Production Leader / Senior Production Manager

About the role

We’re looking for an experienced Production Leader to manage the satellite manufacturing production team at our Satellite Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT) facility in Burlingame, CA. This high-impact leadership role ensures safe, predictable, high-quality, and on-time execution of production activities while continuously improving operational efficiency, throughput, and production scale readiness.

The role manages production planning, shop floor leadership, production technicians, and equipment and facilities maintenance. The production leader will partner closely with Manufacturing Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality Assurance, Program Management, and Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Manage the production team responsible for safe, high-quality, on-time, scaled production of the Xona satellite at the Burlingame facility.
• Oversee overall production processes and activities, including production work order planning, shift staffing, shift hand-over communications, operational KPI tracking, and production facility efficiency.
• Lead, coach, and develop a highly effective production team, maintaining high standards of safety, accountability, and performance.
• Demonstrate high levels of autonomy and cross-team collaboration to deliver on production ramp-up targets.
• Support the maturation and continuous improvement of the production system while aggressively driving down the cost learning curve.
• Assume full ownership of achieving the master production schedule and translating it into executable daily and weekly work order releases, tracking, and timely closures.
• Optimize workforce efficiency, equipment capacity, minimize work in progress, and maximize build quality.
• Oversee equipment maintenance and facilities functions.
• Support the development and management of the production budget, including capital expenditure, logistics, production tools, and staffing roadmap.

Requirements

• 5+ years in a supervisor or manager role in a scaled production facility, preferably with complex, highly engineered products, with an emphasis on assembly, integration, and testing at production build rates of >2/week.
• Bachelor’s degree at a minimum in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations Management, or a related field.
• Experience in a Space industry manufacturing business or A&D manufacturing business is desirable.
• Experience with manufacturing products that require extensive hardware and software assembly, integration, and testing is ideal.
• Knowledge of lean manufacturing and TPM fundamentals, with demonstrated ability to apply and implement these effectively in a production environment.
• Working knowledge of Six Sigma is highly preferred.
• Comfortable in an environment where plans and processes are being developed and iterated in response to customer or market forces; ability to adapt quickly and effectively.
• Working knowledge of ERP/MES/QA digital systems and their integration into an efficient digital factory.
• Fundamental understanding of a QMS system and ability to build teams that respect and manage within this essential production framework.
• Ability to initiate processes, tools, and methods that are not yet in place and ensure their adoption and continual improvement.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills; ability to hire, grow, and mentor others to build a highly effective production team.

Security Requirements

• U.S. Roles: Applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e., Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) to comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations.
• U.K. Roles: Requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks; successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).
• Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.