Senior Manager, Manufacturing Engineering

Atomic Machines•Emeryville, CA

1d•$200,000 - $250,000

About The Position

Atomic Machines is seeking a Senior Manager, Platform Manufacturing Engineering to lead Production Manufacturing Engineering as the Matter Compiler scales from pilot production into high-volume manufacturing. The role owns the equipment that builds the company’s devices, including equipment build, integration, bring-up, qualification, and reliability, as well as the engineering team responsible for delivering it. This is a player-coach role: the manager is expected to personally lead the hardest critical-path equipment projects, working in CAD and on the production floor, while developing engineers through hands-on project work, design reviews, and progressively delegated scope. The role also leads hiring, performance management, organizational planning, headcount and capital budgeting, and the function’s standards for documentation, change control, qualification, release, and completion. The manager will work across teams to bring manufacturability and equipment requirements into specifications and design milestones, and will own production readiness, supplier execution, and sustained improvements in throughput, yield, cost, and uptime. The position involves travel between Atomic Machines’ Emeryville and Santa Clara sites as needed. Compensation includes equity and benefits. The stated salary range is $200,000–$250,000 USD.

Requirements

At least 7 years of manufacturing or equipment engineering experience, including at least 3 years managing engineers with 5 or more direct reports.
Current hands-on engineering capability, including recent CAD design work and hardware debugging on the production floor; ability to take on the team’s hardest open task.
Demonstrated end-to-end ownership of automated production equipment, from architecture through mechanical, controls, and software integration to a qualified, released system operating in production.
Proficiency in equipment-design CAD such as SolidWorks, Onshape, AutoCAD, or similar, with recent personal use.
A track record of developing engineers through projects personally led, including design reviews and progressive handoff of scope.
Experience building a functional group, including defining roles, hiring to a plan, and establishing operating standards.
Experience leading a multidisciplinary team spanning areas such as equipment, controls/automation, integration, and sustaining.
Ownership of headcount and capital budgets, including resourcing tradeoff decisions under real constraints.
Depth in DFx, RCCA, eBOM-to-mBOM conversion, qualification and acceptance testing, and PLM/document control and release.
Experience in semiconductor, solar, hardware-based biotech, EV, or similar high-tech industries.
Demonstrated ability to influence across functions without authority, including getting manufacturing and equipment requirements into specifications owned by other teams.
A first-principles mindset: questioning assumptions, reframing problems, and approaching challenges from foundational understanding.
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree.
Experience standing up or rebuilding a manufacturing or equipment engineering function while a company moves from pilot to production scale.
Evidence of staying technically current while managing, such as a design, patent, or build personally delivered while running a team.
Knowledge of basic coding, such as RSLogix, Ignition, Python, or C/C++.
Experience with Arena PLM.

Responsibilities

Personally lead the architecture, CAD, build, bring-up, and qualification of the most challenging critical-path equipment projects, involving engineers in the work as a development method.
Lead a team of 5–10 engineers across equipment design, automation and controls, integration, and sustaining, through direct reports and technical leads.
Establish engineering standards through reference designs, qualification plans, RCCAs, and documentation that explain the reasoning behind the work.
Coach engineers through paired design work, in-depth technical reviews, delegation of scope, and development of future project leads.
Own the function’s delivery commitments for equipment, qualifications, and production readiness.
Lead equipment deployment from installation through validation, commissioning, acceptance testing, SOP/WI release, and operator qualification.
Personally lead root-cause and corrective-action work on significant failures, teach the method, and drive corrective actions across teams.
Establish and uphold standards for documentation, change control, qualification and release, RCCA and closure, and work review.
Plan organizational growth, forecast hiring needs, define roles and levels, build and defend hiring plans, and manage headcount and capital budgets with Supply Chain and Finance.
Resolve escalated personnel situations arising from business and priority changes.
Bring manufacturability and equipment requirements into specifications and design milestones with Design Engineering and Product.
Balance priorities with peer leaders, meet committed deliverables where possible, and communicate impacts and resolution paths when commitments cannot be met.
Own contract manufacturer and automation supplier execution through final integration and testing to deliver conformant hardware on schedule.
Drive sustained improvements in throughput, yield, cost, and uptime using control limits, and establish operating metrics and a reporting cadence.
Travel between Emeryville and Santa Clara sites as needed.