{"id":3488564,"url":"https://alion.io/job/aether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations","title":"Director, Contract Manufacturing Operations","company":{"id":2007442,"name":"Aether Bio","domain":"aetherbio.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/aetherbio","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Kula","truth_index":null},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"head","employment_type":"contractor","work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"board_field","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Menlo Park, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":140000,"max":200000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":200000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-28T22:34:13Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-28","last_verified_at":"2026-11-09T23:41:21Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":12,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":12},"description":"About Aether\nAether engineers enzymes and uses them to make materials that are difficult or impossible to produce any other way. The long-term goal is to manufacture more or less anything, quickly and cheaply, anywhere, by drawing on a few billion years of evolution rather than inventing the chemistry from scratch. Today that work pays for itself through advanced print materials. These are shipping into defense and unmanned systems, with revenue and strong customer feedback. Aether is a Series A company that has raised a little over $60M, with a small team based in the San Francisco Bay Area.\nThe role\nAether manufactures its materials through a network of contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs), covering everything from chemical synthesis through compounding and finished material production. This role owns that network day to day. The VP of Manufacturing selects and qualifies CMO partners. From there, you make sure each partner delivers what it committed to: on time, on spec, and at the agreed cost.\nYou’ll be Aether’s representative on site at each partner. You’ll know the production plan at every CMO, keep partners accountable to their contracts, and act quickly when things go off track. This role works at the level of plant and site leadership. It’s the counterpart to our process engineers, who work with CMO engineering teams on the technical details. You’ll also keep manufacturing execution in line with commercial demand, so that what Aether sells is what the network can actually produce.\nThis is one of the first hires in a new manufacturing organization. You’ll be setting how Aether manages its CMO partners for years to come.\nWhat you’ll do\nOwn day-to-day performance of Aether’s CMO network across multiple sites and production stages.\n\nEnsure each partner has credible production plans that meet Aether’s schedule, specifications, and cost targets.\n\nHold partners accountable to supply agreements, and escalate and resolve issues directly with site and plant leadership.\n\nBe on site for production campaigns and new CMO onboarding, and support the VP of Manufacturing in standing up new partners.\n\nCoordinate schedules and handoffs between partners where different stages of production happen at different sites.\n\nTranslate commercial demand into production plans the CMO network can execute, in partnership with the commercial and supply chain teams.\n\nTrack partner performance on delivery, cost, and output, and report it to manufacturing leadership.\n\nWork with quality and process engineering so that CMO execution reflects Aether’s specifications and process requirements.\n\nWhat you bring\n10+ years in manufacturing operations, with significant time managing contract manufacturers or outsourced production.\n\nExperience in chemicals, polymers, specialty materials, or similar process industries.\n\nA track record of holding external partners to commitments. You’re comfortable escalating to plant leadership and can do it without damaging the relationship.\n\nWorking fluency in supply agreements, production scheduling, and manufacturing cost drivers.\n\nStrong organizational and program management skills across multiple sites at once.\n\nWillingness to travel 30 to 50% of the time.\n\nNice to have\nExperience working at a CMO or tolling facility, so you know the other side of the table.\n\nExperience at an early-stage or fast-growing company.\n\nFamiliarity with ISO 9001 quality systems.\n\nNote\nThe pay range for this role is $140,000 to $200,000 per year plus equity, with final compensation based on skills and experience.\nAether is committed to building an inclusive and diverse workplace. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital or civil-partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, and business needs.\nWe are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates throughout the recruitment process. If you require any adjustments to participate fully in interviews or assessments, please let us know and we will work with you to support your needs.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4208,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Electronics Manufacturing","Contract Manufacturing","Process Manufacturing","Drug Discovery"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-29T22:34:13Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":47,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.853,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":11,"expected_fill_days":10,"reasons":["conf:2","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-09T06:03:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":200000,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/aether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/aether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-10T04:58:14Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":11604,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-11T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2007442},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2007442"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Faether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Faether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Faether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/aether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Faether-bio-director-contract-manufacturing-operations"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3488564}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"aetherbio.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3488564},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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