{"id":348866,"url":"https://alion.io/job/loft-orbital-solutions-lead-manufacturing-engineer-2","title":"Lead Manufacturing Engineer","company":{"id":4539,"name":"Loft Orbital","domain":"loftorbital.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/loft-orbital-solutions","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":86,"open_postings":8,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.375,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":88,"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Golden, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":125000,"max":190000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":190000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"CAPA","optional":false},{"name":"GD&T","optional":false},{"name":"AS9100","optional":true},{"name":"ECSS","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-26T18:07:51Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-26","last_verified_at":"2026-11-03T00:27:35Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":68,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":68},"description":"Wanna join the adventure?\nLoft Orbital is looking for a Manufacturing Engineering Lead to help scale the way we build spacecraft.\nThis is a hands-on, player-coach role combining technical leadership with direct Manufacturing Engineering execution. You’ll spend approximately half of your time providing technical direction, prioritizing work, and mentoring Manufacturing Engineers, while remaining deeply involved in the day-to-day engineering required to build, troubleshoot, and improve our spacecraft production processes.\nYou’ll work directly on the production floor and partner closely with AIT, Design Engineering, Production Planning, Supply Chain, and Quality to translate spacecraft designs into robust, repeatable manufacturing processes. From developing work instructions and tooling to resolving production issues and improving manufacturability, you’ll personally own engineering work while helping the broader team operate effectively and scale.\nWhat Success Looks Like:\nYou’ll be successful in this role by being equally comfortable leading the team and doing the work yourself.\nYou’ll help Manufacturing Engineers prioritize and solve difficult problems while personally developing processes, supporting technicians, troubleshooting production issues, and driving spacecraft builds forward. Over time, your work will help turn spacecraft designs into increasingly repeatable, scalable, and production-ready manufacturing processes, enabling Loft to increase production capacity without compromising the quality and reliability required for flight hardware.\nAbout this Role:\nAct as a hands-on Manufacturing Engineer, directly supporting spacecraft assembly, integration, and production alongside the Manufacturing Engineering team.\nDevelop and maintain manufacturing process plans, detailed work instructions, routings, BOMs, and other production documentation required to execute spacecraft builds.\nProvide hands-on engineering support on the production floor, working directly with technicians to troubleshoot assembly and integration issues and remove production blockers.\nDevelop and validate manufacturing processes, tooling, fixtures, equipment, and production layouts required for spacecraft assembly and integration.\nLead root cause investigations for manufacturing and production issues and implement effective corrective and preventive actions.\nReview engineering designs and documentation for manufacturability, providing actionable Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) feedback to Design Engineering.\nManage and maintain EBOM/MBOM/PBOM alignment, routings, work orders, and manufacturing documentation within ERP/MRP/MES environments.\nIdentify and execute continuous improvement initiatives that improve quality, throughput, repeatability, ergonomics, and production efficiency.\nLead Manufacturing Engineering activities across spacecraft builds, helping prioritize work and providing technical direction while remaining accountable for your own engineering deliverables.\nMentor and support Manufacturing Engineers, helping develop their technical capabilities and establishing consistent Manufacturing Engineering practices across the team.\nServe as a technical liaison between Engineering and Operations, ensuring engineering intent is translated into clear, controlled, and executable processes on the production floor.\nIdentify and implement new manufacturing technologies, equipment, tooling, and automation that enable Loft to scale spacecraft production.\nMust Haves:\n8+ years of professional experience in Manufacturing Engineering, Production Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related discipline within aerospace, spacecraft, or another complex high-reliability hardware environment.\nBachelor’s degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent relevant experience.\nDemonstrated experience providing technical leadership or mentorship while remaining a hands-on individual contributor within a manufacturing or production environment.\nStrong hands-on understanding of complex hardware manufacturing and assembly processes, including electronics assembly, hand soldering, harness fabrication, mechanical assembly, bonding/polymerics, and/or precision hardware integration.\nAbility to read, interpret, and provide feedback on engineering documentation including mechanical drawings, GD&T, electrical schematics, CAD models, wire lists, BOMs, and engineering specifications.\nExperience personally developing and maintaining manufacturing process plans, assembly instructions, routings, BOMs, and production documentation under configuration control.\nExperience working within ERP/MRP/MES systems and understanding the relationship between EBOMs, MBOMs/PBOMs, routings, work orders, inventory, and production execution.\nDemonstrated experience solving complex production problems through structured root cause analysis and corrective action.\nStrong understanding of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement principles, with demonstrated experience improving manufacturing quality, efficiency, or throughput.\nExcellent communication and stakeholder-management skills with the ability to work effectively across Engineering, Operations, Quality, Supply Chain, and Production teams.\nWillingness and ability to work on-site in Golden, Colorado, including significant hands-on support directly on the production floor.\nNice to Haves:\nPrevious experience manufacturing, assembling, integrating, or testing spacecraft or other spaceflight hardware.\nPrevious hands-on experience as an aerospace or spacecraft technician.\nExperience with aerospace manufacturing and workmanship standards such as AS9100, IPC-A-610, IPC/WHMA-A-620, J-STD-001, NASA standards, and/or ECSS.\nCurrent or previous IPC workmanship certifications.\nLean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.\nExperience designing manufacturing tooling, fixtures, production layouts, or assembly aids.\nExperience scaling manufacturing operations from low-volume development builds toward higher-rate production.\nExperience implementing or improving ERP, MRP, or MES systems and manufacturing data structures.\nExperience with manufacturing automation, data analysis, or scripting tools such as Python.\nSome of Our Awesome Benefits:\n100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance option for employees and dependents\nFlexible Spending (FSA) and Health Savings (HSA) Accounts offered with an employer contribution to the HSA\n100% employer paid Life, AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance\nFlexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays\n401(k) plan and equity options\nDaily catered lunches and snacks\nInternational exposure to our team in France\nFully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for primary caregiver and 10 weeks for secondary caregiver\nCarrot Fertility provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support\nOff-sites and many social events and celebrations\nRelocation assistance when 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E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":52,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.861,"p_room":0.6,"age_days":67,"expected_fill_days":88,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:late","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-02T06:13:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":190000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/loft-orbital-solutions-lead-manufacturing-engineer-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/loft-orbital-solutions-lead-manufacturing-engineer-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-03T04:25:52Z","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 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