Head of Manufacturing

About Us

We are a small, fast-moving team building next-generation gas turbine engines to power the future of aerospace, defense, and energy. Backed by leading investors and led by proven founders, we're assembling a high-performance team to reinvent propulsion and power from the ground up. This is a rare chance to create genuinely new technology and to watch it go from a sketch on your screen to hardware coming off the line and into service.

We design it, analyze it, build it, and test it, often in the same week.

We're hiring a hands-on, high-agency Head of Manufacturing to own how our engines get built, from first article through high-rate production. You will own the entire manufacturing organization: process development and automation, tooling, factory build-out, production operations, supplier qualification, and the quality systems that hold it all together.

This is a build-it role before it is a run-it role. In the near term you will work directly on the floor, develop processes yourself, and stand up the production system alongside the engineering team. As the program scales, you will own the manufacturing strategy for an entire engine line and build the organization (engineers and technicians) that runs it. The defining outcome of this role is the journey from prototype builds to repeatable, high-rate output of propulsion hardware.

• Own the full manufacturing stack for gas turbine hardware: process development, automation, tooling, production operations, and quality, from development builds through rate production.

• Drive the ramp from first articles to repeatable high-rate production, owning yield, cycle time, scrap, capacity, and cost as the program scales.

• Develop and deploy advanced manufacturing and automation: precision machining, additive (DMLS/LPBF), robotics and custom equipment, sheet metal, brazing, welding (TIG/EB/laser), heat treatment, coatings, and rotor balancing.

• Translate designs into scalable, repeatable production methods with clear alignment on cost, quality, and schedule.

• Lead manufacturing process validation (PFMEA, PPAP, first article inspection, control plans) and mature the documentation and work-instruction infrastructure the floor runs on.

• Provide authoritative DFM/DFA input to engineering at the design stage: early, direct, grounded in production reality, and aimed at parts that can be held to tolerance at scale.

• Own tooling, fixture, and gauging strategy across internal and external production.

• Build and qualify a supplier and manufacturing-partner base capable of supporting flight-rate production; own process audits and first article reviews.

• Establish and enforce manufacturing quality systems aligned with AS9100 and applicable regulatory requirements (NADCAP, ITAR/EAR).

• Support engine integration and test campaigns with manufacturable, fieldable solutions.

• Build, mentor, and lead the manufacturing team (engineers and technicians) as the program scales from a hands-on core to a full production organization.

• B.S. or higher in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Aerospace, Industrial, or Materials Engineering, or equivalent depth of experience.

• 10+ years in manufacturing, production, or advanced-manufacturing engineering, with demonstrated ownership of the path from prototype through high-rate production.

• Proven track record scaling a complex hardware program from development to high-volume production, owning the operational metrics that come with it.

• Deep working knowledge of precision machining, additive manufacturing, and modern production methods relevant to aerospace hardware; experience with factory automation, equipment engineering, or robotics a strong plus; familiarity with EDM, rotor balancing, and specialty joining processes a plus.

• Strong DFM/DFA background with the ability to push back on design intelligently and constructively.

• Experience establishing and operating manufacturing quality systems in regulated environments (AS9100, NADCAP, DoD/FAA); familiarity with ITAR/EAR.

• Proven ability to build and qualify a supplier base for flight-grade components.

• Proven people leader: built and led teams of engineers and technicians,…