Manufacturing Engineering Lead — Hardware Production

9 Mothers; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Early Equity

Seat at table

Mission-critical work

Brand-new lab

Employer-paid premiums

Unlimited PTO

Relocation assistance

Austin-based culture

Job summary

9 Mothers is hiring a Manufacturing Engineering Lead in Austin, TX. You will define foundational manufacturing processes, determine in-house vs. contract manufacturing, and scale production for a robotic turret product.

You will personally build early units, create manufacturing instructions, and collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and firmware teams to drive DFM/DFA and cost optimization from day one.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of manufacturing engineering/operations experience on hardware products.
• Experience taking a product from prototype to production, including the make/buy decisions and lessons learned.
• Proficiency in DFM/DFA, PFMEA, process capability, tolerance analysis, tooling design, and assembly optimization.

Responsibilities

• Define the manufacturing strategy and determine in-house vs. outsourced build plans as volume grows.
• Lead early builds and write initial manufacturing instructions, travelers, fixtures, and process docs.
• Stand up the production process with routings, stations, tooling, and material flow.
• Drive manufacturability improvements with design teams before hardening.
• Qualify and manage suppliers, including first-article inspection and CAPA.
• Lay a scalable quality foundation with inspection, in-process checks, and traceability for future QMS.
• Own BOM discipline and collaborate on MRP/ERP integration with engineering release processes.
• Run pilot and low-rate production to translate learnings into process improvements.
• Model unit costs and identify cost drivers to optimize for volume.
• Shape the future manufacturing organization and roles as volume ramps.

Skills

Hardware manufacturing

Product-to-production

DFM/DFA

Quality systems

Supplier management

Hands-on manufacturing

Cross-functional collaboration

Regulated production

Tools

MRP/ERP

Job description

9 Mothers is hiring a Manufacturing Engineering Lead in Austin, TX. You will define foundational manufacturing processes, determine in-house vs. contract manufacturing, and scale production for a robotic turret product.

You will personally build early units, create manufacturing instructions, and collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and firmware teams to drive DFM/DFA and cost optimization from day one.