Job Title: Director of Manufacturing Operations
Reports To: COO
Location: Orange County, CA

Overview
 

Seeking a hands-on Director of Operations / Manufacturing to lead the next phase of manufacturing maturity for a growing, highly technical business. This role is designed for a leader who can build structure, discipline, and scalability into a high-mix / low-volume factory while keeping the organization practical, responsive, and close to the floor.

This person will partner closely with the COO and peer leaders across Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain to improve manufacturing execution, work instruction discipline, system accuracy, visibility, and on-time delivery.

 

A Day in the Life

 

• Lead day-to-day manufacturing execution across the production floor in a high-mix / low-volume environment.

• Build and implement scalable manufacturing processes, including process sheets, standard work, visual instructions, and repeatable training methods.

• Reduce dependence on tribal knowledge by capturing how the work is actually done and translating it into usable manufacturing documentation.

• Partner with Supply Chain and Planning to improve material flow, schedule adherence, floor readiness, and inventory / system accuracy.

• Partner with Quality to strengthen process compliance, defect visibility, corrective action follow-through, and manufacturing discipline.

• Partner with Engineering to improve manufacturing readiness, build transfer, and practical execution on the floor.

• Create and manage a useful KPI cadence for the factory, including on-time delivery, throughput, bottlenecks, process compliance, and other manufacturing performance indicators.

• Help advance the company toward a more digital, data-driven factory model using available tools and improved process structure.

• Drive shop-floor organization, manufacturing accountability, and execution follow-through in a way that is rigorous but practical.

• Act as a visible, hands-on leader who can identify problems, remove barriers, coach the team, and keep work moving.

 

Required background

 

• Progressive manufacturing leadership experience in a technically complex environment.

• Strong experience in high-mix / low-volume manufacturing; electronics, aerospace, defense, RF, satcom, or similar engineered-product environments are especially relevant.

• Track record of building manufacturing discipline, standard work, work instructions, or process documentation in environments that were not yet mature.

• Experience improving factory data accuracy, production visibility, metrics, and execution cadence.

• Ability to collaborate effectively with Engineering, Quality, and Supply Chain in a peer-based leadership model.

• Hands-on, floor-oriented leadership style with enough strategic range to build systems and scale capability.

• Exposure to ERP / MRP, digital work instruction tools, MES-lite, or home-grown systems is strongly preferred.

• Lean, continuous improvement, demand flow, cellular manufacturing, or similar process-improvement experience is preferred.