Director of Manufacturing and Procurement
Orb Aerospace
Operations
Lowell, MI, USA
Posted on Jan 13, 2025
US Citizen or Permanent Resident
In-Person
Starts Immediately
Join us in building aircraft at scale, reindustrializing the Midwest, and turning autonomous aircraft into decentralized infrastructure. Orb is a small mission-driven team where your initiative, creativity, and dedication will be used to reach every village on the planet with power, logistics, and communications.
Your Role at Orb: Orb is adding a Director of Manufacturing to its team of engineers early in the design process to build the foundation for mass produced air platforms all the way from 10lbs to 300lbs. We’re looking for someone who can manage relationships with suppliers, interface with the design team, implement standards, and stand up a manufacturing organization.
If you’re ready to take ownership, embrace complexity, and thrive in a role where your work truly matters, we’d love to hear from you.
Key Responsibilities
- Implement near and long-term strategies for facilities, equipment, material and workforce resources to build and maintain manufacturing capabilities and processes.
- Create plans for operational safety, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, and cost control policies and programs in manufacturing processes aligned with Orbs near and long-term strategies.
- Perform manufacturing feasibility studies and design feedback on aerospaceparts and sub-assemblies with different engineering teams.
- Lead root cause analysis efforts to quickly resolve any manufacturing and supply chain challenges
- Guide engineering decisions on cross functional teams to ensure products are designed for medium tohigh-volume production.
- Establish and manage relationships with key suppliers in alignment with company objectives and product strategy.
- Participate in the hiring process including recruiting and interviewing employees for Orb’s future manufacturing and supply chain team.
- Mentor incoming engineers to build a strong culture of leadership and engineering excellence.
Desired Skills and Qualifications
- Experience in operations, manufacturing, technology, aerospace, or defense.
- Willingness to learn new skills in a dynamic and fast-paced work environment.
- Experience in managing complex value streams and implementing process improvements
- Experience in manufacturing resource planning, manufacturing systems, quality assurance practices, and supply chain management.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to interpret data and make data-driven decisions, supported by a deep understanding of engineering first principles.
- Experience with ERP systems and other supply chain management software.
- Strong organizational skills, with the ability to build, motivate, and inspire teams, manage conflict, and resolve issues effectively.
- Strong communication andinterpersonal skills, with the ability tointerfacing with partners, suppliers, engineers and employees.
- Proven experience of supporting a product through its entire lifecycle
- Proficient in writing technical documents, drawings, and test reports along with associated specs to ensure a repeatable and sustainable manufacturing process.
- Familiarity with using CAD software (such as Siemens NX, Solidworks, Fusion360)
About Orb Aerospace: Orb was started with the mission to bring aviation to the 80% of the world that’s never had it; turning autonomous aircraft into tools to decentralize infrastructure, connect continents, protect soldiers, provide for families, and run economies.“Less like the flying taxis, more like the flying cowboys,” Orb is at the intersection of manned and unmanned aviation, reindustrializing the Midwest, and building the- future we know is possible and want to live in.
About Node One: Node One is a small team of engineers and operators who have dedicated their lives to solving some of the world’s hardest problems through a new kind of aviation - Orb’s live-work-fly R&D HQ. Node One is all about reducing the cycle time to design, build, and fly aircraft from years to months and building the systems and platforms we’ll use to reach every village on the planet.
We stand on the shoulders of giants. Their great work allows us to accomplish ours. If you’ve been a rocket/airplane nerd and have a passion for designing, building, and flying airframes, autopilots, power systems, and embedded systems, or you love to push a new product through new manufacturing methods to a new market, come join the team at Node One and make history.
Orb Employees Are:
High Agency and Biased Towards Action
Have a History of Self-Starting, Pacing, and Finishing Projects
Thrive with Autonomy to Design New Solutions to Partially Defined Problems
Are Curious and Continue Learning
Have Integrity and a Desire to Serve Others
Standard Benefits Package:
Orb provides a monthly flat rate towards medical, dental, and vision
$500 flat rate for individuals; $850 flat rate for married/family
Medical, Vision, Dental, Short/Long Term Disability, and Group/Voluntary Life Insurance
Opt-In 401K Options (Pre-Tax or Roth) with a 3% Employer Match
Perks:
Support in Getting your Pilots License and Ratings
Support for Continuing Education
Annual Customer Demos all over the World