Director of Manufacturing, Operations, Assembly - Blue Ring

Application close date:

Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!  

This role is part of Blue Origin Operations, which is comprised of Integrated Supply Chain, Test Operations, Safety, Quality, and Mission Assurance. This includes Manufacturing and Supply Chain support across all Blue Origin facilities.

We are a team of collaborators, doers, and problem-solvers who are relentlessly committed to a culture of safety. This position will directly impact the history of space exploration and will require your commitment and detailed attention towards safe and repeatable space flight. Join us in lowering the cost of access to space and enabling Blue Origin's vision of millions of people living and working in space to benefit Earth.

As part of a passionate and accomplished team of experts, you will be responsible for the production and assembly of components for the Blue Ring In Space System.

This is a hands-on position that requires effective communication, high judgment and overall leadership of manufacturing production operations including spacecraft assembly, machine shop, heat treat and welding at our Huntsville facility. This Leader will have the responsibility of the development and qualification of space system manufacturing production capabilities, processes and root cause curiosity to drive continuous improvement. This position will directly impact the history of space exploration and will require your dedicated commitment and detailed attention towards safe and repeatable spaceflight.

We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, leadership skills, and commitment to quality to positively impact safe human spaceflight. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Responsibilities:

• Oversee reliable and predictable production and assembly of the Blue Ring In Space System at the Huntsville site
• Lead multiple teams of personnel responsible for delivering on-time completion of development and production hardware for space systems
• Establish and maintain systems of process control for machines, material, processes, tools, and people specific to space system assembly
• Collaborate with internal customers and manufacturing planning teams to define capacity planning actions that meet customer needs and expectations; forecast and develop improvement plans for constrained work centers to achieve demand plan
• Lead and develop the manufacturing and assembly leaders to include: recruiting, talent development, training, and coaching
• Oversee and drive the measurement, analysis, reporting, and improvement of work center and team performance
• Take ownership of interfaces with other sites and other business functions to drive improvements to increase the overall effectiveness of the manufacturing system across Blue Origin
• Instill a culture of continuous improvement through opportunity identification, root cause analysis, and corrective actions to reduce cost and cycle times
• Own all area KPI's and supporting process improvements, continually raising the bar on performance expectations
• Define, manage, plan, and monitor budgets and schedules for raw material, operational expenses, labor, and capital projects
• Maintain manufacturing and assembly schedule and overcome barriers to meet customer expectations; collaborate with team members (across sites) to address capacity and scheduling conflicts
• Participate in company-wide process definition and improvement for manufacturing processes, business processes, production planning, lessons learned, and other standards/processes as needed
• Implement the Blue Production System to build a production framework that supports World-Class capabilities and fosters One Blue culture

Qualifications:

• Minimum of a B.S. degree in an engineering or manufacturing field or 10+ years in a leadership position in machining/fabrication/spacecraft assembly
• 15+ years' experience with progressive responsibilities in manufacturing in areas such as spacecraft assembly, launch vehicles, spacecraft systems, aircraft, or other complex systems
• Experience in space systems manufacturing within the aerospace environment in production and/or prototyping environments with demonstrated knowledge of assembly processes
• 8+ years hands-on applications to manufacture and assemble space systems: CNC programming, set up and running