Chief Operating Officer

Ready to take your operations experience to the Space sector?...

Are you an exceptional operations leader with a proven track record in sophisticated manufacturing, eager to apply your expertise to the ever expanding space industry? A scaling Space Tech company is seeking a Chief Operating Officer or General Manager to lead its new, state-of-the-art production facility in Colorado. This is your chance to be at the forefront of innovation, contributing to the creation of critical, high-value systems that power the future of space exploration and technology.

This pivotal role will be instrumental in establishing and maintaining world-class manufacturing standards, driving efficiency, and overseeing critical operational functions for complex, high-performance space components. We are looking for a strategic thinker and hands-on leader who can act as a "gatekeeper" for our production environment, ensuring rigorous standards and seamless product development transitions from engineering to manufacturing.

While this is operating in Space Tech, our client is very open to manufacturing discipline from outside the sector. Their manufacturing scale isn't mass-market (millions of units like consumer electronics), nor is it a bespoke laboratory. They produce standardized, high-performance products in significant, repeatable quantities. Therefore they need a leader who thrives in this sweet spot: high enough volume to require rigorous discipline, but lean enough to require hands-on strategic agility.

• Oversee all aspects of factory operations, including purchasing, quality assurance, supply chain management, and production scheduling for space-grade systems.
• Manage inventory, equipment, and facilities for the new production site, ensuring readiness for advanced manufacturing.
• Supervise engineering functions related to product development and qualification handoff to the factory, integrating seamlessly with our R&D efforts.
• Implement and champion traditional, robust manufacturing approaches, fostering a culture of precision, efficiency, and unwavering quality.
• Lead and develop a small team of production and support staff, building a foundation for future operational excellence.

• Proven leadership experience (e.g., General Manager, COO, VP Operations) in a manufacturing environment.
• Experience should be focused on producing sophisticated, standardized products in moderate volumes (e.g., hundreds or thousands of units, rather than hundreds of thousands/millions), where precision and quality are paramount.
• A strong understanding of regulated manufacturing markets and adherence to stringent quality controls, even if your background isn't directly in space.
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain rigorous production standards, acting as a gatekeeper to ensure consistency and quality in a fast-paced R&D environment.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively with R&D teams while ensuring disciplined manufacturing processes.

• Manufacturing environments where products are built to extremely high specifications and quality, often with regulatory oversight, but not at mass-consumer scale.
• Experience with complex electromechanical or high-precision component assembly.
• Backgrounds in industries that emphasize standardized product lines with consistent, repeatable production processes.

Highly competitive, with a salary range of $220,000 - $300,000+ for the right General Manager/COO profile, alongside equity opportunities, reflecting the critical nature of this role in a high-growth sector.

If you are passionate about applying your manufacturing leadership to the space sector, driving operational excellence, and thrive in a challenging yet rewarding environment, we encourage you to apply.