Director of Manufacturing Launch

Socket.dev; Bessemer (AL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

BLOX LLC in Birmingham, Alabama seeks a Director of Manufacturing Launch to own manufacturing setup from design and first-of-a-kind production through ramp to stabilization, delivering repeatable product launches across sites.

You will lead the manufacturing launch team, drive standard work, tooling, takt, and training, and collaborate with design, engineering, and program management to resolve manufacturability early.

Qualifications

• Manufacturing expert with layout, flow, takt, tooling, line-side setup.
• Process expert with standard work and high first-pass yield discipline.
• Systems thinker who understands design, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and field installation.
• Team builder who hires, teaches, and promotes engineers.
• Simplifier who drives to the simple answer in complex situations.

Responsibilities

• Build the manufacturing launch team and resolve manufacturability during design.
• Document the baseline, train the operations team, and transfer the role.
• Repeat the process and ensure the line can run autonomously without ongoing support.

Skills

Manufacturing expert

Process expert

Systems thinker

Team builder

Simplifier

Job description

Description

BLOX designs, manufactures, and constructs buildings and delivers them as products across the country. DesignManufactureConstruct is the system we use. DMC moves complexity to the left: work the industry solves in the field, we move to the factory; work the factory struggles with, we eliminate at design. Manufacturing runs as a visually controlled, continuous-flow pull system, managed to takt with the minimal buffers required to stabilize flow. The BLOX system works, proven through multiple products and launches. Our next step is to encode that experience into a manufacturing launch system that is repeatable, teachable, and capable of supporting the scale ahead of us. That means converting what our best people know into standard work, tooling, interfaces, controls, and training. It also means knowing which parts of the system are load-bearing, where volume creates pressure, and having the judgment to strengthen or replace what no longer serves the work. Growth will test every system. Our job is to be ready first.

The Director of Manufacturing Launch owns manufacturing setup in Launch, from design and first-of-a-kind production through ramp to stabilization, until a building can be consistently produced as a Product. Launch runs as a horizontal through the verticals, and it has three leaders: design, manufacturing, and program management. You are manufacturing. You control line setup, standard work, tooling, takt, and training. You do not control product design, supply chain, construction, or the customer, but you work with and influence all. Each of the three launch leaders builds a team beneath them, all held to one goal. You build the manufacturing launch team, and you resolve manufacturability while the work is still in design. Then you document the baseline, train the operations team, transfer the role, and repeat. Nothing gets thrown over a wall. A line is not finished until the people running it can run it without you.

Requirements

We are completing the launch and stabilization of a major product, with a strong pipeline behind it. Current-line attainment and new-product launch are distinct jobs, and this role exists so both can be done well. Your mandate is to build on what BLOX has already learned and make launch repeatable. We are looking for:

• A manufacturing expert. Layout, flow, takt, tooling, line-side setup. Has built lines, not just improved them.
• A process expert. Standard work, first-pass yield, the discipline to prove a method before scaling it and to replace it when the evidence says you should.
• A systems thinker. Understands design, manufacturing, supply chain, quality, and field installation, and resolves problems where they are best eliminated.
• A team builder. Hires, teaches, and promotes engineers who outgrow the org chart.
• A simplifier. Drives to the simple answer on the far side of the complex one, and does the work to get there.

Our team is strong. They built this system and accomplished more, faster, than most teams ever attempt, and they are accountable for attainment on the line running today. Our growth now supports separating manufacturing launch leadership from steady-state operational leadership.

We build like a startup and operate like a manufacturer: if you have only worked where the plant, the budget, and the org chart already existed, this will be uncomfortable. Five years out: a billion dollars, the same system running across multiple factories, DMC at meaningful scale, and a system capable of helping reshape the fastest-growing sector in building. DMC belongs to the industry, not to us, so what you encode here does not stay here. This is not a place to move a thousandth in a decade. Here, you matter.

The seat: Director of Manufacturing Launch, reporting to the COO in close partnership with the CEO. Based in Birmingham, Alabama, with occasional travel to launch sites.

Benefits:

• BLOX offers the full spectrum of comprehensive benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance. We also offer flexible spending accounts, paid time off, short term disability, long term disability, life insurance and a 401k plan.

It is the policy of BLOX LLC to use ability and willingness to contribute to our team effort as the criteria for making employment related decisions, regardless of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or other protected status. In addition, we strictly prohibit the harassment of any employee because of his/her race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity), disability, or other protected status.