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Salary: USD 215,000 - 290,000 / annual
Panthalassa is a renewable energy and ocean technology company developing devices that capture energy from the ocean for applications including computing and renewable fuels. The company is a public benefit corporation backed by leading venture capitalists and philanthropic investors, headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
You will own the manufacturing strategy, equipment definition, commissioning schedule, and production ramp as Panthalassa scales from pilot production into volume manufacturing. This role starts as an individual contributor—building models, writing equipment specs, running vendor evaluations, and standing in the building during commissioning—and grows into a leadership role where you will define, hire, and lead the industrialization and manufacturing engineering team.
Key responsibilities include:
**Manufacturing Strategy & Industrialization Planning:** Own the industrialization roadmap taking products and processes from pilot to qualified rate production. Build and maintain manufacturing capacity and cost models (takt time, station balance, throughput, yield, unit cost, capital intensity). Partner with the Director of Pilot Manufacturing to define build strategies for major structures and subsystems. Contribute to make-versus-buy and internal-versus-contract-manufacturing decisions. Provide manufacturing requirements for site selection and facility planning. Develop facility layouts and material flow plans. Provide manufacturability feedback to engineering.
**Process, Tooling, and Equipment:** Own the production equipment strategy and major equipment list for each line (welding, automation, machining, coating, NDT, inspection, assembly, test). Lead equipment specification, vendor evaluation, and selection. Define and manage the manufacturing capital plan including budgets, phasing, and long-lead-item strategy. Transfer proven processes and tooling from pilot manufacturing. Define tooling and fixture design requirements. Manage equipment vendors through design review, factory acceptance testing, delivery, installation, and site acceptance testing.
**Installation, Commissioning, and Qualification:** Own the integrated installation and commissioning schedule from facility handover through first article. Define and drive the manufacturing critical path. Establish operational readiness criteria and lead readiness reviews. Define production system requirements (ERP, MES, quality systems). Identify, track, and retire manufacturing schedule and technical risk.
**Production Ramp:** Define the manufacturing ramp curve including rate milestones, yield and learning-curve assumptions, labor ramp, and staffing plan. Set readiness criteria that gate each ramp step. Establish baseline process metrics and reporting cadence. Lead a clean handoff to the Plant Manager and stay engaged through ramp to rate. Capture and apply lessons learned.
**Team Building:** Define the industrialization and manufacturing engineering organization needed to support production at scale. Recruit, hire, and develop the team. Set technical standards, operating cadence, and priorities. Build review mechanisms including design reviews and readiness reviews. Mentor engineers across manufacturing.
You will report to the Vice President of Manufacturing and work closely with the Director of Pilot Manufacturing, Plant Managers, and partners in Supply Chain, Quality, Technical Program Management, Digital Thread, Facilities, Finance, EHS, and Marine Operations.
**Requirements:**
- 10+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, industrialization, or manufacturing operations, including time in a technical leadership role
- Direct experience taking a product or process from prototype or pilot production through installation, qualification, and rate production
- Demonstrated ownership of a manufacturing capital plan, including equipment specification, vendor selection, budgeting, and installation and commissioning schedules
- Strong quantitative skills and fluency building capacity, cost, and ramp models
- Experience defining and executing a production ramp, including realistic yield and learning-curve assumptions and discipline to gate progress on readiness
- Experience translating product designs into executable build strategies, process documentation, and station-level work content
- Willingness to operate as a hands-on individual contributor now and build a team later, with genuine interest in both
- Experience leading through influence across engineering, supply chain, quality, and site operations without direct authority over most of it
- Clear written and verbal communication, and judgment to know which decisions need a model, which need a conversation, and which need escalation
- Comfort operating with incomplete information in a fast-moving environment where the product is still maturing
**Desired Qualifications:**
- Experience industrializing large welded steel structures, pressure-retaining assemblies, marine vessels, or comparable large-format fabricated hardware
- Experience with waterfront manufacturing, shipyard or fabrication yard operations, or load-out and launch of large assemblies
- Experience scaling from prototype or pilot production into volume manufacturing at a hardware startup
- Experience hiring and building a manufacturing engineering or industrialization team from a small base
- Experience selecting and deploying automation, robotic welding, or large-envelope machining and inspection systems
- Familiarity with enterprise systems supporting production (PLM, ERP, MRP, MES, QMS)
- Experience with contract manufacturers, including qualification, technology transfer, and rate readiness
- Experience in high-consequence or capital-intensive industries (aerospace, defense, energy, shipbuilding, automotive, advanced manufacturing)
- Working knowledge of facility and industrial infrastructure requirements for heavy manufacturing
**Additional Requirements:**
This role requires regular on-site presence in Portland, Oregon, and at the pilot and contract manufacturing facility in Vancouver, Washington. Significant travel is expected, including to equipment vendors, contract manufacturers, candidate sites, and new facilities under construction. Travel will be heaviest during equipment procurement and startup phases and may include international travel. Comfort working across office, lab, fabrication, construction, and waterfront environments with personal protective equipment required in designated areas. Ability to work extended or off-shift hours intermittently during commissioning, startup, and other time-critical operational windows.
