Director Manufacturing

About Knightscope

Knightscope (NASDAQ: KSCP) is a security technology company building the nation's first Autonomous Security Force — autonomous machines, AI-driven software, and elite security professionals operating as one integrated managed service. The Company is on a mission to make the United States of America the safest country in the world. One Team. One Force.

The Director Manufacturing is Knightscope's senior-most manufacturing leader and a direct report to the CEO, accountable end-to-end from supplier to shipped machine: manufacturing engineering, production, and supply chain. This is an industrialization mandate, not a caretaker role. Knightscope designs, builds, deploys, and operates its own fleet of Autonomous Security Robots (ASRs) and Emergency Communication Devices (ECD) as part of a fully managed service — so this role is measured on machines performing in the field, not just units leaving the dock.

The immediate mission: reconfigure facility to manufacture the K7 ASR and H1 ASA while sustaining current K5 ASR, K1 Hemisphere and Emergency Communication Device (ECD) production; drive assembly hours and unit costs to automotive-caliber targets; and institutionalize the engineering discipline — design for manufacturability, formal engineering change control, standard work — that makes output predictable. The Director operates with full authority and full accountability, and builds an organization that performs without executive intervention.

• Own the facility reconfiguration: layout, station design, tooling, fixtures, test capability, and capacity planning
• Lead advanced manufacturing engineering through New Product Introduction alongside the Chief Program Engineers (K7, K1/H1): DFM/DFA reviews, process FMEAs, pilot builds, launch readiness, and the transition from prototype to repeatable production.
• Drive assembly-hour and unit-cost reduction to automotive standards across all product lines using time studies, standard work, and design change proposals.
• Enforce the Knightscope Product Development System (KPDS) and formal ECO discipline with Engineering: no production builds without released drawings, accurate BOMs, and validated work instructions.

• Own daily production output, quality, and on-time fulfillment across ASR and ECD lines, including daily/weekly fulfillment reporting.
• Establish a finished-goods operating model so orders ship from stock, not from the end of the line, in support of company shipment targets.
• Own quality systems and continuous improvement on the floor: standard work, 5S, first-pass yield, scrap/rework reduction, and 8D/CAPA closure with Engineering and Service.
• Own environmental health and safety on the manufacturing floor, including Cal/OSHA compliance, incident prevention, and investigation.

• Own the supply chain through the Supply Chain Manager: supplier strategy, early supplier involvement in design, negotiated agreements, and material availability.
• Eliminate shortage-driven line stoppages: demand planning, min/max discipline, zero-quantity fail-safes, and BOM/data accuracy in Net Suite.
• Drive make/buy decisions and domestic sourcing resilience consistent with an exclusively U.S.
  
  -focused business.
• Own outside-processing relationships (build partners, paint, fabrication, cable assembly): performance, capacity flex, and the make-versus-buy roadmap as volume grows.

• Build, develop, and hold accountable the manufacturing organization; establish a promote-from-within career ladder for technicians and supervisors.
• Own the manufacturing budget, cost of goods sold, and capital planning: equipment, tooling, automation, and in-house prototyping investments with clear payback.
• Own and grow the operations analytics capability already in place — labor-hours-per-build by technician, dashboards, backlog-coverage-by-inventory reporting — as the management operating system of the factory.
• Report manufacturing KPIs (shipment value, assembly hours per unit, labor utilization, first-pass yield, material availability, cost per unit, on-time…