Manager, Manufacturing & Test Engineering

Forge Atomics

Humanity faces two critical challenges: securing reliable energy and aggressively lowering our environmental impact. At Forge, we believe nuclear fission is the key to solving both ay Forge is developing the technology to rapidly scale the deployment of nuclear fission.

As the Manager of Manufacturing & Test Engineering, this position involves establishing the team that designs, brings up, and continuously improves the production and test capability behind our first nuclear reactor – Ember, and growing it from its first hires into a complete engineering organization. The manager will own all build and test engineering functions required to run the factory, plus factory operations — ensuring component production, assembly, and acceptance test processes maintain the highest safety, quality, and production rate standards while overseeing equipment selection, facilities planning, staffing, and new product introduction.

Successful candidates will have previously built and led high-performing manufacturing or test engineering teams, and will be highly motivated to power humanity with abundant, clean energy.

Responsibilities

• Recruit, build, and lead a team of 10+ engineers and specialists spanning manufacturing engineering, test engineering, and factory operations

• Lead the team through all phases of the product life cycle, from first prototype builds through rate production, while ensuring all standards and requirements are upheld

• Own the design, bring-up, operation, and continuous improvement of production cells and test stands across the factory (e.g., machining and fabrication, heat exchanger production, structures, skid production, final assembly, and electrical and pressure test)

• Own factory operations: production scheduling, material flow, and capacity and resource planning to meet build targets

• Act as the technical decision maker and advisor on manufacturing techniques and test methods

• Develop and implement business, manufacturing, and production metrics to measure and optimize productivity

• Ensure a strong focus on safety and maintain an excellent safety record

• Champion continuous improvement projects using appropriate metrics and data sources

• Partner with design engineering to ensure new hardware meets manufacturability, inspectability, and cost goals

• Act as a forcing function for excellence and aggressively focus on cost reduction

• Monitor and communicate factory status, readiness, and risks to leadership

• Implement equipment maintenance schedules and spares availability strategies

• Recruit, develop, train, and retain world-class leaders and individual contributors

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline

• 4+ years of experience in engineering, production, manufacturing, or operations

• 2+ years of direct leadership or management experience leading engineers

Preferred Skills and Experience

• 4+ years of leadership experience in manufacturing environments transitioning products from development to production

• Experience standing up new production lines, test capability, or an entire factory from a clean sheet

• High degree of comfort on the factory floor identifying and executing efficiency improvements

• Experience with process development and qualification, new product introduction, capacity and resource planning, and lean manufacturing

• Experience with design for manufacturability, assembly, inspectability, and reliability

• Ability to influence other organizations through engineering and business rationale and data

• Ability to effectively organize, assign, and track work and deliverables

• Demonstrated exceptional achievements rapidly improving production through process improvements

• Demonstrated ability to mentor and coach growing leaders

• Experience with manufacturing and test processes such as precision machining, welding and fabrication, heat exchanger production, or electrical and pressure testing of complex assemblies

Additional Requirements

• Position will be based in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County and will require relocation if not already local. The position will be full-time in the office.

• Ability to work extended…