Quote Engineer

QUOTE ENGINEER

ABOUT THE ROLE
The Quote Engineer owns the technical and commercial estimating process for printed circuit board fabrication and assembly (PCBA) opportunities. This role sits at the intersection of engineering, purchasing, and sales — translating customer data packages into accurate, competitive, and buildable quotes. You'll scrub BOMs, create component sourcing plans for purchasing to execute, evaluate fab drawings, estimate assembly labor, and flag manufacturability risks before they become production problems. This role does not source components directly — it defines the sourcing strategy that purchasing acts on.
This is a high-visibility role: quote accuracy and turnaround time directly drive win rate and margin. You'll work daily with inside sales, program management, purchasing, and production engineering, and you'll interface with customers to resolve engineering questions (EQs) during the quoting cycle.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Quoting & Estimating

• Perform a technical review of customer RFQ packages (BOMs, Gerbers/ODB++, fab drawings, assembly drawings, specifications) for completeness and quotability
• Perform BOM scrubs: validate manufacturer part numbers, identify lifecycle risks (EOL/NRND), flag long-lead and allocation-risk components, and propose form-fit-function alternates where authorized
• Generate component sourcing plans based on franchised distribution availability; evaluate pricing, lead time, MOQ, and packaging to support quote accuracy and hand off to purchasing for execution
• Quote bare PCB fabrication against IPC-6012 requirements including layer count, material, controlled impedance, surface finish, and tolerances
• Estimate SMT and through-hole assembly labor using placement counts, process steps (wash, conformal coat, test, inspection), and workmanship class (IPC-A-610 / J-STD-001 Class 2/3)
• Build complete cost models covering materials, labor, tooling/NRE, stencils, test, and overhead; apply margin strategy per account and market conditions
• Deliver formal quotations within committed turnaround times and maintain quote logs and win/loss data

Engineering Review

• Identify DFM/DFA issues during quoting and document them for customer disposition
• Draft and manage engineering questions (EQs) to customers; track responses and incorporate answers into final pricing
• Review technical flow downs (ITAR/EAR, AS9100D quality clauses, counterfeit mitigation, special processes) and identify cost or compliance impacts

Cross-Functional Support

• Intercompany communication is critical to this role: work and collaborate directly with sales, purchasing, planning, engineering, and production teams daily
• Support program management on requote activity for ECOs, quantity changes, and material repricing
• Coordinate with purchasing on strategy for risk buys, broker escalation policies, and excess material
• Feed lessons learned from production variances back into estimating models to improve accuracy