Associate Director, Machining

The Associate Director, Machining is a senior leadership role responsible for the end-to-end operation of the Precision Shop's subtractive manufacturing departments - Milling and Turning. Reporting to the Director, Precision Shop, this leader owns daily execution, throughput, and quality across both departments while driving the mid-range planning, capability development, and CNC programming talent strategy that keep machining capacity ahead of Boston Dynamics' prototype demand.

This role is the operational backbone of the Precision Shop. Where the Director sets multi-year strategy across all shop disciplines, the Associate Director converts that strategy into machining reality: production-ready programs, predictable schedules, disciplined processes, and a bench of skilled machinists and programmers capable of scaling with humanoid, quadruped, and mobile warehouse program targets. The ideal candidate is a hands-on leader who can stand at a machine and troubleshoot a toolpath in the morning and present capacity risk to senior leadership in the afternoon.

 

Scope of Responsibility

 

The Associate Director holds direct ownership of the Precision Shop's machining operations:
 

• Milling — Multi-axis CNC machining of complex structural and mechanism components
   

• Turning — Precision lathe work, grinding, threading, gear making, and rotational part production
   

• Post- Processing – Cleaning, tumbling, deburring, and heat treating of machined components
  
   

Direct reports include department supervisors and individual contributors. The role partners closely with the Additive Manufacturing and Quality Control leaders under the same Director to operate the shop as one unified organization.

 

Key Responsibilities

 

Operational Leadership & Execution:

 

• Own shop-floor productivity, throughput, on-time delivery, and first-pass yield for Milling, Turning, and Post-Processing; establish leading indicators and drive accountability at the supervisor and individual contributor level.
   

• Own budget and staffing planning for the machining department, including CAPEX, OPEX, and compensation.
   

• Govern daily and weekly production scheduling and workload distribution across departments, balancing engineering demand, machine availability, and programming capacity in real time.
   

• Review and approve CNC program development for complex multi-axis machining, ensuring compliance with internal standards, tolerance requirements, and robotic integration needs.
   

• Troubleshoot production challenges — toolpaths, fixturing,
  workholding, program logic, machine behavior — and resolve issues with minimal escalation to the Director.
   

• Lead root cause analysis for machining-related quality escapes and delivery misses; implement systemic corrective actions with measurable outcomes.
  
   

Capability & Process Development:

 

• Translate the Director's multi-year Precision Shop roadmap into an executable machining capability plan: equipment utilization, programming standards, tooling strategy, and workforce readiness.
   

• Develop, enforce, and continuously improve CNC programming standards, templates, and documentation processes across both departments.
   

• Champion Lean, 6S, and data-driven continuous improvement across work centers; lead cross-functional efforts to reduce scrap, optimize cycle times, and improve tool life.
   

• Build and maintain capacity models that reflect real engineering demand, and surface bottleneck risk to the Director early enough to act on it.
   

• Contribute technical justification and utilization data to capital equipment business cases; support acquisition, commissioning, and ramp of new machining assets.
  
   

Organizational Leadership & Talent Development:

 

• Directly manage supervisors and machinists; own their development, performance management, and succession planning for the machining and programming workforce.
   

• Cultivate a high-accountability, one-team culture across the machining departments — shared standards of craftsmanship, documentation discipline, and professionalism that align with the broader Precision Shop operating philosophy.
   

• Lead workforce planning for mac