Production Manager

Dover; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Ulysses is seeking a Production Manager to plan builds, tests, and customer deliveries for its autonomous marine systems. You will coordinate engineering, the machine shop, production technicians and field operations to ensure each delivery includes the correct configuration, documentation, spares and equipment.

You will stay close to the physical work, managing purchases, machining, assembly and final test, while ensuring timely releases, accurate drawings and production readiness for customer

Qualifications

• Experience coordinating production or customer delivery of physical products.
• Practical understanding of machined parts, electrical assemblies and purchased components.
• Familiar with bills of materials, revisions, purchase orders, inventory and build schedules.
• Ability to prioritize builds and explain changes to stakeholders.
• Strong follow-through with suppliers and internal teams.
• Clear communication about dates, risks and scope.

Responsibilities

• Turn customer scope into a delivery plan with configuration, quantities, spares and documentation.
• Maintain the schedule across purchasing, machining, inspection, assembly and test.
• Track parts and supplier commitments and address shortages with purchasing and engineering.
• Keep the build queue clear and ensure drawings, BOMs and instructions are ready before scheduling.

Skills

Production coordination

Supplier management

BOMs & POs

Scheduling

Clear communication

Tools

MES

ERP systems

Job description

About us

Ulysses is building the autonomy platform for the ocean with mass-deployable, fully autonomous surface and subsea robots with dual-domain, read-and-write capabilities. Our oceans are in trouble; we've neglected them, and we allow bad actors to misuse them. Ulysses will manage our oceans effectively, persistently, and cheaply. We're developing autonomous surface and subsea drones, robotics, and AI systems to tackle critical challenges across nature, infrastructure, and maritime security. Our first product line is a suite of autonomous drones and attachments that makes restoring seagrass ecosystems cheaper and easier. We are currently working with governments in the US and Australia and leading environmental groups like The Nature Conservancy. We are a Series A company backed by top VCs such as Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

About the Role

We're hiring a Production Manager to plan the builds, tests and customer deliveries of Mako underwater vehicles, Leviathan surface systems and their mission equipment. You'll coordinate engineering, the machine shop, production technicians and field operations.

You'll stay close to the physical work, from purchasing and machining through assembly and final test. We need someone who knows what each build is waiting for and makes sure every delivery includes the correct configuration, documentation, spares and supporting equipment.

What You'll Do

• Turn agreed customer scope into a delivery plan covering configuration, quantities, spares, documentation, acceptance testing and shipment. Resolve unclear requirements before building.
• Maintain the schedule across purchasing, machining, outside processing, inspection, assembly, integration and final test, using actual material availability and shop capacity.
• Track parts and supplier commitments. Address shortages and late items with purchasing and engineering, and secure technical approval for alternatives.
• Keep the build queue clear for technicians and machinists. Confirm released drawings, bills of materials, parts and instructions are ready before scheduling work.
• Coordinate design changes with engineering. Show the effect on purchased parts, work in progress, rework, cost and delivery dates before committing.
• Track each vehicle's build progress, quality issues and test results. Give failed checks an owner and resolve them before delivery.
• Coordinate packing, shipping, field equipment, spares and deployment preparation with operations. Keep customer handover requirements connected to the build.
• Give clear delivery updates to the team and customer-facing colleagues. Raise conflicts between customer dates, development work and production capacity early.
• Use recurring shortages, rework and waiting time to improve planning, inventory and handovers as production grows.

Requirements

• Experience coordinating production or customer delivery of physical products, with direct involvement in parts, suppliers, assembly and testing.
• Practical understanding of how machined parts, electrical assemblies and purchased components become a tested product.
• Confidence working with bills of materials, revisions, purchase orders, inventory and build schedules, and checking records against the shop floor.
• Ability to prioritize builds competing for the same people or equipment and explain the consequences of changing that order.
• Strong follow-through with suppliers and internal teams. You spot missing information, get answers and keep the plan current.
• Clear communication about dates, risks and scope, without making commitments the team cannot meet.
• Comfort working on-site in San Francisco, moving between detailed planning and practical workshop coordination.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in robotics, marine hardware or other complex electromechanical products built in growing volumes.
• Experience using manufacturing execution, inventory or enterprise resource planning systems in production.
• Familiarity with CNC machining, outside finishing, inspection and the transition to repeatable assembly.
• Experience coordinating international shipments, customer acceptance or equipment preparation for field deployments.

Think you're our next teammate? Tell us about a delivery you owned, what threatened the date, and how you got the right product into the customer's hands.