Director, Manufacturing Development Engineering

Divergent•Torrance, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Divergent is a technology company that has architected, invented, built, and commercialized an end-to-end factory system called the Divergent Adaptive Production System (DAPS) that comprehensively uses machine learning to optimally engineer, additively manufacture, and flexibly assemble complex integrated vehicle structures and subsystems. Products created using DAPS are superior in performance, lower in cost, rapidly customizable to meet mission and customer-specific requirements, faster to market, and scalable on demand to high volume production. Divergent is a qualified Tier 1 supplier to global automotive OEMs, and Divergent is now expanding to support mission critical needs in the Aerospace and Defense sector. Join us to be a part of this transformative journey, where your impact will shape the future of technology and production. Purpose Lead the Manufacturing Development Engineering team responsible for productionizing Divergent’s advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing, and automation systems from prototype through full-rate production. This role owns the scalable industrialization of complex capital equipment and factory modules, ensuring systems are developed, commissioned, and transitioned into reliable, manufacturable, and repeatable production assets capable of supporting high-rate deployment across Divergent’s DAPS ecosystem. This role will drive manufacturing readiness, process maturity, operational scalability, and production execution to achieve aggressive cost, throughput, quality, reliability, and uptime targets while enabling rapid factory expansion and replication.

Requirements

Ability to lawfully access information and technology that is subject to US export controls and willingness to support defense-related programs and manufacturing activities.
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related discipline.
7+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, capital equipment development, or similar.
4+ years of engineering leadership experience in fast-paced development and production environments.
Experience productionizing complex electromechanical systems from prototype through manufacturing at rate.
Strong background in manufacturing process development, DFM, RCCA, tooling, commissioning, and production ramp activities.
Strong cross-functional leadership, communication, and organizational skills.
Highly adaptable, resourceful, collaborative with an extreme ownership mentality.

Nice To Haves

Experience with LPBF additive manufacturing systems, robotics, advanced manufacturing, or capital equipment.
Experience with NX CAD, Teamcenter PLM, and MES.
Experience supporting factory scale-up, replication, or multi-site manufacturing deployment.

Responsibilities

Lead the Manufacturing Development Engineering organization supporting LPBF systems, automation equipment, and advanced manufacturing modules.
Drive productionization of advanced manufacturing systems from proof of concept through pilot, commissioning, and manufacturing at rate.
Develop scalable manufacturing processes, tooling, documentation, and operational standards to support factory growth and repeatable deployment.
Partner cross-functionally with hardware design engineering, software engineering, technician team, quality, supply chain, and production teams to improve manufacturability, reliability, throughput, and uptime.
Own manufacturing engineering KPIs including build rate, throughput, OEE, first-pass yield, downtime reduction, cost, and production readiness.
Own Ops escalations, issue triaging, feedback loops, and field service engineering-related activities.
Lead equipment bring-up, RCCA activities, process improvements, and factory integration efforts.
Support implementation and optimization of systems to support manufacturing scalability.
Lead organizational planning including hiring, mentorship, prioritization, and team development.