Strategic Operations Program Manager Hardware Manufacturing

Socket.dev; Somerville (MA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Formlabs, Inc. in Somerville, MA seeks an Operations Program Manager to lead phase-gate product development, verification planning, and production ramp across supplier networks. You will drive cost modeling, risk management, and cross-functional readiness for new product introductions.

The role requires a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering and at least two years in hardware program management, with 15% domestic travel.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or related field.
• Two years of experience managing technically complex product development programs in hardware or manufacturing.
• Experience applying technical expertise to program strategy, cost modeling, and decision-making.
• Proficiency with scheduling, risk management, resource planning, and reporting.
• Understanding of manufacturing and operations fundamentals, including cost structures and demand-supply planning.
• Experience conducting financial/economic analysis and evaluation of long-term investment.

Responsibilities

• Create formal phase-gate product development for manufacturing, enforcing entry/exit criteria for concept, design, verification, pilot, and ramp stages.
• Own verification and validation planning across functional, environmental, and reliability testing.
• Lead Operations readiness and production ramp planning, integrating supplier capability, production readiness, and capacity models.
• Perform engineering trade-off analyses across mechanical performance, reliability, manufacturability, and cost.
• Validate design feasibility through prototyping, testing, and simulation of structural, thermal, and functional behavior.
• Apply DFM/DFA principles to ensure component geometry, interfaces, and tolerances are ready.
• Perform resource leveling and capacity planning across engineering, operations, and suppliers.
• Identify and manage technical and operational risks using structured mitigation plans.
• Design the global manufacturing and supplier network across Formlabs factories and external partners.
• Perform lead-time and bottleneck analysis to protect launch and ramp schedules.
• Execute make-vs-buy and supplier selection frameworks.
• Lead supplier negotiations and risk mitigation to ensure continuity of supply.
• Build end-to-end cost models including BOM, labor, tooling, depreciation, yield, and overhead.
• Perform design-to-cost and value-engineering trade studies.
• Evaluate capital investments using NPV, free cash flow, and ROI analysis.
• Model yield, scrap, and rework impact on unit cost.
• Conduct cost variance and sensitivity analyses.
• Translate engineering and manufacturing constraints into business impact assessments.
• Lead cross-functional Operational Readiness Meetings for NPI execution.
• Produce data-driven executive reports integrating cost, yield, capacity, and schedule.
• Apply DOE and statistical analysis to optimize yield and reduce variation.
• Lead root-cause analysis and CAPA for defects and failures.
• Provide quality and risk dashboards to leadership.
• Manage engineering change control and configuration management.
• Enforce risk-based quality systems aligned with ISO and industry standards.
• Maintain traceability from requirements to validation results.
• Coordinate compliance across engineering, operations, and suppliers.
• Integrate engineering, manufacturing, and supply-chain cost data into financial governance systems.
• Perform budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis.
• Manage inventory valuation and COGS tracking.
• Execute process-level cost-reduction initiatives.
• Define quantitative KPIs for yield, throughput, cycle time, cost, and readiness.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintain organizational accountability and reporting structures.
• 15% of domestic travel required.

Skills

Program management

Cost modeling

Financial analysis

Risk management

Scheduling

Resource planning

Reporting

Demand-supply planning

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical/Industrial Engineering

Tools

Program management tools

Job description

Formlabs, Inc. in Somerville, MA seeks an Operations Program Manager to lead phase-gate product development, verification planning, and production ramp across supplier networks. You will drive cost modeling, risk management, and cross-functional readiness for new product introductions.

The role requires a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering and at least two years in hardware program management, with 15% domestic travel.