Project Manager, Manufacturing

Subcritical Systems Inc; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Job summary

Subcritical Systems, Inc. is hiring for a Lead Project Delivery role in Austin to oversee the expansion of the accelerator cavity factory.

You will coordinate design, procurement, manufacturing, and testing, aligning engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and operations to agreed schedules, budgets, owners, and milestones. You will drive adoption of Subcritical’s ATLAS AI platform across projects, defining needs, coordinating testing, and ensuring effective use.

Qualifications

• Experience delivering projects from design through production readiness.
• Ability to coordinate engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and operations.
• Strong planning skills: scheduling, budgeting, risk tracking and change control.
• Experience applying AI tools to project management or operations.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end schedules, budgets, dependencies, risks, and milestones for factory expansion and component manufacturing.
• Translate priorities into executable plans for prototypes, qualification, and production with clear owners and dates.
• Lead project reviews, track commitments, and establish recovery plans for delivery risks.
• Identify opportunities to apply ATLAS to planning, coordination, procurement, and reporting.
• Coordinate design releases and ensure drawings, specs, and work instructions are ready for manufacturing.
• Manage supplier commitments and contractor performance with cost, schedule, and quality controls.
• Report performance and changes to leadership with clear justification.

Skills

Project scheduling

Budgeting

Cross-functional leadership

Risk management

AI-enabled workflow

Tools

ATLAS AI platform

Job description

Subcritical Systems, Inc. is a venture-backed startup in Austin, Texas building the accelerator driven systems and the only US commercial manufacturer of accelerator cavities. What Space X did for rockets, we plan to do for accelerator cavities and commercialize across applications of power production, medical isotopes, semiconductors and waste transmutation.

We are in the process of building the Energy Amplifier, a novel nuclear fission system in which a particle accelerator drives a subcritical core, making melt physically impossible for clean power production. Due to its inherent safety, our system has a more streamlined licensing process. Our founding team includes successful entrepreneurs with a track record of building several multibillion dollar companies in deep-tech, and scientists who were leading U.S. national labs with deep experience in accelerator & nuclear technologies.

We are actively hiring to expand our team as we work toward licensing, regulatory submissions, and construction of our first energy amplifier. More information is available at subcritical.com.

ROLE SUMMARY

Lead project delivery for the expansion of our Austin accelerator cavity factory, from design and procurement through manufacturing, assembly, testing, and production readiness. These projects support extreme ultraviolet (EUV) applications, the Energy Amplifier (EA), and our Medical Isotope Facility (MIF). Within Operations, you will align engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and operations teams around agreed schedules, budgets, owners, and milestones. You will develop an approved scope and budgets, escalating changes and priority conflicts to the COO. Additionally, you will help deploy ATLAS, Subcritical’s internal AI platform, across factory and cavity manufacturing projects. This means identifying where AI can improve planning, engineering coordination, procurement, and reporting, then working with the ATLAS team to implement those capabilities. You will define what project teams need, coordinate testing, and ensure the tools are adopted effectively.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• End-to-End responsibility on developing and deploying integrated schedules, budgets, dependencies, risks, and milestones for factory expansion and machined component manufacturing, from design through build, test, and production readiness.
• Translate program priorities into executable plans for prototypes, qualification, and repeatable production, with clear deliverables, accountable owners, and completion dates.
• Lead project reviews, track commitments, resolve blockers, and elevate decisions early, with clear recovery plans for delivery risks.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities to apply ATLAS to project planning, engineering coordination, procurement tracking, manufacturing readiness, and reporting.
• Coordinate design releases, including ATLAS-assisted outputs, so approved drawings, specifications, and work instructions are available when manufacturing needs them. Engineering retains technical approval authority.
• In partnership with procurement, manage supplier commitments, contractor performance, and long-lead procurement against agreed scope, cost, schedule, and quality requirements.
• Maintain cost forecasts and change control, assess scope, cost, and schedule impacts, and secure approvals in line with agreed authority limits. Report performance and recovery actions to leadership.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Experience managing projects that have moved hardware from prototype development into repeatable manufacturing.
• Demonstrated delivery of complex, manufacturing, hardware, or industrial projects, with example results against scope, schedule, and budget.
• Demonstrated experience in construction and build-outs, managing contractors, budgets, schedules, and delivery from design through build and commissioning.
• Proven ability to coordinate multidisciplinary, cross-functional teams across engineering, manufacturing, procurement, and operations.
• Strong project planning skills, including scheduling, dependency management, budgeting, cost forecasting, risk tracking, and change control.
• Experience managing supplier and contractor commitments alongside internal teams.
• Ability to understand technical drawings, specifications, and test requirements and translate them into actionable project plans.
• Practical experience applying AI tools to project management or operational workflows, with the ability to define use cases, validate outputs, and support implementation and team adoption. Willingness to learn and apply Subcritical’s internal ATLAS platform.

Preferred

• Exposure to particle accelerators, RF cavities, precision manufacturing, or similarly complex equipment.
• Familiarity with factory expansion, equipment commissioning, production quality systems, or manufacturing automation.
• Engineering or related technical education, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience introducing digital or AI-enabled workflows, including requirements definition, pilot delivery, rollout, and user adoption.

BENEFITS

• We offer health, dental, and vision insurance.

LOCATION & WORK POLICY

This role is fully in person in Austin, Texas. Our facility is located next to Austin Airport.