SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America, combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing to help aerospace and defense companies build rockets, satellites, aircraft, ships, and other mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost. The company recently closed a $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation and is rapidly expanding its manufacturing footprint across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more.
In this role, you will design, deploy, and commission automation for additive manufacturing (AM) cell workflows, including powder handling and transport, build plate and build unit exchange, depowdering, part removal, and downstream logistics into post-processing. You will own the safety architecture for AM cell automation—risk assessment, guarding, presence sensing, emergency stop and interlock logic—and validate it against aerospace and defense production requirements. You'll engineer automation around powder safely per NFPA 484 combustible dust controls, inert gas handling, and grounding and bonding practice in coordination with site EHS and the Materials and Process team.
You will define automation interface requirements (mechanical, electrical, and data) and work with the Machine Controls & Data Integration Engineer to ensure cell automation is represented in the OPUS platform. You'll partner with the Hadrian Automation team on interfaces, handoffs, and the joint AM cell automation roadmap, integrating proven vendor equipment in preference to custom builds. You will execute Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) and Site Acceptance Test (SAT) for automation equipment, define performance acceptance criteria tied to cycle time, throughput, and reliability, and own reliability and maintenance programs including preventive maintenance schedules, spares strategy, and root cause analysis. You'll identify and eliminate automation bottlenecks to improve build throughput, changeover time, and machine utilization using manufacturing data infrastructure, and document and standardize cell automation so solutions transfer to additional Hadrian factories without re-engineering.
This is a full-time, on-site role in Torrance, California, with up to 25% travel to Hadrian deployment sites, integrators, and OEM facilities.
**Requirements:**
- Bachelor's degree in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or related field
- 4+ years designing, deploying, and sustaining automation solutions in production manufacturing environments
- Hands-on experience with industrial robotics, material handling systems, and machine tending automation, including PLC-level familiarity with the cells you deploy
- Demonstrated competency in machine safety: risk assessment and functional safety design per ISO 12100 and ISO 13849 or equivalent, and hands-on safety interlock implementation and validation
- Experience commissioning automation equipment and executing structured acceptance testing against defined performance criteria
- Familiarity with machine integration and control interfaces in a factory automation context
- Must be a U.S. person for ITAR purposes—a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or otherwise eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
**Preferred Qualifications:**
- Experience deploying automation in metal additive manufacturing or powder metallurgy environments
- Experience with combustible dust and inert atmosphere handling, including NFPA 484 practice
- Background in aerospace or defense production with safety-critical automation requirements
- Familiarity with collaborative robotics and human-robot interaction safety standards (ISO 10218, ISO/TS 15066)
- Experience standing up the same automation solution at more than one site or factory
