Production Manager

Ulysses Inc. • San Francisco, CA

33d • $140,000 - $190,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Ulysses is hiring a Production Manager to plan builds, tests, and customer deliveries for Mako underwater vehicles, Leviathan surface systems, and mission equipment. The role coordinates engineering, the machine shop, production technicians, and field operations, while staying involved in the physical production process from purchasing and machining through assembly and final testing. The Production Manager ensures each build’s status is clear and that every delivery has the correct configuration, documentation, spares, and supporting equipment.

Ulysses develops autonomous surface and subsea drones, robotics, and AI systems for challenges involving nature, infrastructure, and maritime security. Its first product line is a suite of autonomous drones and attachments intended to make seagrass ecosystem restoration cheaper and easier. The company works with governments in the United States and Australia and environmental groups including The Nature Conservancy, and is a Series A company backed by investors including Andreessen Horowitz.

Requirements

• Experience coordinating production or customer delivery of physical products, with direct involvement in parts, suppliers, assembly, and testing.
• Practical understanding of how machined parts, electrical assemblies, and purchased components become a tested product.
• Confidence working with bills of materials, revisions, purchase orders, inventory, and build schedules, and checking records against the shop floor.
• Ability to prioritize builds competing for the same people or equipment and explain the consequences of changing their order.
• Strong follow-through with suppliers and internal teams; ability to identify missing information, get answers, and keep the plan current.
• Clear communication about dates, risks, and scope without making commitments the team cannot meet.
• Comfort working on-site in San Francisco and moving between detailed planning and practical workshop coordination.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in robotics, marine hardware, or other complex electromechanical products built in growing volumes.
• Experience using manufacturing execution, inventory, or enterprise resource planning systems in production.
• Familiarity with CNC machining, outside finishing, inspection, and the transition to repeatable assembly.
• Experience coordinating international shipments, customer acceptance, or equipment preparation for field deployments.

Responsibilities

• Turn agreed customer scope into a delivery plan covering configuration, quantities, spares, documentation, acceptance testing, and shipment; resolve unclear requirements before building.
• Maintain schedules across purchasing, machining, outside processing, inspection, assembly, integration, and final testing, using actual material availability and shop capacity.
• Track parts and supplier commitments; address shortages and late items with purchasing and engineering, and secure technical approval for alternatives.
• Keep the build queue clear for technicians and machinists by confirming released drawings, bills of materials, parts, and instructions are ready before scheduling work.
• Coordinate design changes with engineering and show their effects on purchased parts, work in progress, rework, cost, and delivery dates before committing.
• Track each vehicle’s build progress, quality issues, and test results; assign owners to failed checks and resolve them before delivery.
• Coordinate packing, shipping, field equipment, spares, and deployment preparation with operations, keeping customer handover requirements connected to the build.
• Provide clear delivery updates to the team and customer-facing colleagues, and raise conflicts between customer dates, development work, and production capacity early.
• Use recurring shortages, rework, and waiting time to improve planning, inventory, and handovers as production grows.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: No Education Listed