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Salary: USD 225,000 - 275,000 / annual
CX2 is seeking a Head of Manufacturing to lead and scale manufacturing operations for complex hardware in a fast-paced defense environment. This is a hands-on leadership role requiring someone who can own strategy, processes, people, facilities, and systems to deliver high-quality products at increasing volumes.
You will be responsible for building the manufacturing organization from the ground up, not simply inheriting one. The role demands comfort with both long-term strategic planning and significant time on the production floor solving immediate technical problems. You will establish structure and discipline without unnecessary bureaucracy, recognizing that in a rapidly growing defense company, manufacturing is a critical partner to engineering and essential for delivering capable systems to customers quickly and reliably.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning overall manufacturing strategy, production operations, and execution across the organization
- Building and scaling manufacturing capabilities to support transition from prototype and low-rate initial production (LRIP) to higher-volume production
- Establishing production processes, workflows, tooling, work instructions, and manufacturing standards that improve quality, throughput, and repeatability
- Leading manufacturing teams across production, manufacturing engineering, technicians, integration, and test
- Partnering closely with Mechanical, Electrical, RF, Systems, Test, and other engineering teams to ensure products are designed for manufacturability and assembly
- Driving Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) into the product development lifecycle
- Owning production planning and capacity planning to meet aggressive customer and program schedules
- Developing manufacturing KPIs around yield, throughput, cycle time, quality, cost, schedule performance, and capacity
- Identifying production bottlenecks and implementing processes, automation, tooling, or equipment to improve efficiency
- Establishing configuration control, documentation, traceability, and production discipline appropriate for defense and aerospace products
- Standing up and enabling Quality to establish inspection, acceptance, non-conformance, corrective-action, and continuous-improvement processes
- Working closely with Supply Chain to identify critical suppliers, mitigate material constraints, and ensure production readiness
- Developing make-versus-buy strategies for critical components and assemblies
- Owning manufacturing facility planning, including production layout, equipment, tooling, lab space, ESD-controlled environments, and future capacity requirements
- Supporting customer deliveries, production readiness reviews, audits, and other manufacturing-related customer or government requirements
- Recruiting, developing, and leading a high-performing manufacturing organization while maintaining a culture of accountability, urgency, quality, and continuous improvement
Requirements:
- 5+ years of experience in manufacturing, operations, manufacturing engineering, or production leadership, preferably within defense, aerospace, autonomous systems, robotics, or complex electromechanical hardware
- Demonstrated experience building or scaling a manufacturing operation, ideally from prototype or low-rate production into repeatable production
- Strong understanding of manufacturing complex electromechanical systems, including mechanical assemblies, electronics, wiring/harnessing, integration, and system-level test
- Experience working closely with engineering organizations to transition products from R&D/NPI into production
- Strong understanding of production planning, manufacturing engineering, quality systems, supply chain, and inventory management
- Experience developing production processes, work instructions, tooling, fixtures, test equipment, and manufacturing documentation
- Familiarity with aerospace and defense quality and compliance environments, such as AS9100, ISO 9001, configuration management, and product traceability
- Experience managing manufacturing schedules and delivering hardware against aggressive program milestones
- Strong analytical skills and experience using manufacturing data and KPIs to drive operational improvements
- Demonstrated ability to recruit, develop, and manage manufacturing engineers, production personnel, and technicians
- Ability to operate effectively in an environment where priorities move quickly and leaders are expected to be hands-on problem solvers rather than purely organizational managers
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent relevant experience
Bonus qualifications:
- Experience manufacturing UAS, RF/EW systems, avionics, communications systems, sensors, or other mission-critical defense hardware
- Experience scaling production for a defense technology startup or other rapidly growing hardware company
- Experience with NPI, LRIP, production qualification, and production readiness reviews
- Knowledge of ITAR/EAR requirements and manufacturing within controlled defense environments
- Experience implementing or improving ERP/MRP/MES systems
- Experience with Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, root-cause analysis, and continuous-improvement methodologies
- Experience establishing new production facilities or significantly expanding manufacturing capacity
- Familiarity with government programs, defense customers, and manufacturing requirements associated with DoD contracts
Note: To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a US Citizen, Green Card holder, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
