{"id":1402176,"url":"https://alion.io/job/covenant-production-manager","title":"Production Manager","company":{"id":3789852,"name":"Covenant","domain":"covenantindustries.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/covenantindustries","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Comeet","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Leipzig, Germany"],"countries":["DE"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":73000,"max_usd":129000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":23},"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-09T15:36:11Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-09","last_verified_at":"2026-09-30T10:49:43Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":21,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":21},"description":"Description\nTitle: Production Manager\nLocation: Leipzig, Germany\nCOMPANY OVERVIEW\nCovenant is a global defense company headquartered in Washington, D.C., building long-range precision strike weapons for the United States and its allies. Its flagship munition, Anthem, combines heavy payload and long range at a fraction of the cost of comparable legacy systems, with production volumes designed to meet the demands of prolonged conflict. Designed as an end-to-end weapon system that is simple to store, transport, and field, Anthem is produced in the United States, Germany, and Israel. For more information, visit covenant.com\nTHE ROLE\nThe Production Manager will own and lead production operations for our European manufacturing site, with responsibility extending well beyond day-to-day factory management. This is a senior leadership position responsible for building a world-class manufacturing organization while shaping the company's global production strategy alongside executive leadership.\nBased in Leipzig, you will establish and scale our European manufacturing operation from the ground up, building the people, processes, and systems required to support high-rate production of advanced defense systems. You will partner closely with Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, Program Management, and Operations to ensure products transition seamlessly from development into efficient, repeatable manufacturing. As the senior manufacturing leader in Europe, you will also represent the company with key industrial partners, customers, and government stakeholders.\nWHAT YOU'LL DO\nStand up and scale European production lines capable of supporting sustained high-volume manufacturing.\nBuild, lead, and develop the European Production organization, including hiring, coaching, and managing manufacturing leadership and production personnel.\nEnsure compliance with German employment law, labor regulations, and works council (Betriebsrat) requirements.\nPartner with executive leadership to define and execute the company's global manufacturing strategy.\nEstablish scalable manufacturing processes optimized for throughput, efficiency, quality, and cost.\nOwn production planning, capacity planning, labor utilization, and factory execution to meet aggressive production schedules.\nEnsure production targets are consistently achieved while maintaining world-class standards for quality, safety, and regulatory compliance.\nDevelop operational KPIs and manufacturing dashboards while driving a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.\nLead factory layout planning, production line design, equipment selection, automation strategy, and manufacturing tooling decisions.\nPartner closely with Engineering to ensure products are designed for manufacturability (DFM), assembly (DFA), and production scalability.\nCollaborate with the Head of Supply Chain to ensure material availability, supplier readiness, and inventory strategies support production ramp.\nPartner with Quality to establish robust manufacturing controls, inspection processes, and production quality standards.\nLead Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and operational excellence initiatives across the facility.\nSupport new product introductions (NPI) and transition products from prototype through full-rate production.\nRepresent the company with customers, government stakeholders, suppliers, and strategic manufacturing partners throughout Germany and Europe.\nBuild a high-performance manufacturing culture centered on ownership, safety, execution, and continuous improvement.\nREQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS\nBachelor's degree in Engineering, Manufacturing, Operations, or a related technical discipline. Advanced degree preferred.\n7+ years of manufacturing leadership experience, including leading high-volume production operations.\nExperience building, scaling, or leading manufacturing organizations within the defense, aerospace, automotive, robotics, or other complex manufacturing industries.\nDemonstrated success launching new manufacturing facilities, production lines, or greenfield operations.\nStrong understanding of Lean Manufacturing, continuous improvement, production planning, and operational excellence principles.\nExperience leading cross-functional organizations including Production, Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, Supply Chain, and Operations.\nStrong understanding of manufacturing systems, automation, industrial engineering, and factory operations.\nProven ability to develop manufacturing organizations capable of supporting rapid growth.\nExperience establishing KPIs and operational metrics that drive accountability and performance.\nStrong understanding of workplace safety, regulatory compliance, and manufacturing best practices.\nExcellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills.\nProfessional proficiency in English; German language skills are strongly preferred.\nWillingness to travel internationally as required.\nPREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS\nExperience supporting defense manufacturing programs subject to NATO or European defense requirements.\nExperience with high-rate production of electromechanical assemblies, autonomous systems, aerospace products, or advanced hardware.\nKnowledge of German manufacturing regulations, industrial relations, and works council (Betriebsrat) environments.\nExperience implementing Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, or Toyota Production System methodologies.\nExperience designing highly automated production lines and advanced manufacturing systems.\nFamiliarity with ERP/MRP systems, MES platforms, and production planning software.\nExperience working within a high-growth startup or rapidly scaling manufacturing organization.\nPrior responsibility for global manufacturing strategy across multiple production sites.\nWHAT MAKES YOU SUCCESSFUL\nYou are an exceptional manufacturing leader who can build a factory, develop teams, and scale production without compromising quality or safety.\nYou think strategically while remaining deeply engaged in operational execution.\nYou foster a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement across every level of the organization.\nYou build strong partnerships across Engineering, Supply Chain, Quality, and Operations to solve complex manufacturing challenges.\nYou are passionate about building world-class manufacturing capabilities that deliver mission-critical defense technologies at scale.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6412,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"German","level":"All levels","optional":true},{"language":"English","level":"Advanced (C1)","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"Germany","iso":"DE","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-28T16:09:34Z"}],"liveness":{"score":53,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.702,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":20,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:13","velocity","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-09-30T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/covenant-production-manager","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/covenant-production-manager.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-01T02:30:05Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1876,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":3124,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-02T00:00:00Z"}}}