Director of Manufacturing Engineering

Beehive Industries is dedicated to Powering American Defense by revolutionizing the design, development, and delivery of jet propulsion systems to support the warfighter. Through the integration of additive manufacturing, the company aims to meet the growing and urgent needs for unmanned aerial defense by dramatically improving a jet engine’s speed to market, fuel efficiency, and cost.

Founded in 2020, the company is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, with additional facilities in Knoxville, Tennessee, Loveland Ohio, and Mount Vernon, Ohio. Beehive is committed to grow and advance the defense industrial base while manufacturing exclusively in the USA. This role will be located at our Centennial, Colorado facility.

The Director of Manufacturing Engineering will own end-to-end manufacturing engineering strategy and execution across the product lifecycle, from new product introduction (NPI) through production ramp and rate manufacturing.

This role unifies distributed Centers of Excellence (NPI, Additive, Machining, Assembly & Test) under a single technical vision, ensuring seamless part transitions, robust process definition, and achievement of cost, quality, and rate targets.

The Director will bring deep expertise in additive manufacturing and serve as a key partner to Design Engineering, using data-driven insights to influence design decisions, drive DFM/DFAM, and optimize lifecycle cost, while leading and mentoring a team of Manufacturing Engineers across multiple sites.

• Lifecycle Ownership & Production Readiness
• Own manufacturing engineering across the full product lifecycle: NPI through production ramp and rate manufacturing
• Ensure robust manufacturing release readiness, including CTQs, process capability, and transfer gates
• Lead transition to production, including rate readiness, line balancing, and tooling/fixture readiness
• Align NPI, Additive, Machining, and Assembly & Test COEs under a unified operating model [AB1]
• Establish cross-site standards for process definition, handoffs, data traceability, and work instructions
• Drive repeatability, scalability, and efficiency across geographically distributed teams
• Additive Manufacturing & Technical Leadership
• Serve as the technical authority for additive manufacturing
• Define print strategies, post-processing workflows, and yield optimization approaches
• Drive DFAM adoption and ensure outputs are optimized for downstream manufacturing processes
• Design Partnership & DFM
• Partner with Design Engineering to influence designs using manufacturing data
• Drive DFM/DFAM and lifecycle cost optimization
• Establish feedback loops from NPI and production to continuously improve design and manufacturability
• Process Excellence & Performance
• Develop and standardize tooling strategies, process flows, and validation plans
• Drive improvements in yield, throughput, cost, and automation
• Ensure robust process validation prior to production release and sustained operational performance
• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and direction to Manufacturing Engineers across sites and COEs
• Support alignment of priorities and execution across a distributed engineering team

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Manufacturing, Mechanical, Industrial, or related field)
• 10–15+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, preferably in aerospace or complex hardware
• Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams in a multi-site or cross-functional environment
• Deep expertise in additive manufacturing (metal AM preferred)
• Experience across NPI, prototyping, production ramp, and high-rate manufacturing
• Strong background in DFM/DFAM, process validation, tooling, and production systems
• Demonstrated ability to operate strategically and execute tactically
• The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issues security clearance is required. U.S. Citizenship is required, as only U.S. Citizens are eligible for a security clearance.

In compliance with Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, the salary range for this position is $195,000-$215,000 base salary. Please note that wage information is a general guideline only, and we will consider factors such as (but not…