Manufacturing Engineer; Onsite​/Hybrid

Manufacturing Engineer (Onsite/Hybrid)

San Francisco Bay Area

Manufacturing Engineer

The mining industry has steadily become worse at finding new ore deposits, requiring >10X more capital to make discoveries compared to 30 years ago. The easy-to-find, near-surface deposits have largely been found, and the industry has chronically under-invested in new exploration technology, relying on the manual techniques of yesteryear – even as demand accelerates for copper, lithium, and other metals to build electric vehicles, renewable energy, and data centers.

KoBold builds AI models for mineral exploration and deploys those models—alongside our novel sensors—to guide decisions on KoBold-owned-and-operated exploration programs. In the six years since founding, KoBold has become by far both the largest independent mineral exploration company and the largest exploration technology developer. Our data scientists and software engineers, who come from leading technology companies, jointly lead exploration programs with our renowned exploration geologists.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, Step Stone, and Standard Investments; and natural resources companies Equinor, BHP, and Mitsubishi.

About the Role

The Manufacturing Engineer will be a member of KoBold's Advanced Technology Group (ATG), which develops and deploys new hardware technology to support Kobold's exploration and mine development efforts. As the technology matures, we move to developing multiple or even dozens of complex systems that need to be repeatable, high quality and deployable to often harsh environments. The manufacturing engineer will be responsible for turning prototype level hardware into reliably built, documented, and deployed systems.

This is a many-hatted role, taking on more than routine manufacturing engineering. This person will simultaneously be a manufacturing engineer, supplier development, quality, and build owner/supervisor. This person will own the physical build environment including the lab, shop floor, and receiving as well as owning the relevant supply chain. They will also establish the documentation and quality practices that let ATG scale from one-off prototypes to repeatable production.

At Kobold we see engineering and manufacturing as inextricably linked and interdependent and we strive to achieve minimal friction between these roles. To that end, this person will work extremely collaboratively with technical leads and design engineers to mature Kobold's technology.

Responsibilities

Build Management

• Plan and manage hardware builds, from prototype through low-volume production—scheduling, kitting, and coordinating across engineering and vendors.
• Track build status, bills of materials, and part availability to keep builds on schedule.
• Identify and resolve manufacturing bottlenecks and design-for-manufacturability issues in coordination with design engineers.

Lab & Shop Floor Management

• Own the day-to-day operation of the lab and shop floor—layout, equipment, tooling, consumables, and safety.
• Maintain and calibrate shop and test equipment; manage service and maintenance schedules.
• Establish and enforce shop floor practices, workflows, and safety standards.
• Specify and source equipment as needed

Receiving & Quality

• Own the receiving process—inspection, verification against POs, and intake into inventory.
• Establish incoming and in-process quality checks; track and resolve nonconformances with suppliers.
• Manage returns, rework, and supplier quality issues.

Supply Chain & Sourcing

• Source components and services—identify, qualify, and develop vendors for hardware builds and ATG projects.
• Own vendor relationships and follow-up—drive on-time delivery, resolve issues, and hold suppliers accountable.
• Manage ordering and inventory—place orders, track stock, and keep parts available to support builds.

Documentation & Documentation Control

• Create and maintain build and deployment documentation—work instructions, assembly procedures, test protocols, and…