Lead Manufacturing Engineer Hardware

Lead Manufacturing Engineer Lead the manufacturing engineering effort to scale spacecraft production while ensuring quality

Location:

Golden, Colorado

Compensation: $125, USD / year

Loft Orbital is looking for a Manufacturing Engineering Lead to help scale the way we build spacecraft. This is a hands-on, player-coach role combining technical leadership with direct Manufacturing Engineering execution. You'll spend approximately half of your time providing technical direction, prioritizing work, and mentoring Manufacturing Engineers, while remaining deeply involved in the day-to-day engineering required to build, troubleshoot, and improve our spacecraft production processes.

You’ll work directly on the production floor and partner closely with AIT, Design Engineering, Production Planning, Supply Chain, and Quality to translate spacecraft designs into robust, repeatable manufacturing processes. From developing work instructions and tooling to resolving production issues and improving manufacturability, you’ll personally own engineering work while helping the broader team operate effectively and scale.

What Success Looks Like:

You’ll be successful in this role by being equally comfortable leading the team and doing the work yourself. You’ll help Manufacturing Engineers prioritize and solve difficult problems while personally developing processes, supporting technicians, troubleshooting production issues, and driving spacecraft builds forward. Over time, your work will help turn spacecraft designs into increasingly repeatable, scalable, and production-ready manufacturing processes, enabling Loft to increase production capacity without compromising the quality and reliability required for flight hardware.

About this Role:

• Act as a hands-on Manufacturing Engineer, directly supporting spacecraft assembly, integration, and production alongside the Manufacturing Engineering team.
• Develop and maintain manufacturing process plans, detailed work instructions, routings, BOMs, and other production documentation required to execute spacecraft builds.
• Provide hands-on engineering support on the production floor, working directly with technicians to troubleshoot assembly and integration issues and remove production blockers.
• Develop and validate manufacturing processes, tooling, fixtures, equipment, and production layouts required for spacecraft assembly and integration.
• Lead root cause investigations for manufacturing and production issues and implement effective corrective and preventive actions.
• Review engineering designs and documentation for manufacturability, providing actionable Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) feedback to Design Engineering.
• Manage and maintain EBOM/MBOM/PBOM alignment, routings, work orders, and manufacturing documentation within ERP/MRP/MES environments.
• Identify and execute continuous improvement initiatives that improve quality, throughput, repeatability, ergonomics, and production efficiency.
• Lead Manufacturing Engineering activities across spacecraft builds, helping prioritize work and providing technical direction while remaining accountable for your own engineering deliverables.
• Mentor and support Manufacturing Engineers, helping develop their technical capabilities and establishing consistent Manufacturing Engineering practices across the team.
• Serve as a technical liaison between Engineering and Operations, ensuring engineering intent is translated into clear, controlled, and executable processes on the production floor.
• Identify and implement new manufacturing technologies, equipment, tooling, and automation that enable Loft to scale spacecraft production.

Must Haves:

• 8+ years of professional experience in Manufacturing Engineering, Production Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline within aerospace, spacecraft, or another complex high-reliability hardware environment.
• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership or mentorship while remaining a hands-on individual contributor within a manufacturing or…