Head of Manufacturing

Telemetry Today LLC

Menlo Park (CA)

On-site

USD 225,000 - 248,000

Full time

7 hours ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Global workforce: flexible remote/hyb

Work on complex, meaningful missions

Unlimited PTO

Competitive salary and equity

Comprehensive health, dental, and VIs

Frontier in commercial space ops and D

Job summary

LeoLabs in Menlo Park, CA seeks a Head of Manufacturing to own strategy, industrialization, and quality for high-rate radar production, scaling capabilities beyond 10x while ensuring reliability and deployment readiness.

This leadership role collaborates with Product, Supply Chain, Radar Systems and Hardware Engineering, building scalable teams, facilities, and processes in a hands-on, results‑oriented way; domestic travel is expected.

Qualifications

15+ years in manufacturing or related leadership roles.
Experience scaling production capacity and standing up facilities.
Familiarity with quality systems such as AS9100 / ISO 9001.

Responsibilities

Own high-rate manufacturing and industrialization strategy for radar systems and subsystems.
Build and scale a production system capable of supporting 10x growth.
Establish and lead the LeoLabs Production System with standard work and visual controls.

Skills

Leadership

Lean manufacturing

Manufacturing strategy

Quality management

Cross-functional

NPI manufacturing

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Job description

At LeoLabs, we're building the living map of activity in space. Through our proprietary global radar network and AI-enabled analytics platform, we collect millions of measurements daily on more than 25,000 objects in low Earth orbit (LEO). Our radar-powered intelligence protects billions in assets, monitors adversarial behavior, and ensures safe operations for commercial and government missions.

We're not just building technology, we are redefining global security, safety, and transparency in space. As orbital activity accelerates and threats grow more complex, LeoLabs is a trusted partner for Space Domain Awareness, Space Traffic Management, and Satellite Operations for top-tier space operators and allied defense organizations.

If you're looking to work on mission-critical challenges at the forefront of aerospace, national security, and AI, your impact starts here.

LeoLabs is seeking a Head ofManufacturing to lead the next phase ofproductionscalingof ourradar systems.This leaderwillown the manufacturing strategy, industrialization roadmap, qualitymanagement, facility scaling, and cross-functional execution required toincreaseproduction capacitybeyond10x.This role may be leveled as Senior Director or Vice Presidentlevelbasedon the successful candidate’s experience, leadership scopeand demonstratedability to own the function. The role with report directly to the SVP, Radars.This role is a full-time, in-person position based at our headquarters in Menlo Park, CA. Regulardomestic travelis expected.

The Head ofManufacturingwill turnLeoLabs’ advanced radardesigns fromlow/medium-rate initial productioninto repeatable, scalable,high-rate productionsystems.Youwillcollaborate with andleverage support fromProduct, Supply Chain,Radar SystemsandHardware Engineering, Program Management, Financeand Accounting, and executive leadership to build the manufacturingcapacitythat enables LeoLabs to deploy radarsystemsmore reliably and at greater scale fortheU.S. Government,allies, and commercial customers.

The preferred candidate has done this before – they are a leader who has built and sustained a manufacturing system, rather than someone who has only managed an existing operation. This candidate is a hands-on manufacturing executive or emerging executive from a high-performance production environment such as aerospace, defense technology, automotive, or other complex hardware industries. They have scaled production systems from the ground up, built functional teams, improved quality, stood up facilities or production lines, and operated with urgency in environments where reliability, repeatability, and mission success matter.

