Director of Operational Excellence

EnduroSat•Los Angeles, CA

1d•$160,000 - $190,000•Onsite

About The Position

This is a founding, hands-on role for a Director of Operational Excellence. The individual will be responsible for designing and building a new satellite factory from the ground up, including defining value streams, capacity models, floor layouts, operating metrics, and business systems. The role involves setting the framework and then building it, working across multiple departments such as Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Construction, and Finance. The position will also involve adapting practices from an established European operation while ensuring compliance with export controls. The role reports to the COO.

Requirements

8+ years in manufacturing, with a track record of leading teams and building production lines from the ground up.
Experience standing up or substantially rebuilding a manufacturing operation from scratch.
Hands-on ownership of ERP, MES, or PLM configuration and deployment.
Demonstrated continuous improvement results with supporting data.
Proficiency in building tools using Python, SQL, JavaScript, or equivalent.
Experience developing manufacturing performance metrics that influenced organizational behavior.
Comfort across a broad range of manufacturing processes: electromechanical assembly, harnessing, electronics, machining, and complex system integration.
Bachelor's degree in engineering, operations, business, or equivalent experience.
US Person status as defined by ITAR (22 CFR §120.62) due to access to export-controlled technical data.

Nice To Haves

Experience in space, aerospace, defense, or another regulated low-volume/high-complexity hardware environment.
Experience with new product introduction and transitioning from development to rate production.
Experience with factory layout and equipment integration on a greenfield build.
Experience with product costing and cost model development in partnership with Finance.
Experience building or rebuilding quality management systems like AS9100.
Experience bridging a US site to an established overseas parent operation.

Responsibilities

Design the factory before it exists, defining value streams, planning capacity, and optimizing flow.
Build the capacity model, considering labor, equipment, floor space, and tooling.
Plan the onshoring sequence with Supply Chain and Manufacturing.
Lead the US deployment and configuration of ERP, MES, and PLM systems.
Right-size the toolchain to fit current and future scale.
Architect ITAR-controlled system segregation in partnership with compliance and legal.
Identify and formalize core operating processes currently in spreadsheets.
Build operating metrics and establish a review cadence.
Turn data into decisions by providing manufacturing leaders with actionable views.
Partner with Finance on product costing and mission profitability.
Establish continuous improvement disciplines, including structured problem solving and standard work.
Run cross-functional process workshops to define and control processes.
Assess and develop the operations team's capabilities through hiring, development, and training.