Production Director (Starship)

SpaceX • Starbase, TX, TX

2d

About The Position

SpaceX is developing technologies to enable human life on Mars. The Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster form a launch system designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. The Production Director at Starbase leads large-scale, multidisciplinary production teams and complex manufacturing projects. This hands-on leadership role addresses the engineering and production challenges of building flight hardware at unprecedented cadence and scale. The director drives process excellence, optimizes production systems, and fosters a high-performance culture to turn ambitious goals into flight-ready vehicles.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering field or at least 8 years of experience in a production, military, or automotive environment.
• At least 5 years of experience in a manufacturing or engineering leadership role.
• At least 2 years of experience in a managerial role overseeing indirect reports.
• Must be willing to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed to meet critical deliverable and launch/test schedule timelines.
• Able to travel for short and extended trips as needed, up to 10%.
• Must meet U.S. Government export regulation requirements: be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Nice To Haves

• Proven track record of building, motivating, mentoring, and coaching high-performance manufacturing teams.
• Technical project management experience.
• Excellent technical expertise and judgment across multiple engineering disciplines, enabling peer-level review of the team’s work product.
• Creative problem-solving ability that brings multiple disciplines together.
• Ability to assess risk and make development decisions without all available data.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with direct experience negotiating integrated system trades among stakeholders.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and external customers or vendors.
• Highly detail-oriented and passionate about advancing the commercial space industry.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, autonomously driven, and demanding startup atmosphere.

Responsibilities

• Oversee strategic and tactical execution of Starbase Production Operations so manifest milestones are consistently achieved.
• Manage overall staff and several direct reports.
• Collaborate extensively with engineering leaders to ensure vehicle development meets critical timelines without impacting the launch schedule.
• Meet tight production schedules to achieve high-rate production while adapting to changing priorities in a fast-moving environment.
• Maintain productive relationships and influence people outside the area of responsibility.
• Lead and develop a high-performing culture, with people leadership as an essential responsibility.
• Ensure a strong focus on safety and maintain an excellent safety record.
• Champion continuous improvement projects using appropriate metrics and data sources.
• Foster cooperation and collaboration within and between support departments.
• Think creatively and question the status quo while following documentation and prescribed quality standards.

What This Job Offers

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