Chief Production Engineer — Lifecycle & Reliability

Socket.dev; Petaluma (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 272,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

401(k) with company matching

9/80 work schedule

Job summary

AeroVironment is seeking a Chief Engineer – Production to provide senior technical leadership for production, sustainment, and lifecycle support of MUAS products. This role will act as the primary technical authority, ensuring safety, reliability, manufacturability, and compliance across programs.

The ideal candidate will lead cross-functional teams, drive corrective actions, manage configuration baselines, and partner with manufacturing to improve producibility and cost.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited institution.
• 15+ years of progressive engineering experience in aerospace/defense/unmanned or related tech.
• Experience as technical lead, chief engineer, systems engineer, or equivalent authority.
• Experience with engineering change management, configuration management, and requirements management.
• Proven cross-functional leadership and issue-resolution capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior technical authority for MUAS production and sustainment programs.
• Maintain technical ownership of product baseline including architecture, interfaces, and performance.
• Lead engineering support for products in production and deployed in the field.
• Drive resolution of complex technical issues across design, manufacturing, testing, reliability, and suppliers.
• Lead root-cause investigations and ensure corrective actions.
• Provide technical direction for changes, deviations, and configuration-management activities.
• Evaluate and approve product, process, material, and supplier changes.
• Partner with manufacturing to improve producibility, yield, and cost.
• Support production readiness, first-article activities, and production reviews.
• Mentor engineers and promote technical rigor and continuous improvement.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems engineering

Root-cause analysis

Production support

Communications skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

Master’s degree in engineering (preferred)

Tools

Change management systems

Job description

AeroVironment is seeking a Chief Engineer – Production to provide senior technical leadership for production, sustainment, and lifecycle support of MUAS products. This role will act as the primary technical authority, ensuring safety, reliability, manufacturability, and compliance across programs.

The ideal candidate will lead cross-functional teams, drive corrective actions, manage configuration baselines, and partner with manufacturing to improve producibility and cost.