Vice President of Manufacturing

About The Role

Aeon Industrial builds tactical weapon systems. We're moving from prototype and low-rate builds into sustained production, and we need someone to own that transition. This is a build role: you'll be creating the manufacturing organization, not inheriting one—standing up a new facility, growing the team, putting a real quality system in place, and getting us to reliable rate production of hundreds of units per month. The processes you put in now are the ones we'll run for years.

You'll work shoulder to shoulder with engineering, supply chain, and quality to make the schedule real.

What You'll Own

• Production: Component manufacturing and final assembly, integration, and test
• Rate readiness: line layout, work instructions, tooling, fixturing, takt, and capacity planning
• Manufacturing readiness for new designs—you'll be in design reviews early, not handed drawings at the end
• The facility: Stand up our new production facility—layout, equipment specification and installation, workflow, and qualification
• Establish safe and compliant handling for energetic components in coordination with our compliance team
• The team: Hire, develop, and lead a team scaling from ~10 to 40+—technicians, assemblers, manufacturing engineers, and supervisors. Build the structure, training, and certification path that makes that growth work
• Supply chain and outside build: Partner with supply chain on production planning, long-lead procurement, and material flow. Partner with supply chain on contract manufacturer qualification and performance, owning technical acceptance—process capability, first article, incoming inspection, and supplier corrective action
• Quality: Build out our AS9100 quality management system alongside quality leadership. Own manufacturing's role in nonconformance, root cause, corrective action, and first article inspection. Drive yield, cycle time, and cost down as rate goes up

Requirements

• 8+ years in manufacturing with meaningful time leading production of complex electromechanical hardware
• Direct experience taking a product from prototype or LRIP into sustained rate production
• Proven people leadership—you've hired, built, and run a growing production organization
• Working command of AS9100 or an equivalent regulated quality system (AS9100D, ISO 9001, NADCAP, or similar)
• Production experience with precision machining, assembly, and inspection of structural hardware
• Experience working with contract manufacturers and outside processes
• Fluency with ERP/MRP planning, BOM structure, routings, and shop floor control
• Comfort operating without a playbook—this role is defining one

Preferred Qualifications

• Missile, munitions, aerospace, or defense production background
• Experience handling energetics, propellants, or explosive components, and familiarity with ATF and DoD requirements
• Facility standup or line relocation experience
• Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent continuous improvement depth applied in a low-to-mid-volume environment
• Experience standing up composites production—layup, cure, bonding, and inspection. We source composites externally today and intend to bring the capability in-house
• Hands-on familiarity with additive manufacturing and its role in tooling and production
• Teamcenter or comparable PLM experience
• Engineering degree or equivalent hands-on depth

What Makes This Different

Most manufacturing leadership roles are about running a line someone else designed. This one is about designing it. You'll pick additional equipment, lay out the floor, write the processes, and hire the people. You'll also see your hardware fly—our test cadence is fast and the feedback loop from build to flight is short.

This position requires access to export-controlled technical data. Applicants must qualify as a U.S. Person under ITAR: U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent resident, or protected individual.