Engineering Manager – Chemicals and Rockets

Estes Energetics • Penrose, CO

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

Voyager Technologies is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead our Chemicals and Explosives engineering team and our Rockets engineering team supporting our Colorado and Louisiana operations. In this role, you’ll help develop new chemical and manufacturing processes and support scale-up efforts aligned with our mission to reshore defense-critical domestic manufacturing. In this role, you will support the transition of developmentally designed rocket motors into production processes. This role requires deep technical expertise in chemical production and/or energetic materials, combined with demonstrated leadership and team development experience. The Engineering Manager will provide strategic and hands-on technical direction across process design, pilot demonstration, production scale-up, and manufacturing operations, while mentoring engineers and fostering a culture of safety, accountability, and technical excellence in a defense-focused environment. This position will directly support our Colorado operations focused on R&D and new product development projects, rocket motor design projects, and indirectly support our Louisiana operations focused on production.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering or a related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on chemical engineering experience.
• 15+ years of hands-on mix, grind, and cast experience of both propellants and/or explosives.
• Demonstrated experience leading engineering teams and managing technical execution of complex engineering projects.
• U.S. citizenship with ability to obtain and maintain DoD security clearance (as required).
• Must be at least 21 years of age
• Ability to pass State and Federal background checks
• Ability to obtain and maintain applicable State and Federal explosives licenses
• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a manufacturing environment (both propellant and chemical manufacturing).
• Experience standing up new manufacturing capabilities.
• Strong knowledge of common unit operations employed in chemical and propellant manufacturing.
• Expertise in electrochemistry, evaporator, crystallization, dewatering, drying, and/or packaging operations.
• Expertise in grinding, mixing, and casting energetic materials, chemical traceability, material lot tracking,
• Experience with industrial automation (instrumentation, PLCs, communication).
• Experience with process modeling (Aspen, ChemCAD, MATLAB, or custom tools).
• Experience with CAD (especially SolidWorks).
• Chemical laboratory experience (synthetic or analytical chemistry).
• Grind, Mix, and Cast experience
• Construction or fabrication experience (professional or personal).
• Demonstrated leadership through mentorship, team development, and talent pipeline building.
• Demonstrated success building and implementing management processes that scale with organizational growth.
• Experience with identifying, tracking, and addressing risks, issues, and opportunities facing a project.
• Experience training others to recognize and assess potential risks.
• Ability to communicate effectively across engineering, operations, program management, and leadership audiences.
• Experience conducting design reviews.
• Experience with supplier management, contracting engineering support, and external technical partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor multi-disciplinary engineering teams responsible for process design, equipment design, equipment fabrication, pilot demonstration, production scale-up, manufacturing operations, and automation.
• Lead and mentor multi-disciplinary engineering teams responsible for mix, grind, cast of various types of energetic materials. Mentoring will include supporting personnel through the acquisition process from development, through various design reviews including preliminary and critical design reviews (PDR, CDR) as well as into low rate initial production (LRIP).
• Support engineering strategy, planning, and resource allocation in conjunction with engineering and project management leadership to meet performance, cost, schedule, and quality objectives in support of defense programs.
• Oversee development, review, and approval of engineering deliverables including requirements, models, procedures, design documentation, and risk assessments.
• Implement and maintain engineering processes, best practices, and continuous improvement initiatives that promote technical excellence and compliance with internal and government standards.
• Represent the engineering organization internally and externally, advocating technical positions and contributing to program status reviews.
• Support talent development through coaching, performance feedback, and identification of professional growth opportunities for engineering staff.

Benefits

• Unlimited Flexible Time Off (FTO), empowering employees to take the time they need to recharge and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and their families, with a significant portion of premiums covered by the company and many benefits paid at 100% for employees.
• 401(k) retirement plan with a company match of up to 4% to help you build long-term financial security.
• Company wellness programs that support physical and mental well-being.
• Additional voluntary benefits and employee support resources.
• The opportunity to work alongside a highly talented team in an innovative, mission driven environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager