Environmental Lab Manager

Antares•Los Angeles, CA

11d•$160,000 - $225,000•Onsite

About The Position

Antares is seeking a hands-on Environmental Lab Manager to build and operate environmental test capabilities supporting its R1 reactor and associated hardware. The role translates program needs into equipment and facility requirements, brings new capabilities online, and establishes a practical process from test request through reliable results. The manager will collaborate with Facilities, test teams, design engineering, and Quality to make the lab useful, safe, and ready for a growing hardware development program. The manager will build the lab capability roadmap; specify and evaluate environmental test equipment; coordinate facility requirements, procurement, installation, commissioning, and verification; and work with engineering and Quality to select test methods and document acceptance criteria. The role also establishes test procedures and supports hands-on test execution, while owning equipment maintenance, calibration, training, configuration records, and lab safety in coordination with Facilities, EHS, and Quality. As demand grows, the manager will hire, train, and manage technicians. The initial focus is establishing equipment capabilities and lab operations, with team building becoming a priority as workload warrants. The position is based on site in Torrance, California, with regular hands-on involvement in lab setup, commissioning, and testing. Occasional vendor or external lab visits may be needed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, electrical, aerospace, or a related engineering field, or 7+ years of equivalent practical experience.
Demonstrated experience owning environmental test equipment or lab operations, including thermal, vibration, or shock testing.
Experience translating hardware and test requirements into equipment specifications, evaluating vendors, and bringing new equipment into service.
Ability to assess equipment limits and facility needs and explain the tradeoffs behind equipment selection.
Experience developing test procedures, working with instrumentation and data acquisition, troubleshooting test setups, and reviewing test results.
Ability to turn incomplete requests into clear test objectives, required inputs, execution plans, and actionable results.
Demonstrated ownership across engineering, Facilities, vendors, and technicians, with sound judgment on safety, schedule, and test quality.
Work on site in Torrance, California, with regular hands-on involvement in lab setup, commissioning, and testing.
Coordinate occasional vendor or external lab visits as needed.

Nice To Haves

Experience establishing or expanding a lab, including capital planning, equipment commissioning, and operator training.
Working familiarity with environmental test frameworks such as MIL-STD-810 or IEC 60068, and experience selecting and tailoring methods to actual hardware environments.
Experience with electrodynamic shaker controllers, vibration fixtures, accelerometers, resonance surveys, and control or response limiting.
Experience with thermal, humidity, thermal cycling, or thermal vacuum equipment and testing hardware that dissipates significant heat.
Experience building scheduling, readiness, reporting, maintenance, and calibration processes in a growing organization.
Experience supporting aerospace, defense, energy, or other hardware programs with formal qualification and traceability expectations.
Experience hiring, training, and managing technicians, including recognizing when lab demand warrants additional staffing.

Responsibilities

Build the environmental lab capability roadmap with test and design teams, identifying near-term needs, future capacity, and gaps best covered by external labs.
Size and specify environmental chambers, electrodynamic shakers, and other test equipment based on hardware dimensions, mass, mounting, thermal loads, operating conditions, test profiles, and expected utilization.
Evaluate chamber usable volume, temperature and humidity ranges, ramp rates under load, feedthroughs, and heat removal; evaluate shaker payload and fixture mass, force, frequency, displacement, velocity, and control requirements.
Coordinate facility requirements with Facilities, including power, cooling water, ventilation, compressed air, floor loading, vibration isolation, rigging access, and equipment layout before installation.
Own technical vendor evaluations and equipment acceptance requirements; coordinate procurement, installation, commissioning, and verification of usable test capability.
Work with design engineering, test teams, and Quality to identify applicable test specifications and methods, tailor profiles to the intended environment, and document acceptance criteria and the basis for test severity.
Establish procedures for test readiness, fixture and sensor checks, equipment operation, abort limits, data review, and test reporting, with documentation proportionate to test risk and program needs.
Coordinate and support hands-on test execution, including fixtures, instrumentation, data acquisition, and troubleshooting; maintain traceability from requested conditions to recorded results.
Own equipment maintenance, calibration, operator training, configuration records, and lab safety practices in coordination with Facilities, EHS, and Quality.
Track lab capacity, equipment availability, and upcoming demand; recommend capability investments and external test support as the program grows.
As lab demand grows, hire, train, and manage technicians to support test execution and lab operations.