development and greater engineering innovation.