Technical search for precision engineering in Vietnam.
Vietnam's precision base grew out of supplying other people's assembly lines — foreign-owned machining plants and a layer of local shops that spent years cutting to tolerances set by customers in Japan, Korea and Europe. The work is now moving up: aerospace engine parts, components for semiconductor equipment and medical devices, each arriving with its own certification — AS9100, ISO 13485 — and far less tolerance for a bad lot. That discipline is the foundation this sector stands on, and it is being tested at a higher level than before.
It also means a candidate's real level is measurable in a way it isn't elsewhere. A shop either holds five microns repeatably, with a Cpk above 1.33, or it doesn't. But tolerance capability usually belongs to the machine, the fixture, the material and the operator together — not one person. An engineer from a well-equipped shop may never have solved a hard tolerance problem themselves; someone from a leaner shop may have spent years compensating for thermal growth, tool wear and fixturing distortion, and knows far more about why parts move.
Tooling and die work adds another layer. A die that runs a million cycles and one that fails at two hundred thousand can come from the same drawing, and the difference sits entirely in the hands of whoever specified the steel grade, the heat treatment and coating, and the punch-to-die clearances.
Roles we search for
Machining and CNC
CNC machinist · CNC programmer · CAM programmer · 5-axis machining engineer · Turning and milling process engineer · Grinding engineer · EDM engineer · Swiss-type machining specialist · Machining process engineer
Tooling, mould and die
Mould design engineer · Die design engineer · Tool and die maker · Mould making engineer · Jig and fixture designer · Cutting tool engineer · Tool room manager · Die maintenance engineer
Design and engineering
Mechanical design engineer · Product design engineer · Design for manufacture engineer · CAD engineer · CAE and simulation engineer · Tolerance and GD&T engineer · Prototype engineer
Metrology and inspection
Metrology engineer · CMM programmer and operator · Calibration engineer · Optical measurement engineer · Inspection engineer · Measurement systems analysis specialist · Quality laboratory manager
Sheet metal and fabrication
Sheet metal engineer · Stamping process engineer · Laser cutting and bending engineer · Welding engineer · Weld fixture engineer · Fabrication supervisor
Surface and heat treatment
Surface treatment engineer · Plating and anodising engineer · Coating engineer · Painting engineer · Heat treatment engineer · Materials engineer · Corrosion and finishing specialist
Additive and advanced processes
Additive manufacturing engineer · Laser processing engineer · Micro-machining engineer · Ultra-precision machining engineer · Automation and robotics engineer
Quality and reliability
Quality manager · Quality engineer · Supplier quality engineer · Customer quality engineer · Failure analysis engineer · Quality systems engineer · Reliability engineer
Production and operations
Production manager · Production engineer · Industrial engineer · Planning and scheduling manager · Lean and continuous improvement manager · Shop floor supervisor · Maintenance manager · Equipment engineer
NPI and programme management
NPI engineer · New product introduction manager · Project engineer · Programme manager · Costing and estimation engineer · Technical sales engineer · Application engineer
Supply chain and sourcing
Purchasing manager · Materials manager · Supplier development engineer · Sourcing engineer · Logistics manager
Leadership
Plant manager · Factory director · Engineering manager · Technical director · Operations director · Quality director · Head of tooling
These searches start at a gross monthly package of around 50 million VND, or below that when several roles are open at once.
What we look at
The tolerances they actually held in production, not on a spec sheet, with the Cpk to show it, and on which machines: 3-axis, 5-axis simultaneous, Swiss-type, jig grinding, wire and sinker EDM. Materials worked — aluminium is not titanium is not Inconel or hardened tool steel. Whether they programmed, set up or supervised, and in which CAM system. Scrap and rework rates before and after their involvement. For tooling roles: die or mould life achieved, and what was changed to get there. For sheet metal and fabrication: material grade and thickness, the tolerances they held after forming and welding, and how they controlled distortion. For surface and heat treatment: which processes they ran, to which specification, and how they proved the result — hardness traverse, coating thickness, salt spray. For additive and advanced processes: what they actually produced in metal rather than prototyped in plastic, and whether the part went into service. For metrology: GD&T depth to ASME Y14.5 or ISO GPS, CMM programming, whether they have run a gauge R&R, and whether they have handled a customer dispute over measurement. For aerospace and medical work: which audits they have been through, and first article inspection to AS9102. For production and operations: machine utilisation, setup time reduction, and whether the shop got faster or merely busier. For NPI and estimating: how close their quoted cost came to the real cost once the job ran. For supply chain roles: which processes they subcontracted, and how they controlled quality they could not see.
Vietnam's precision base has grown around aerospace, medical and electronics supply chains, and the best people are concentrated in a relatively small number of shops. Roles requiring sub-micron capability or five-axis complexity draw from a narrow pool that most of the industry already knows. We'll tell you how narrow before the search starts.