Senior Production Systems & Manufacturing Engineer

Senior Production Systems & Manufacturing Engineer

Denver, CO or Los Angeles (South Bay), CA | Full-time | Onsite

A growth-stage satellite company is designing its first spacecraft factory, and it needs the person who decides how that factory works.

This is the most senior manufacturing technical role in the business. You will architect how space vehicles get built at scale: the production strategy, rate plan, factory layout, product and material flow, automation choices and digital factory stack that take the company from low-rate builds to high-rate production. A production manager already runs the floor. This role designs the system they run.

Space experience is not required. Cleanrooms, ESD and environmental test can be learned with the team. What can’t be taught is knowing how to architect a factory that works at rate.

What you’ll own
– Multi-year production roadmap: rate targets, ramp phases, readiness gates and the investment behind each
– Capacity, takt, cycle time, staffing, WIP and cost-per-unit models that leadership uses to make decisions
– Factory architecture and layout for a new Denver site, from concept through construction and commissioning
– Automation strategy, and where manual flexibility beats automation at this rate
– MES, ERP, PLM and traceability architecture
– Integrating functional and environmental test into the flow so test never becomes the constraint
– DFMA influence back into engineering, so products are designed for rate from the start
– Make/buy and vertical integration calls, with CapEx business cases

What we’re looking for
– 15+ years in manufacturing, industrial or production engineering on complex hardware
– You have personally architected and launched at least one large-scale production system (a new factory, a new line or a major rate ramp) and taken it to stable rate
– High-rate background: automotive/EV, batteries, aircraft, defense, semiconductors, electronics or medical devices
– Deep command of layout, flow, line balancing, takt modeling, lean and DFMA
– Experience defining or implementing MES, ERP or PLM
– A senior technical authority who still wants to do the work, not manage it
– U.S. person (ITAR); able to obtain a U.S. security clearance

Nice to have
– Greenfield factory experience with architects, contractors and equipment suppliers
– Plant Simulation, DELMIA, FlexSim or similar
– Electronics or electromechanical assembly, cleanroom or ESD-controlled production

Package: competitive base/bonus + equity. Relocation available.