Spaceflight Machine Shop Lead

InvestedintheMission; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 113,000 - 158,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Stock options

Paid time off

401(k) match

Education support

Job summary

Blue Origin in Washington state is seeking a senior machine shop leader to drive day-to-day operations, staffing, and production readiness for spaceflight components. You will oversee scheduling, training, and performance reviews while advancing continuous improvement and KPI-driven results.

Join a safety‑focused, collaborative team responsible for high‑precision parts, tight tolerances, and on‑time delivery across manufacturing and spaceflight programs.

Qualifications

• 4 years minimum of leadership experience.
• 7 years minimum experience in machining aerospace components.
• Root cause and corrective action analysis experience.
• Familiarity with KPI metrics.
• Excellent blueprint reading skills including GD&T per ASME Y14.5M-1994 standard.
• Strong communication skills with a heavy customer focus.
• Must have a continuous improvement mindset.
• Clear understanding of production versus development environments.
• Fluent in use of precision hand tools.
• Familiar with use of personal computers.
• Self-motivation and ability to prioritize projects to meet completion dates.

Responsibilities

• Ownership of machine shop personnel and day-to-day operations and execution.
• Conduct performance reviews.
• Responsible for establishing work station assignments, employee training, overtime assignments and back-up for absent employees.
• Maintain and communicate machine shop schedule status to ensure meeting customer expectations.
• Provide first level escalation support to employees regarding HR issues (employee relations, worker’s compensation, disciplinary actions, time cards, PTO requests).
• Identifying Continuous Improvement opportunities and implementing change to improve process, reduce cycle and setup times.
• Maintain shop measuring equipment calibration program ensuring all relative equipment is calibrated according to schedule.
• Maintain all shop programs. These programs include 5S, Lean, Cleaning and Safety.
• Ensure all team members follow work instructions, quality requirements and processes.
• Ensure accurate machine shop staff data recording. Namely clock-in/clock-out activities.
• Provide continued training and skills development for team members, and mentor early career team member.
• Ensure start-up readiness for production.
• Maintain machine shop organization, safety and cleanliness.
• Support design for manufacturing and provide job planning estimates.
• Ability to perform interviews, evaluate talent and provide hiring recommendations.
• Safely work within an industrial environment.

Skills

Leadership

Aerospace machining

Root cause analysis

KPI metrics

GD&T (ASME Y14.5M-1994)

Communication with customers

Continuous improvement

Production vs development

Precision hand tools

PC skills

Self-motivation

Interviewing talent

Job description

Blue Origin in Washington state is seeking a senior machine shop leader to drive day-to-day operations, staffing, and production readiness for spaceflight components. You will oversee scheduling, training, and performance reviews while advancing continuous improvement and KPI-driven results.

Join a safety‑focused, collaborative team responsible for high‑precision parts, tight tolerances, and on‑time delivery across manufacturing and spaceflight programs.