{"id":226535,"url":"https://alion.io/job/dawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer","title":"Senior Production Engineer","company":{"id":50199,"name":"Dawn Aerospace","domain":"dawnaerospace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/dawn-aerospace","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","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":"structured","locations":["Christchurch, New Zealand"],"countries":["NZ"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":48000,"max_usd":108000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":8444},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-21T04:14:27Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-21","last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T16:12:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":69,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":69},"description":"At Dawn Aerospace, we are building the Aurora, a reusable rocket-powered spaceplane designed to make access to space as routine as aviation. Having demonstrated the technology through an intensive research and development programme, we are now entering the next phase of our journey, transforming how we build aircraft so that production can scale from prototypes to multiple spaceplanes per year. We are seeking an experienced industrialization visionary to lead this transformation.\nThis is a senior and foundational role responsible for establishing the manufacturing vision, production systems, and operational processes that will enable Dawn Aerospace’s spaceplane program to transition from an engineering-led R&D organisation into a repeatable, efficient, and scalable production business. You will work across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, programme management, and leadership to define how products move from design into production while ensuring manufacturability, quality, and delivery remain at the centre of every decision.\nReporting to the VP of Spaceplanes, this role interfaces across the entire organisation. You will identify the organisational, technical, and operational changes required to support higher production rates while maintaining the agility that has enabled rapid innovation. You will develop production strategies, manufacturing standards, industrialisation plans, production readiness criteria, and continuous improvement initiatives that allow Dawn to confidently build multiple spaceplanes each year.\nSuccess in this role requires someone who has previously helped scale a complex engineering organisation from prototype development into serial production. You will be equally comfortable developing long-term manufacturing strategies, designing production systems, and working directly alongside engineers and technicians to solve practical problems. Your success will be determined by the systems you build which should be both agile and compliant to regulations\nIf you enjoy building production organisations from first principles, driving organisational change, and helping shape the future of aerospace manufacturing, we'd love to hear from you.\nWhat You'll Do\nDevelop the long-term production strategy required to manufacture multiple reusable spaceplanes each year.\nDefine the production operating model that supports Dawn's transition from R&D to production.\nDesign and implement scalable manufacturing processes.\nWork closely with design engineers to improve manufacturability and production efficiency.\nIdentify production bottlenecks and develop strategies to remove manufacturing constraints.\nImprove manufacturing data collection to enable data-driven production decisions.\nEstablish production planning methodologies and manufacturing scheduling processes.\nCollaborate with Supply Chain to ensure manufacturing readiness and supplier capability.\nDrive organisational alignment around the transition from prototype thinking to production thinking.\nBuild a culture focused on standardisation, repeatability, and operational excellence.\nDefine manufacturing documentation standards, production travellers, work instructions, and visual management systems.\nHelp engineering teams understand Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) principles.\nWhat We're Looking For\nBachelor degree Mechanical engineering or equivalent\n5+ years of experience transitioning complex engineering organisations / products from R&D to production.\nDemonstrated success scaling manufacturing operations from prototype builds to repeatable production.\nStrong understanding of aerospace or other highly regulated manufacturing environments.\nExperience developing production systems, manufacturing strategies, and industrialisation roadmaps.\nStrong knowledge of Lean Manufacturing, DFMA, Value Stream Mapping, and continuous improvement methodologies.\nExcellent communication skills with the ability to influence engineering, manufacturing, and executive leadership.\nComfortable operating in fast-moving environments where many systems are still being developed.\nStrong systems thinking with the ability to simplify complex manufacturing challenges.\nPractical mindset with a bias toward execution.\nExperience in aerospace, aviation, automotive, defence, or other advanced manufacturing industries is highly desirable.\nDiversity & Inclusion\nAt Dawn Aerospace, we believe that diverse teams build better solutions. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences are valued and supported to do their best work.\nAbout Dawn Aerospace\nDawn Aerospace is a space transportation company with a purpose.\nOur mission is to enable the next generation of space users by providing more sustainable and scalable ways to access and move around in space. We believe this access, in the form of a transportation network, will fundamentally change what’s possible from space. We currently focus on three areas of space transportation:\nIn-space propulsionWe're a leading supplier of turnkey green propulsion systems for various classes of satellites. Our systems utilise safe, accessible propellants and we have over 170 of these propulsion units on more than 40 operational satellites already. A further 200 units are in production.\n\nIn-space servicingCoupled with our propulsion expertise, we are ensuring that our customers' satellites are refuellable. In the coming years, Dawn will offer a refueling service to enable life extension of customer satellites. This new market is aligned with our sustainability goal to ensue a clean and safe space for everyone! \n\nSpaceplaneWe are developing the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability of conventional airplanes to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to sub-orbital space.\n\nOur international teams are distributed across four locations: the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the USA.\nApply for this Job\nImportant!\nIf you think you have what it takes but are unsure that you check every box, we still want to hear from you.\nTo all recruitment agencies: Dawn Aerospace does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our job’s alias, our employees, or any other company location. Dawn Aerospace will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6423,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space & Aerospace","Space Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-05T09:24:51Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":27,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.743,"p_room":0.36,"age_days":69,"expected_fill_days":43,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-29T05:49:05Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/dawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/dawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-29T18:30:14Z","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":27360,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-30T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"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":50199},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=50199"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"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%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"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%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer"},{"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/dawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdawn-aerospace-senior-production-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":226535}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"dawnaerospace.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":226535},"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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