Aerospace Operations Manager - Growth & On-Time Delivery

Socket.dev; Garden Grove (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Aptiv in Garden Grove, CA is seeking an experienced Operations Manager to lead manufacturing operations across large-scale aerospace and defense projects, ensuring AS9100D compliance and directing assembly, tuning, and testing of high-reliability cables and interconnect solutions for spaceflight and defense applications.

This role reports to the General Manager and will manage production flow across multiple shifts, drive continuous improvement in quality, safety and procedures, and align

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field preferred.
• 10-15 years of aerospace/defense operations management experience with progressive leadership responsibility required.
• Minimum 7 years of senior leadership experience managing teams of 50+ employees, preferably in aerospace manufacturing.
• AS9100D Lead Auditor certification and Six Sigma Black Belt certification preferred.
• Advanced understanding of aerospace quality systems, J-STD, IPC-620, and IPC-620 Space applications.
• Experience creating and maintaining operational dashboards, KPI reporting, and statistical process control documentation.
• Exceptional organizational and strategic planning skills with keen attention to operational detail.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills for aerospace customer interface and executive reporting.
• Superior interpersonal skills for managing high-profile aerospace customers and internal stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize enterprise workload independently and meet critical delivery schedules for multiple concurrent programs.
• Current ITAR compliance training and strict adherence are required.

Responsibilities

• Achieving the budgeted Revenue & EBITDA / Operating Income targets.
• Long-term Organic Growth - plan to grow top line organically by 10% yearly impacting EBITDA/Operating Income.
• EHS, Safety / Training - support and awareness.
• Culture - champion Aptiv culture and build a strong business unit.
• Collaborate across Ruggedized with data-driven decision making.
• Participate on NPI projects, Engineering requirements, RMAs, CARs, production, and customer service.
• Establish KPIs and communicate them regularly to your team and other departments.
• Set Operations strategy aligned with Ruggedized growth goals.
• Strengthen department resources and align personnel for best results.
• Continuously seek ways to simplify operations and optimize costs.
• Empower team members to act toward departmental goals and insert new incentives.
• Comply with company policies and perform other duties as assigned.

Skills

Leadership

Aerospace experience

Operations management

AS9100D Lead Auditor

Six Sigma Black Belt

KPI reporting

DP/OTD optimization

IPC-620 Space

Executive communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in manufacturing/industrial/electrical engineering

Tools

Google Workspace

SmartView

Salesforce

ADP

Syspro

QMS

Planful

AwardCo

Job description

Aptiv in Garden Grove, CA is seeking an experienced Operations Manager to lead manufacturing operations across large-scale aerospace and defense projects, ensuring AS9100D compliance and directing assembly, tuning, and testing of high-reliability cables and interconnect solutions for spaceflight and defense applications.

This role reports to the General Manager and will manage production flow across multiple shifts, drive continuous improvement in quality, safety and procedures, and align