Senior Manager, Manufacturing (Robot Production)

The Role

We build general-purpose robots, and next year we start building them in volume. You will be the manufacturing leader who takes the robot from engineering builds to production. Our CA facility is where new products are introduced: the process is designed, the first stations are built and proven, and the technicians are trained there.

Volume production runs with a manufacturing partner, on their floor or on ours with their people, and you own the process in both cases. You design how the robot gets built, you lead the engineers and technicians who prove it, and you own the quality gate that decides when a unit leaves.

This is hands-on work. You design the first station, write the first work instruction, and bring the partner's team up to our standard. What exists today: an engineering build process with our design team, a production partner, a bill of materials and a plan. What does not exist yet is the production process, and that is the job.

What You'll Do

• Design the production process: layout and cycle time, line balancing, station and fixture design, end-of-line test and calibration, material flow.
• Capacity planning: stations, equipment, people and hours by build phase, from the first units to rate, and the plan to add capacity ahead of demand.
• Specify, source and commission fixtures, tooling and test equipment: requirements, RFQ with Supply Chain, acceptance at the vendor and on the floor.
• Own process documentation under revision control: work instructions with photos and video, PFMEA, control plans, inspection plans, SOPs; keep the manufacturing BOM aligned with the engineering BOM and run engineering changes through to the floor.
• Run the transfer from engineering builds to production: pilot builds, DFM and DFA feedback with the authority to push back, build readiness reviews at each phase gate, release to volume.
• Package the process so it can be copied: one documented set of stations, fixtures, test, instructions and training that a partner's floor can run to the same yield as ours.
• Build and lead the team: manufacturing engineers, test engineers and technicians; hiring pace, training and certification, trainer capacity, shift structure as volume grows.
• Own the quality gate: first-pass yield, defect capture, root cause (8D, SPC, DOE where it earns its keep), closed-loop feedback to engineering and suppliers; nothing ships that quality has not passed.
• Partner with Supply Chain on clear-to-build so no unit starts without a complete kit, and with the manufacturing partner so their team runs our process to our standard.
• Stand up the systems as we grow: traceability by serial, MES-lite at first, then the real thing; the weekly numbers (yield, hours per unit, cost per unit, downtime, schedule adherence) and the readout to leadership.

What We're Looking for

• You have taken a complex electromechanical product from prototype through pilot to volume and designed the process yourself, not inherited it. Robots, vehicles, drones, medical devices, industrial equipment all count.
• You have transferred a process to a contract manufacturer and held them to your standard.
• Strong manufacturing engineering foundation: time studies, line balancing, capacity planning, fixture and tooling design, test strategy, PFMEA and control plans, lean and continuous improvement; CAD and GD&T fluency.
• You have hired and trained technicians, written certification criteria, and know that trained people are the real constraint on throughput.
• You have run a quality gate and held it under schedule pressure.
• You are on the floor every day and rigorous in the data.
• 8 or more years in manufacturing engineering or production, with time in a mature organization so you know what good looks like at scale, and 3 or more years leading people.
• Bonus: actuators, gearboxes or precision assemblies; PLM, MES and ERP implementation; product safety certification processes.

Working Conditions

Production and lab environments; travel to partner sites, up to 25%.

Why This Role

You build the way our robots get built, from the first station to rate, and the process and the team that do it are yours.

How We Work

We are always looking for people who are driven to work on hard problems and want to shape what the world will look like in ten years. A few of the values that guide us:

• Limitless ambition. We hold ourselves to the highest bar in everything we build.
• Relentless urgency. Iterate faster, learn faster. Time is the denominator.
• Type-2 Fun. Take the work seriously, not yourself. Embrace the grind and find joy in the struggle.
• Radical transparency. Candid communication builds trust, and direct feedback drives growth.
• Multiculturalism. We come from across the world. Be curious. Meet people on their terms.
• Team over ego. Help others, share context, and win as a team.
• A joyful journey. We take pride in the craft.