Senior Production Architect - Spaceplane Industrialization

Dawn Aerospace; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Dawn Aerospace in the United States is seeking an experienced industrialization visionary to lead the transformation of our spaceplane program from R&D to scalable production. You will define the manufacturing vision, build production systems, and establish standards that enable multiple spaceplanes per year.

Reporting to the VP of Spaceplanes, you will design scalable processes, improve manufacturability with DFMA, and drive continuous improvement while collaborating across engineering,

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree mechanical engineering or equivalent.
• 5+ years of experience transitioning complex engineering organisations/products from R&D to production.
• Demonstrated success scaling manufacturing operations from prototype builds to repeatable production.
• Strong understanding of aerospace or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.
• Experience developing production systems, manufacturing strategies, and industrialisation roadmaps.
• Strong knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, DFMA, Value Stream Mapping, and continuous improvement methodologies.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence engineering, manufacturing, and executive leadership.
• Comfortable operating in fast-moving environments where many systems are still being developed.
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to simplify complex manufacturing challenges.
• Practical mindset with a bias toward execution.
• Experience in aerospace, aviation, automotive, defence, or other advanced manufacturing industries is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

• Develop the long-term production strategy required to manufacture multiple reusable spaceplanes each year.
• Define the production operating model that supports Dawn's transition from R&D to production.
• Design and implement scalable manufacturing processes.
• Work closely with design engineers to improve manufacturability and production efficiency.
• Identify production bottlenecks and develop strategies to remove manufacturing constraints.
• Improve manufacturing data collection to enable data-driven production decisions.
• Establish production planning methodologies and manufacturing scheduling processes.
• Collaborate with Supply Chain to ensure manufacturing readiness and supplier capability.
• Drive organisational alignment around the transition from prototype thinking to production thinking.
• Build a culture focused on standardisation, repeatability, and operational excellence.
• Define manufacturing documentation standards, production travellers, work instructions, and visual management systems.
• Help engineering teams understand Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) principles.

Skills

Lean Manufacturing

DFMA

Value Stream Mapping

Communication

Systems Thinking

Execution Bias

Aerospace Industry Experience

Education

Bachelor degree Mechanical engineering or equivalent

Job description

Dawn Aerospace in the United States is seeking an experienced industrialization visionary to lead the transformation of our spaceplane program from R&D to scalable production. You will define the manufacturing vision, build production systems, and establish standards that enable multiple spaceplanes per year.

Reporting to the VP of Spaceplanes, you will design scalable processes, improve manufacturability with DFMA, and drive continuous improvement while collaborating across engineering,