Key Responsibilities

Manufacturing Strategy & Scale
Own LeoLabs’ high-rate manufacturing and industrialization strategy for radar systems, subsystems, and associated high-reliability hardwareacross manufacturing, assembly, integration, and test operations.
Build and scale a production system and team capable of supporting 10x growth in radar production over the next 2 yearswhile maintaining high standards for quality, reliability, integration, and deployment readiness.
Definethe operating model acrossinternal manufacturing, external suppliers, contract manufacturing,andintegration partners.
Own thehigh-rate production footprintplan including facility needs, equipment, tooling, staffing,andcapital investment.
Stand up scalable production lines, work cells, fixtures, test stations, documentation,andacceptance processesfor radar hardware, RF systems, electronics,electromechanical assemblies, power systems, compute infrastructure, and system-level integration.
Establish thescaledmanufacturingsteady stateincluding production planning, throughput management,capacity planning,cost analysis, quality, and delivery execution.
Own the transition from engineering builds to production-ready designs.
Establish and maturerelease andreadiness gates, first-article processes,andbuild documentation.
Partner with Radar Systems and Hardware Engineering teams to industrialize new radar designs, ensuring manufacturability, testability, serviceability, configuration control, and production readiness.
Partner with engineeringNPI manufacturing teamto improve manufacturability,DfX, and cost reduction opportunities.
Ensure new radar products have validated buildplans, test procedures, tooling,factoryacceptancetesting criteria, and supplier plans before production ramp.
Create afunctioningfeedback system from manufacturingandsustainment back into product and engineering.
Quality, Reliability & Production
Build and mature the quality management system required for high-reliability radar systems serving mission-critical customers.
Establish clear standards for configuration control, traceability, inspection, nonconformance management, corrective action, supplier quality, and production acceptance.
Drive measurable improvements in yield, first-pass quality, rework, scrap, field defects,andschedule performance.
Build strong review mechanisms for failures, escapes, production risks, and systemic issues.
Partner with Technical Program Management to align production readiness and execution with program, contract, customer, and deployment commitments
Partner with Supply Chain on supplier readiness, long-lead planning, cost reduction, and risk mitigation.
Partner with the Radar Operations Center and Global Infrastructure to turn field performance and maintenance data into product and process improvementsto increase performance, reduce operational impacts, and decrease maintenance costs.
Develop manufacturing KPIs andhigh-level dashboards for throughput, schedulemetrics, yield, labortracking, cost, quality, rework, scrap, supplier performance, and field reliability.
Establish and lead the LeoLabs Production System, creating a common operating model for safety, quality, delivery, cost and people. Implement tiered daily management, visual controls, standard work, structured problem solving, leader standard work, production flow, capacity management and continuous improvement.
Recruit, develop, and lead a world-class manufacturing organizationincludingmanufacturing operations,production, test operations, quality,facilities,and related functions.
Setclear ownershipand metricsacross the manufacturing organization.
Build a culture of execution, urgency, accountability, safety, quality, and continuous improvement.

Required Qualifications

15+ years of experience in manufacturing, production operations, industrialization, factory operations, manufacturing engineering, or related operational leadership roles.
Demonstrated experience implementing and leading a mature Lean manufacturing or production operating system, such as the Toyota Production System, including standard work, visual management, daily accountability, structured problem solving, flow, built-in quality, waste reduction and continuous improvement.
Demonstrated experience scaling production capacity, standing up production lines or facilities, and improving throughput, quality, cost, and delivery performance.
Experience manufacturing complex, high-reliability hardware in industries such as aerospace, defense, automotive, advanced electronics, robotics, industrial automation, energy systems, RF systems, communications, space systems, or mission-critical infrastructure.
Experience withquality management systems and standards such asAS9100, ISO 9001, IPC standards, ESD controls, supplier quality, first-article inspection
Strong technical fluency with hardware product development, NPI, configuration control, test operations, production readiness, and root-cause corrective action.
Excellent communication, leadership, organizational, and stakeholder management skills.
Eligibilitytoobtain and maintain requiredU.S.security clearances, as applicable to this role.
Bachelor’s degree in engineering,manufacturing,operations,industrialengineering,supplychain,business, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.

Preferred Qualifications

Formal training or demonstrated practitioner experience in Toyota Production System, LeanManufacturing, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma or an equivalent operating system. Black Belt, Master Black Belt, TPS practitioner/trainer or comparable credentials preferred.
Experiencedevelopinggreenfield or brownfield production facilities, production lines, integration sites, or manufacturing cells.
Experience with radar, RF systems, antennas, communications systems, sensors, satellites, ground systems, aerospace systems, or other complex electromechanical products.
Experience supporting Department ofWar, Space Force, NASA, or allied government customers.
Experience working with classified, export-controlled, ITAR/EAR-controlled, or otherwise sensitive hardware programs.
Master’s degree in engineering,operations,businessadministration,manufacturing,supplychain, or a related discipline.

Compensation

This position is benchmarked to San Francisco Bay Area with abase salary rangeof$225,000 - $248,000, plus bonus, equity, and benefits.

Compensation Note: The salary range for this position is benchmarked based onthedesignated primary work location for the role. Final compensation may vary depending on the selected candidate’s work location, applicable market data, experience, qualifications, and other job-related factors.

Perks and Benefits