Head of Manufacturing Engineering Automation & Controls

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Build, lead, and develop a high-performing Manufacturing Engineering organization supporting production from new product introduction through high-volume manufacturing.
• Define the manufacturing engineering strategy, technical roadmap, organizational structure, and capabilities required to support significant production growth.
• Partner closely with Design Engineering, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, Test Engineering, and Product teams to ensure products are designed for manufacturability, automation, testability, and scale.
• Establish manufacturing standards, design reviews, equipment specifications, process qualification methodologies, and production-readiness criteria.
• Lead the architecture, development, deployment, and lifecycle management of automated manufacturing equipment and production systems.
• Build strong internal capabilities in controls engineering, PLC programming, industrial robotics, motion control, machine vision, industrial networking, sensors, servo systems, safety systems, and automated material…
• Establish controls and automation standards that enable equipment to be deployed, supported, replicated, and scaled rapidly across production.
• Develop strategies for balancing manual, semi-automated, and fully automated manufacturing based on production rate, process capability, economics, and product maturity.

Job requirements

• Experience scaling aerospace or similarly complex hardware from low-rate initial production to hundreds or thousands of units per month.
• Experience building an automation and controls engineering function from the ground up.
• Experience designing manufacturing systems for products combining mechanical assemblies, electronics, motors, sensors, batteries, composites, or other complex electromechanical technologies.
• Familiarity with aerospace manufacturing and quality frameworks such as AS9100.
• Experience with MES, equipment connectivity, manufacturing data infrastructure, and Industry 4.0 architectures.
• Experience with automated inspection, machine vision, robotic assembly, dispensing, fastening, material handling, or automated test systems.
• Experience developing standardized automation platforms that can be replicated across multiple production lines or factories.
• Experience working in fast-growth hardware organizations where product design and manufacturing systems evolve simultaneously.