Defense Engineering Operations Lead

Arcfield; Middletown (RI); On-site; USD 107,000 - 186,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Life Insurance

Paid Time Off

Holiday Pay

Disability Insurance

Retirement Plan

Learning & Development

Wellness Programs

Job summary

Arcfield is seeking an experienced Engineering Operations Manager to lead procurement, logistics, and prototype production activities supporting U.S. Navy programs, including EW, imaging, and radar.

You will direct end-to-end material flow across procurement, warehousing, and laboratory production, establishing disciplined processes to mitigate supply-chain risks and ensure material accountability. The ideal candidate has defense/aerospace experience, can improve operational systems, and

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressively responsible experience in operations, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, engineering support, laboratory operations, or program execution.
• 3+ years of experience leading teams, supervising personnel, or managing cross-functional operational activities.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Directly manage, mentor, and develop the Procurement/Logistics and Laboratory Prototype Production teams through clear performance expectations, accountability, training plans, and process guidance.
• Develop and govern cross-functional workflows, intake processes, prioritization methods, and tracking mechanisms to manage competing requirements across EW, Imaging, and RADAR programs.
• Implement transparent processes that balance program urgency, technical dependencies, material availability, customer priorities, and available labor capacity.
• Partner with internal software development teams to define, test, and deploy custom tracking tools, ticketing systems, material-status tools, and operational dashboards; establish KPIs for procurement cycle time, on-time delivery, receiving throughput, inventory accuracy, production backlog, schedule adherence, and material shortages.
• Lead operational planning meetings; coordinate with engineering, program management, quality, finance, security, vendors, and customer representatives; and provide senior stakeholders with routine status updates, performance metrics, risk assessments, and corrective-action plans to drive continuous improvement.
• Strategic Procurement & Engineering Alignment: Guide cradle-to-grave material sourcing, vendor management, and purchase-order execution while partnering closely with engineering to ensure Bills of Material (BOMs) and Technical Data Packages (TDPs) are fully defined for production.
• Supply Chain Risk & Compliance Management: Proactively manage supply-chain bottlenecks, material lead times, and obsolescence issues, ensuring all procurement activities strictly comply with defense acquisition regulations, contract requirements, and company policies.
• Warehouse Operations & Inventory Control: Oversee end-to-end material-handling operations—including receiving, secure storage, kitting, and issuing hardware to production—by establishing robust inventory controls that ensure material accountability, configuration traceability, and shelf-life management.
• Logistics & Property Accountability: Direct domestic and international shipping and receiving activities, ensuring all documentation is fully traceable and compliant, while maintaining strict controls over government-furnished property (GFP), customer-owned equipment, and sensitive hardware.
• Supervise the prototype development, hardware integration, assembly, testing, repair, and rework activities conducted within the laboratory environments using software tools provided for scope, scheduling, track, priority, and release.
• Provide management oversight for prototype-build readiness, including availability of approved drawings, TDPs, BOMs, materials, tools, test equipment, and work instructions, as well as tracking material with detail assembly and or repair records.
• Monitor laboratory throughput, backlog, quality trends, rework drivers, and equipment utilization; implement improvements as needed.
• Support planning for lab infrastructure, equipment maintenance, calibrated test equipment, tooling, storage, and facility needs.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Process governance

Cross-functional collaboration

Data-driven reporting

Education

BS in Business/Engineering or related

MS in Business/Engineering or related

PhD in a related field

Tools

ERP systems

MRP

PLM

WMS

Ticketing systems

Project management software

Job description

Arcfield is seeking an experienced Engineering Operations Manager to lead procurement, logistics, and prototype production activities supporting U.S. Navy programs, including EW, imaging, and radar.

You will direct end-to-end material flow across procurement, warehousing, and laboratory production, establishing disciplined processes to mitigate supply-chain risks and ensure material accountability. The ideal candidate has defense/aerospace experience, can improve operational systems, and