Director of Manufacturing (Design-to-Manufacturing)

Role Overview

TheDirector of Design-to-Manufacturing (D2M) leads the organization responsible for transforming product and program requirements into controlled, validated, scalable manufacturing and test systems capable of supporting satellite production, integration, verification, and launch readiness. This person ensures engineering intent is developed for production while developing the team through technical guidance, operational excellence, and design-for-excellence feedback to engineering.

The Director provides organizational and technical leadership across threeD2M sub-domains :

Day-to-day responsibilities

• Lead manufacturing and test teams: Manage Manufacturing Systems & Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (MGSE), Verification & Validation Test Engineering, and Test Platforms & Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE).
• Turn engineering requirements into production-ready processes: Oversee work instructions, bills of materials, routings, assembly workflows, tooling, fixtures, and process validation.
• Ensure test readiness: Oversee test methods, procedures, scripts, limits, configurations, coverage, and verification evidence.
• Own test infrastructure readiness: Guide the development, validation, deployment, and maintenance of test benches, instrumentation, automation, networking, and spacecraft interfaces.
• Review designs for manufacturability and testability: Work with mechanical, electrical, software, and systems engineering to identify constraints early and reduce rework.
• Resolve manufacturing and test issues: Coordinate root-cause investigations, troubleshoot bottlenecks, and drive corrective actions.
• Manage priorities and performance: Track readiness, quality, schedule, cost, throughput, risks, and resource needs.
• Standardize and scale operations: Establish reusable tooling, test platforms, common standards, and predictable handoffs to Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT).
• Coach and develop the team: Clarify ownership, strengthen technical leadership, and improve cross-functional collaboration.

Must-haves

• Strongmanufacturing engineering and test engineering experience, translating complex designs into practical manufacturing and verification systems.
• MGSE and EGSE expertise, including development, implementation, validation, and ongoing support.
• Experience withhardware-in-the-loop/software-in-the-loop (HIL/SIL) or similarly complex integration and test environments.
• PracticalDesign for Manufacturing, Assembly and Test (DFM/DFA/DFT) knowledge, with examples of influencing design decisions.
• Proventechnical team leadership and coaching, ideally across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Strong collaboration acrossengineering, production, quality, supply chain, and programs.
• Hands-on problem-solving and delivery under pressure, supported by examples of shipping complex hardware and resolving real production issues.

Good-to-haves

• Directsatellite or aerospace manufacturing experience.
• Electronics or defence/DoD manufacturing experience involving complex, high-reliability systems.
• Familiarity withERP/MES systems for production workflows, reporting, and traceability.
• Experience withagile or concurrent engineering, rapid prototyping, and iterative engineering-to-manufacturing handoffs.
• Knowledge ofAS9100 and ISO 9001 quality standards.