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Hadrian is building autonomous factories to reindustrialize America, combining AI, advanced software, robotics, and full-stack manufacturing to help aerospace and defense companies build mission-critical systems up to 10x faster and at significantly lower cost. Following a $1.37B Series D at a $7.87B valuation, the company is rapidly expanding manufacturing capabilities across welding, casting, forging, electronics, additive manufacturing, and more.
You will lead polymer additive manufacturing production operations and own the technical integration of polymer AM machines into Hadrian's OPUS platform. This role bridges production operations and systems engineering, requiring you to take standalone AM equipment and integrate it into fully automated, production-scale systems.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own polymer AM production operations including scheduling, throughput, yield, utilization, and on-time delivery; establish operational cadence and continuous improvement disciplines.
- Lead end-to-end integration of polymer AM machines, peripherals, and cell infrastructure into OPUS, including connectivity, machine state models, telemetry, data quality, and traceability.
- Define system requirements, interface control documents (ICDs), integration kits, and machine acceptance criteria that scale across multiple OEMs and sites.
- Lead automation strategy for AM cells including powder/material handling, build volume exchange, part removal, depowdering, cleaning, and material flow; drive improvements in utilization, throughput, and safety.
- Serve as Hadrian's technical lead with machine OEMs (Stratasys, HP, others), automation integrators, and suppliers to unlock deeper integration (APIs, controller access, logging, remote operations, calibration hooks).
- Build and own factory acceptance test (FAT) and site acceptance test (SAT) protocols, commissioning checklists, and validation plans.
- Establish reliability engineering discipline for AM equipment including PM strategy, spares, calibration, MTBF/MTTR tracking, and failure mode mitigation.
- Lead hardware, firmware, and configuration improvements that increase build volume utilization, process stability, and throughput while maintaining configuration control.
- Own standard work for machine operation and integration points, including equipment control procedures, safety interlocks, and change control.
- Hire, coach, and develop a high-performing team across machine operations, engineering, controls, automation, and integration.
- Partner cross-functionally with Applications Engineering, Materials and Process, Manufacturing Engineering, Factory Automation, Software, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations.
Initial focus will be scaling production capacity for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) and related defense platforms.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Controls, Robotics, Manufacturing, or related); Master's degree is a plus.
- 5-7 years of experience in polymer additive manufacturing operations, systems engineering, equipment engineering, automation, or factory-scale integration, with deep familiarity in one or more of: Stratasys SAF, HP Multi Jet Fusion (MJF), FDM, SLA, or SLS. Equivalent experience in factory automation, equipment integration, or manufacturing systems engineering with meaningful polymer AM exposure will also be considered.
- 3+ years of people leadership experience (manager or team lead) with a track record of building and developing high-performing teams.
- Hands-on knowledge of polymer powder bed fusion or material extrusion machine architecture and key subsystems including powder/material handling, thermal management, print heads/optics, recoater/deposition systems, build volume management, atmospheres and environmental controls, sensing and monitoring, and post-processing workflow.
- Demonstrated experience working with production-grade polymer materials such as PA11, PA12, or similar engineering thermoplastics, including understanding of material behavior, refresh ratios, and recyclability in production environments.
- Demonstrated experience integrating complex equipment into higher-level software systems (MES, SCADA, equipment management, manufacturing data pipelines, or similar), including requirements definition and interface standards.
- Experience managing production operations in manufacturing environments, including capacity planning, scheduling, yield management, and delivery performance.
- Experience deploying automation in production manufacturing environments, including safety, interlocks, commissioning, and sustaining engineering.
- Strong problem-solving using structured methods (8D, 5 Whys, fishbone) and proven ability to drive corrective and preventive actions to closure.
- Willing to travel up to 20%, including international supplier visits.
- U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident (required for ITAR compliance).
